TDI's Technical Course progression

[MKrauter]

Hello all,

I have a question in regards to TDI's Technical Courses which I figured you lot would be best able to answer.

After finally getting posted to a base, which is incidentally in the plains..., I have gotten in touch with a local dive store to get involved with the local dive scene. Now prior to me shipping out from home I was planning on pursuing some technical courses but hadn't done all that much research apart from wanting to be certified via GUE. Now however the closest GUE instructor is the next province over and there is an LDS which has TDI qualified instructors so TDI it is.

Just to give perspective, prior to shipping out I was in the process of building a set of doubles and had gotten my Advanced OW cert and was practising the skills included in the GUE Fundamentals course package, which I still need to get in touch with a GUE instructor to get that ball rolling again.

Now after going in to the shop I was told that the first step was Intro to Tech, which the person at the counter admitted was basically a course to get comfortable working with doubles and had nothing to do with anything "technical" besides the gear. After going home and looking at the TDI website as well as reading a few blogs, I am curious: is it required that I take intro to tech prior to taking advanced nitrox? And if it is not, is it worth it or should I just spend the summer getting comfortable diving in doubles?

Thanks for your replies and comments

 

[ScubaInChicago]

You'll get your money's worth in the fundamentals course, the intro to tech, not so much. You'll also learn to do skills correctly vs. possibly needing to unlearn bad habits. In short, the ITT course is worthless compared to Fudies (yes, I took both).

 

[MKrauter]

Thanks! My only caveat is Id like to take fundies this summer however if I cannot, should advanced nitrox be on the table?


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[Aquavelvet]

TDI's Advanced Nitrox is also an intro to tech. You'll be using doubles (or sidemount), practicing proper trim, S-drills and valve shut down, plus all the technical kicks. You'll also be planning and executing short deco dives, using a single tank of deco gas to accelerate your decompression. It's a good comprehensive course to get started in technical diving. Diving with doubles isn't rocket science, it just helps to get started in the right direction, with guidance to achieve roper trim and learn the safety procedures.


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[Remy B.]

I'm not doing Intro to Tec, I'm going directly to AN & DP, did already the TDI Nitrox course, for what I understood the ITT is just to give you what is like type scenario with gear, it is not a requirement, I guess it is for people that are hesitant to go the TEC way and they may tried and say "Tec is not for me or "Oh yeah I'm going for it" I guess, like most courses you may learn something you didn't already.

It is a recommendation from Top Tec Divers and instructor to do AN & DP together as they complement each other, you may get a discount if you take both together.

 

[KenGordon]

Unless you want your buddies on the AN/DP to be held back do Intro to Tec. Maybe just diving a twinset for a while will do but the course will show you how to do some stuff like shutdowns, putting up a DSMB and sharing gas from a primary donate long hose. And give you the confidence that you are doing them correctly. By the time you do AN/DP it is expected that these more basic skills are pretty much there, certainly not the first time you have met the concept. It is for teaching the accelerated deco stuff, stage handling, gas switching, deco theory and so forth.

The AN/DP course is quite busy, a head start is a real advantage.

It should be said though that a twinset of 32% does a lot of diving, gives very useful bottom times and is very nice to dive. Doing Intro to tech and just diving like that for a season will give you a better opportunity to learn stuff on AN/DP that you would otherwise not really pick up on.

 

[waterpirate]

IMHO if you are gue centric leaning. Any other path other than fundies is not going to make you happy if you show up to do fundies later. There are some instructors that have gue as well as other agency credentials, but they are few and far between. Why not contact your nearest gue instructor, fly out for a meet and greet, save your nickles and go take fundies? Bad skill habbits are definitely a PITA to unlearn but easy to pick up.
YMMV
Eric

 

[kensuf]

Just a couple of thoughts and comments with a quick caveat. I'm not a GUE instructor, and I've never taken a Fundamentals course, but I am friends with a few GUE instructors and have known several GUE folks for over 20 years.

Intro to Tech and Fundamentals are similar, but different beasts.

Intro to Tech is designed to give a person coming from a strictly recreational background some basic familiarity with doubles/side-mount configuration, propulsion techniques, and dive planning. It can be conducted in as little as two days, and should give you enough background to go and continue practicing / developing muscle memory on your own.

Fundamentals covers that same material, but dives more in-depth with buddy/team/dive planning and physical skills. It is typically a four or five day course, and you will spend more time with an instructor analyzing your technique while seeking improvement.

Generally speaking, think of Intro to Tech as a primer on doubles use for the person that has never been exposed to it, and Fundamentals as more of an advanced study on the topic. The value of either course is to give you enough basic physical skills and understanding of the equipment before proceeding on to other types of technical dive training.

Personally, I don't teach ITT, but if I did, I would probably strive to make it a Fundies type course (and I would charge appropriately for it). If I have someone that has never dove doubles before, and is looking for an ITT type course, I just send them off to Meredith for Fundamentals.

Just to give perspective, prior to shipping out I was in the process of building a set of doubles and had gotten my Advanced OW cert and was practising the skills included in the GUE Fundamentals course package, which I still need to get in touch with a GUE instructor to get that ball rolling again.

I think "practising skills included" before working with an instructor sounds good on paper, but is bad in practice. Here's why -- if you're performing a particular skill wrong, you may not realize it, and you may inadvertently develop "mastery" of poor technique that your instructor will need to break. If the skill is simply getting into the water with doubles on to get comfortable, then that's great, but if it's more involved (back downs, modified frog/flutter kicks, valve drills, OOA shares), then you may want to wait.

Best of luck to you!

 

[Jack Hammer]

I took AN/DP without into to tech. It was fine, I had been diving doubles for a year before taking the class. I took GUE Fundies after the ITT and got My ass kicked by Fundies. It is a much more involved class. My only regret is I didn't take Fundies sooner.

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[LUBOLD8431]

I started off with TDI taking Advanced Nitrox and Deco procedures together. IMHO, what you get out of a class is more about the Instructor than the training agency. I was very happy with my TDI classes and the Instructor. I would recommend that you research an Instructor, rather than just the agency, and not choosing one that is close because of convenience. When I took my TDI classes when I was living in the Boston, MA area, we flew Terrence Tysall up from Florida on two separate occasions to teach our class. I never regretted it.