There is a kind of mythology around technical diving. One may think that technical divers are risk-takers. Or that they are divers with a diving level that is unattainable for the rest. Maybe you met some technical divers underwater and thought of them as the elite of diving.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Technical divers are not super heroes. They are not born with special skills nor do they have super powers. Technical divers are made, not born. It is a path that begins with a first course.
And, the same as recreational diving, step by step, with experience and new training, you go along that path. In other words, being a technical diver does not mean to go 150m(500ft) deep on your first day. Not even during your first year.
But still, there is a certain pride in saying: “I am a Technical Diver”. Being a technical diver is a good reason to be proud of yourself. But not because you feel superior to others. It is a personal pride, it is pride because of self-improvement. Technical diving is a path that leads you to overcome those limits that you always thought they were beyond your reach. And yes, that is reason to be proud of.
If you have ever felt that little bug inside your stomach when you see technical diving photos or videos, we want to encourage you to try it. Technical diving is not for everyone. It has more risks than recreational diving and requires an exceptional commitment. But if you’re willing to take it, technical diving opens the door to a world of new experiences, adventures, possibilities and, above all, guides you on your path of self-improvement.
Being a technical diver does not mean to go 150m(500ft) deep on your first day. Not even in your first year. Technical divers are made, not born. It is a path that begins with a first course. With experience and new training, you will go along that path.
WHAT IS THE TECHNICAL DIVING?
The first thing that comes into our mind is a diver loaded with many tanks and lots of equipment while diving at 200m(650ft.) deep. Yes, that’s technical diving. But technical diving is not only that. Many technical divers never exceed 50 or 60m(150ft.). Others yes. There are too many different types of technical diving. And not everything is about going deep. You can penetrate a cave for 2 hours whose depth does not exceed 10m(30ft.). You can also do a technical dive at 20m (60ft.) deep, extending your bottom time and performing the decompression stops with different gas mixtures. Or you can do an ice dive at 5m (15ft.) depth. Depth is a very important factor in technical diving, but it is not everything that matters. Let’s see how we can give you a general idea of what is technical diving:
Technical scuba diving involves going beyond recreational scuba diving limits and includes one or more of the following:
Diving beyond 40 metres/130 feet
Required stage decompression
Diving in an overhead environment beyond 40 linear metres/130 linear feet of the surface
Accelerated decompression and/or the use of variable gas mixtures during the dive
Use of extensive equipment and technologies
10 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD BEGIN TECHNICAL DIVING
How you can improve your experience as a diver by taking a technical diving course? To be clear, we do not talk about you doing a Full Trimix course right away. We’re talking about a first taste. Something like a Tec 40 or Tec 45 course. Let’s see which benefits could you find when becoming a tec diver:
1 – You will feel again the excitement that you felt at the beginning
Diving is like a relationship. At the beginning everything is magic and exciting. Every time you dive is special and everything that happens underwater makes your life wonderful. With time and experience, that magic disappears to give way to a stronger but less exciting love. A strong love for what we like the most: Diving. When you start technical diving, you will renew that personal relationship with scuba diving. You will feel the magic of the beginning again, you will again fall in love with diving. You will not only feel it when you dive technical, but you will also take this excitement with you when recreational diving.
2 – You will improve on a personal level
In technical diving you will learn not only new things about diving but new things about you as a person too. You will learn to concentrate and be effective under stress situations. You will become an expert in planning and thinking what can go wrong. You will overcome your fears and you will realise that most of the things that paralyse us are only imaginary. You will develop teamwork skills. Learn that contributing to a team is contributing to yourself. You will learn to be self sufficient, etc. The list is too big.
3 – You will discover new equipment and mounts that will bring that spark to recreational diving too
Either backmount or tec sidemount, you will learn a whole new set of configurations that may be much more logical and attractive not only for technical diving, but also for recreational diving. When you are recreational diving you may decide to do it in a sidemount configuration, or with a single tank in a Hogartian system, which will give you that little extra spark to to an already exciting dive itself.
4 – You will turn into a fish
You will learn buoyancy and new swimming techniques. You will learn to swim backwards or the helicopter turn. Something very practical, not only for technical diving, but to approach, see, enjoy and get away from any aquatic creature with such mastery that not a single grain of sand will rise from the bottom in the process. (Do you want to dive like a fish? Check our Buoyancy Sessions).
Either backmount or sidemount, you will learn a whole new set of configurations that may be much more logical and attractive to you. Not only for technical diving, but also for recreational diving.
5 – You will feel that you are part of something greater
When you become a technical diver you will stop seeing this modality as something out of your reach. You will see technical divers as partners. Like normal people. People who understand you and who you understand them. People with whom you share something. Divers from which you can learn millions of things. And yes, you will be one more of that group of people willing to go further. You will become part of that new world.
6 – You will dramatically increase your level as a diver
The learning curve of diving is very steep at first, but as we become expert divers this curve is getting slighter. In the same way, when you start technical diving, your learning curve will become steep again. You will learn a lot. Therefore your level of diving will become much higher. By increasing your limits, learning new techniques and procedures, you will feel much more comfortable and you will make better decisions when you are recreational diving.
7 – You will be a very good diving buddy
What better diving buddy than a self sufficient diver? A companion that dominates the problem solving, that is qualified to perform much more complex dives, dominates the buoyancy to perfection, plans, controls and foresees all aspects of the dive because he thinks as a technical diver. There is no better buddy!
8 – A world of new possibilities will open before you
Being a technical diver is nothing more than to have new possibilities when we explore the underwater world. At last it will be in your hands to explore all those places that previously were out of your reach: A wreck at 60m? Let’s go! A reef to 12m? We’re going too! A cave to explore? Diving under the ice? Your possibilities become limitless.
9 – Your safety
When technical diving you will learn a series of new safety drills and procedures. You will learn about redundancy, about problem solving, you will learn to foresee what can go wrong… All this will make you a much more prepared diver for any eventuality. In other words, you will increase your safety considerably.
10 – You will simply love it
Technical diving is nothing more than diving. Dive with new equipment and dive differently. But ultimately, diving. And you already know that you love diving. Therefore, you will love it. You will do it once, you will explain it 1000 times.
We give you two extra reasons:
11 – You’ll look great in Facebook photos
A diver with technical diving equipment looks simply awesome in the photos!
12 – You’ll have the perfect excuse to buy tons of new dive equipment
Do you like that regulator but you do not buy it because you already have one? No problem! Now you can buy it, because you need it. Do you want a new dive computer? Congratulations, now you have the perfect excuse to buy it! Can’t you decide which mask to buy? Buy the two of them!
You’ll have the perfect excuse to buy tons of new dive equipment – Do you like that regulator but you do not buy it because you already have one? No problem! Now you can buy it, because you need it.
So, if you were thinking that this year is the year when you are going to start technical diving, we encourage you to do so. Technical diving is not for everyone. There are more risks. But like always in diving, the greatest risk is the lack of common sense (check our article The Biggest Danger of Scuba Diving). If you love to dive, you are willing to accept these risks and you are looking for new experiences, technical diving is your thing.
