The usefulness of deco training without trimix

[2airishuman]

I am starting to think about taking some tech training as a step towards my goals of wreck diving in the Great Lakes.

I'm wondering whether AN/DP (or the equivalent PADI courses) provide a certification and skills that are useful by themselves for real dives, or if they are better understood as stepping stones to trimix certification.

Much of the question revolves around whether or not there are dive teams, trips, and LOBs organized to work within the relatively narrow depth range where decompression is required but trimix is perhaps not.

 

[ajduplessis]

[QUOTE="2airishuman, post: 8054095, member: 470361"

I'm wondering whether AN/DP (or the equivalent PADI courses) provide a certification and skills that are useful by themselves for real dives, or if they are better understood as stepping stones to trimix certification.[/QUOTE]
Both!

 

[cool_hardware52]

Being able to source O2 and nitrox mixes above 40% is the main benefit IMO. There are many dives where 40 of O2 to "clean up" from 20' and up is a nice option.

Tobin

 

[northernone]

For some it's a great stand alone training.

For photography I love breathing through 300+ft3 of regular air in relative shallow depths with upwards of an hour air deco while heading back to shore. I'd never afford such dives regularly as trimix and don't need to be that deep. I've met a number of people who feel the same.

Another advantage is the ability to get oxygen fills.

Overall, the mindset of diving with a deco ceiling helped make me a saver diver on all dives. Solving problems at depth, redundancy etc.

Regards,
Cameron

 

[Jack Hammer]

They introduce new skills and a better base understanding of the mysteries of decompression theory. AN/DP with helium (heliotrox?) Is essentially the same class as AN/DP and about the same price but gets you into helium if you want to use it for those dives.

 

[Wookie]

As above. From the operator perspective, we ran trips specifically tailored for AN/DP divers. 150 feet on air with advanced nitrox cleanup on deco. They were very popular way for folks to get used to their sidemoumt/bm doubles, with a single slung 40 or 80 before jumping in with multiple stages/deco bottles.

 

[victorzamora]

Depending on your area and your END limits, there's TONS of good AN/DP-level diving that wouldn't require Trimix.

 

[tbone1004]

cave diving specifically has a tremendous benefit for AN/DP. for those doing open water diving I think the recreational trimix for diving to 150ft or whatever has a bit better benefit and a lot of guys are teaching that.
That said, I think deco procedures is a very important class because of how "taboo" decompression is in the recreational community. there is a lot of stress and anxiety for many open water divers if they actually hit deco on their computers for whatever reason and instantly think they're going to get bent. Having the DP cert removes that potential for stress and anxiety from those divers and as @cool_hardware52 said above, the ability to clean up from a lot of those dives is huge for those that are doing a lot of repetitive dives

 

[WetRocks]

I took ART along with DP to have the option to use helium as I get narced at fairly shallow depths. However, post training I've done over 60 deco dives but none with trimix. For me it's not about going deeper it's about spending more time in the water, safely.

 

[beester]

I think that a AN/DP cert is a nice stepping stone...

You get used to some of the same procedures used in any of the follow up classes taught, deco and depth is limited and most of the time a small deco stage is used (typically 40 cuft). Still depends on the instructor of course.

If you are looking into deeper and more deco I would do a normoxic tx (and not a deep air/extended range) kind of thing... but maybe I'm a bit silly at that.