What does Tek Lite mean?

[Jeremy Williams]

Correlation vs causation. Trimix is heavily correlated with technical diving but it isn’t causal. Trimix is a breathing gas just like Nitrox except with decreased narcotic effect and IANTD seems to want to embrace that. I understand that most people (including myself) aren’t interested in doing such dives or paying for trimix to exhale for a short time at 120 feet, but there is no reason that a trimix dive can’t be planned and executed as a purely no-deco no-overhead recreational diving activity...

Recreational Trimix Diver

 

[KentB]

Very simple. When the costs of the equipment you carry on a dive exceeds those of a new Kia, you are tech diving.

Haha that’s excellent

 

[Wibble]

Correlation vs causation. Trimix is heavily correlated with technical diving but it isn’t causal. Trimix is a breathing gas just like Nitrox except with decreased narcotic effect and IANTD seems to want to embrace that. I understand that most people (including myself) aren’t interested in doing such dives or paying for trimix to exhale for a short time at 120 feet, but there is no reason that a trimix dive can’t be planned and executed as a purely no-deco no-overhead recreational diving activity...

Recreational Trimix Diver

Just when much of the technical world has turned to CCR to curb the helium costs, along comes the idea of a little squirt of He to keep a lid on narcosis.

(Is wonderful using He on CCR though; so cheap you can use it on every dive!)

 

[Joris Vd]

I was on the IANTD website. There is a button labeled Tek Lite and technical diver.

If you push it, It lists many courses as being Tek Lite courses, including trimix courses. Can anyone familiar with IANTD comment on what they mean by Tek Lite versus technical?

Long story short: it's advanced EANX + advanced recreational trimix and the basics that everyone should learn like valve drills, kick types , gas planning etc.

I think you could look at it like a IANTD-type fundies.

To be specific, it's a course that gives you the right to dive to 48 meters with a deco stage between 50 and 100% oxygen for a max deco time of 15 minutes that also adds in the valve drills. So it's a prelude to the technical trainings I'd say.

 

[Wibble]

Long story short: it's advanced EANX + advanced recreational trimix and the basics that everyone should learn like valve drills, kick types , gas planning etc.

I think you could look at it like a IANTD-type fundies.

To be specific, it's a course that gives you the right to dive to 48 meters with a deco stage between 50 and 100% oxygen for a max deco time of 15 minutes that also adds in the valve drills. So it's a prelude to the technical trainings I'd say.

Lovely. All that gas cost for 15 mins at 48m with 15 mins of deco. Remember children, 15 mins only.

IANTD have scrapped the 15 mins limitation in the past couple or four years and are closer to TDI.

 

[100days-a-year]

Diving with all black gear but with gas you can breathe on the surface without passing out?
A misspelling of a light that will work deeper than 40m?

 

[Germie]

First of all, Teklite is the name of a couple of programs for the first step in technical diving. It was always on the recreational part of the standards, but it is now moved to the technical part.
Teklite is the sum of all that first step courses. But you only need to do 1 before moving to normoxic trimix.

You have 3 choices of entry level: the advanced nitrox (40m), the advanced recreational trimix course (45m) and the adv. rec. trimix plus (51m).
The decolimits are lifted from 15 minutes to unlimited deco some time ago. Also the 48m has been changed into 45 and 51 (this 2 levels have to do with the RESA as they don't want the 51m as entry level on ccr).

The depth is 40m (adv. nitrox), 45m (art), or 51m (art plus). With the last one you can dive 21/35 with one decogas to 51m depth. This decogas can have every percent of oxygen till 100%. So it is more or less the same as the T1 course of gue. All the teklite programms don't have limits in decompression time anymore.

In this course you learn the basic skills like valvedrills, finkicks, stagehandling. And of course gasplanning, decoplanning, diveplanning. The maximum END is 30m.

Then the CMAS part. If people have a more or less older 2* (advanced open water) or 3* (divemaster) cert, the dive limits where 40m or PO2 of 1.4 (so 57m) depth for the 2* and the 3* had a 60m or the 1.4 PO2 limit. This means my 3* recreational cert is a 60m cert, even if this is not mentioned on the card. I passed it with the older standards, so I use it as a 60m on air cert when needed. This is here recreational diving. No discussion possible.
But the never certs have a 40m limit on the 2* and 3*. Some countries state only 30m, but don't have a deep diver specialty, so abroad it is always at least a 40m cert. in my country they have the stupid rule to be able to pass the 2* without deep diving over 20m. Completely stupid and I refuse to sign of these divers. But yes, it is possible. CMAS is not 1 agency like others with 1 book of standards. You have members and that members can make their own rules within the international cmas standards.
But at the end you get an international cert and that means that even if a country states max 30m, you get a 60m cert.
This was with my cert the case.
As cmas is quite dominant in Europe you will see that recrational diving has a limit of 50 or sometimes 60m on air. If they make now cert limits to shallower depths, this will never count for older certs. So my certs stays a 60m cert.

 

[Wibble]

GUE Tec1 is somewhat higher standards required for entry (Fundies Tech pass) and would be considerably more strict to pass Tec1 than, say, PADI's Tech 45.

Why are there no higher levels of CMAS grades? Most technical divers will wipe the floor with a 3* DiveMASTER in terms of skills and capabilities.

 

[Germie]

In my country is no cmas tech part, but some countries have. Here the 4* is highest for recreational levels (divemaster +6 specialties and at least 250 dives).

Further like in every course, the endresult depends on the instructor, but also on the diver. If you pass, but never train again, you level will go down.

But the Teklite programm can go to 51m if you do the ART plus version.

 

[Subcooled]

It lists many courses as being Tek Lite courses, including trimix courses.

Lite = max 50m, one deco gas only, less risk? This is nothing but an educated guess - I don't have time to study the curricula right now.

...

<rant>
There was a time when nitrox - the devil gas - was considered a technical diving gas, right? But when too many people started to dive on nitrox, and it wasn't cool enough anymore, technical started to mean something else. So, perhaps, for some people, it stands for "I'm better"?

Technical could also mean "more risk", "brains needed", as I told earlier, or some other things.
Or it could refer to the use of transistors in diving.

When it comes to training agencies, I fear "technical" is a marketing term and used for product separation. Tell me if I'm wrong.
</rant>

All that being said, I believe Tec Lite means that there is more room for error before you die.