Are you a Techie now?

By Daniel Stolte, Continued from Diverwire.com

There seems to be a growing rift between technical and recreational divers, with some of the tech crowd considering themselves “hardcore wreck divers” who make no effort in hiding their contempt for the “Pretty-Fish-Diver” crowd. Apparently, some divers really do think collecting fine porcelain from an ocean liner and displaying it on your mantelpiece, just like grandma, is “cool,” while diving into a school of hammerhead sharks is “uncool?” Okaaay….

If I had to whittle things down to what to me technical diving is mostly about, I find that above anything, it means paying attention. Paying attention to how I dive, to my equipment setup, my skills and my surroundings. I like the challenge of “technical” diving – if I make a serious mistake, I may be in danger. To me, this kind of challenge and accomplishment is a big draw. It’s more about challenging myself and the enormous gratification of achieving something not because I was lucky, but because I came prepared and put to use skills and knowledge that didn’t come with my Open Water package.

“Remind me, why are we doing this?”
Just as there are different opinions on what makes a dive a technical one, there are as many different motivations to get into technical diving as there are divers. Whether it is exploring shipwrecks lost in time, recovering forgotten artifacts, venturing into caves or searching for marine creatures in habitats outside the reach of recreational diving for scientific study,all these pursuits require technical training, technical skills, technical equipment and a technical mindset. Recently, I read an online posting about technical diving in which the poster prefaced her response to the question why people would get involved tech diving with a quote from her old instructor: “Do all the dives you can do with the certification you have, and when you’re completely bored with those, go get more training.” I thought about this for a while, and while I do believe the argument makes a valid point, I couldn’t disagree more. Granted, rushing into advanced training without previous reflection and motivation and without mastering the skills and gaining the experience on a lower level is never a good idea. However, I challenge this view because I consider myself a “Pretty-Fish-Diver” who is fascinated with marine creatures and observing their behavior in the wild. I could easily spend my entire lifetime diving within recreational limits and never get bored. But what is wrong with the idea of being able to dive a little deeper and stay a little longer to observe the marine life around me, knowing I have the skills and expertise to do so safely? Now we are talking decompression diving and mixed gas diving—technical diving.

But even if I’m perfectly happy diving within recreational limits, pursuing technical dive training offers huge advantages. It forces me to take a critical look at and streamline my gear, it sharpens my awareness, as well as my skills, it expands my knowledge of diving physiology – in short, it makes me a better diver all around. To me, that’s the Big One. Regardless of whether I actually undertake technical dive profiles, I benefit from my technical training each time I dive. Plus, once I ventured into technical training, I started to venture beyond the realm of the introductory textbooks and DVDs that came with your Open Water course materials. For the first time, I actually understood how gases behave in our body, exactly how oxygen toxicity comes about, and the “fizziology” of decompression illness.

“But—isn’t technical diving dangerous?”
In technical diving, the margins of error are much narrower compared to diving within recreational limits. Those limits have been set by the scuba diving agencies because they offer a certain level of “forgiveness.” Divers who make mistakes and act careless are not automatically doomed. This cannot be said for technical diving. In tech diving, you have to pay attention to what you’re doing. Mistakes do not automatically spell injury or death, but while recreational diving is fairly safe even for divers who just go through the motions and don’t really know what they’re doing, undertaking technical dives in this manner can be highly dangerous. The first thing my tech instructor told me was that “the same mistakes that aren’t a big deal in recreational diving can kill you when you make them during a technical dive.” But again, you don’t have to actually undertake technical profiles to benefit from a better understanding and improved skills. Acquiring a thorough understanding of diving physiology and mastering skills that Open Water students don’t even dream about contribute to making you a safer diver.

“How do I get started?”
Take it slowly. Buying fancy gear and collecting advanced certification cards doesn’t make you a technical diver. Above all, I very strongly believe in the age-old and trite motto, “Anything worth having requires time and effort.” In my book, technical diving is not something you “start doing,” it’s something you grow into.

Technical diving starts with choosing a good instructor. Most of us didn’t get to choose their Open Water instructor, nor did we really care as long he or she was nice and didn’t yell at us for asking dumb questions and taking forever to purge our masks. In technical diving, things are a little different. Your life and wellbeing depends strongly on what you learn and how you learn it. You need to be one hundred percent comfortable with the instructor you choose and his or her skills, experience and knowledge. Shop around, interview instructors, get them to know in person. Then make a decision and follow your gut.

A great way to venture into tech diving is by taking a “Solo Diver” course, followed by courses like “Decompression Procedures” and “Advanced Nitrox.” When I dive recreational profiles these days, I use what I have learned in technical diving. Parts of my equipment setup would be considered “technical” by some (a redundant air source with enough gas to allow for a slow ascent including a safety stop from 100+ feet, a back plate and wing setup, several different cutting devices, old-school rubber fins). My mindset would be considered “technical” by some – I plan my dive, I calculate gas consumption instead of just jumping in and see where the dive takes me. On the other hand, isn’t that what any diving should entail? Didn’t we learn to plan our dives and calculate our gas consumptions during our Open Water class? While the difference  lies mostly in the consequences of not paying attention to these things – no biggie in recreational diving, potentially deadly in technical diving— more than anything, adopting the mindset and some equipment choices of a technical diver makes me a better diver. A diver who pays attention, stays within his experience and gets the most out of each dive.

If you can relate to some of the points made in this article, go for it. Give it a shot. Find a good instructor and discover a whole new world of diving. It’s going to be fun!

Daniel Stolte started diving by exploring the murky lakes in the southwest of his native Germany. After moving to Tucson, he fell in love with the clear waters of the Gulf of California and the kelp forests of California. As an avid underwater photographer, he is looking forward to diving “bubble-less” someday, using a rebreather, to get closer to the marine creatures he captures in his images.
For more information on Tech Diving, go to http://www.academyofscuba.com