When recreational divers hear the term technical diving, it can sound a little intimidating. Technical diving still holds the connotations of serious, divers with confusing gear, all clad in black and unable to give so much as a smile to others before entering for their ‘far cooler dive.’ Although once upon a time, this might have been the case, in today’s climate, this couldn’t be further from the truth. The different gear and unfamiliar dive jargon can make the whole thing seem a bit scary; still, technical diving is simply a tool to enhance skills, improve confidence, gain a better understanding of scuba, and create safe divers. Technical diving is accessible and essential to all divers, no matter what skill level. The skills of the technical diver are fundamental and transferable to every dive, whether in a UK quarry, an Indonesian reef or a Maltese wreck.
So, what is tech diving?
Technical diving is an umbrella term that includes deep, mixed gas, multi-tank, deco and overhead diving. Technical diving can consist of just one of these areas or a combination. Still, its core foundations are outstanding diver skills, helping people master buoyancy, trim, comfort and movement through the water.
Is Technical Diving for me?
Technical diving is accessible to every diver and applicable to every dive. It’s a wonderful way to enhance skills, be safer and have more fun. Below 4 great reasons to take a turn down the technical route:
1: Enhance your skills
Tech diving is all about safety in the water, and safety comes with confidence. Technical diving takes you back to the basics, working on fundamentals including buoyancy, trim, equipment selection and configuration with a focus on perfection. On top of previous skills, you will learn a new set of safety drills and procedures to help you become a well-rounded diver. Other areas will also be covered, including equipment redundancy, problem-solving and awareness.
Now, these skills are not just for embarking on deep, overhead and mixed gas diving; these skills prepare you for every dive you do.
Furthermore, the skills of a technical diver don’t stop at the physical; they move into the mental. Technical diving helps improve concentration and awareness, understanding planning and preparing for the worse. Technical diving helps divers understand their limitations and how to handle fear and manage stress. This is not only beneficial to the individual, but these skills will significantly improve your buddy and teamwork skills.
2: Discover new equipment styles, brands and mounts
Technical diving allows a choice of backmount or sidemount. These will be new and interesting configurations for the recreational diver, and each comes with its own benefits and drawbacks. The various styles of tank configuration available in the realm of Technical diving help divers adapt and change to situations depending on what they are most comfortable with.
But what about the recreational diver? Can they use sidemount or twinset?
Of course! Many recreational divers choose sidemount or a single tank in a harness and wing system. Sidemount adds redundancy, which is a huge safety benefit on any dive and a lot of fun. And a single tank with a harness and wing helps you achieve the perfect trim under the water to easily observe the underwater world. You will also learn the importance of other exciting gear, including dive notes, cutting devices, backup masks and backup computers.
And don’t worry, you won’t be thrown in the deep end! Whatever instructor you have on your technical diving course will be more than happy to show, explain and reexplain whatever equipment you are interested in. They will also love having the time to get out their own gear and explain why it’s the best!
3: Be the best buddy
One thing all divers strive for is the perfect buddy team, and what better buddy is there than a fully equipped, confident and self-sufficient diver? Someone who has the answers to the questions, likes to plan dives, puts safety first and respects other divers levels. The answer is, there is no better buddy, and technical diving will help you achieve this.
By helping divers understand how they can be self-sufficient in the water, technical divers develop confidence beyond relying on a buddy to instigate the predive safety check, beyond being the last person to be kitted up and beyond needing to be asked by an instructor how much air they have.
Technical diving helps build some of the best divers out there by focusing on redundancy, skills, mental confidence, and awareness. If you are confident and comfortable in your skills, you can transfer this to diving in a buddy team.
4: Feel again the excitement that you felt at the beginning
Technical diving is a load of fun. Its focus may be on creating solid, safe and reliable divers, but alongside safety, the foundation for all diving is fun.
Your technical diving courses will be packed with new exciting information that will help uncover new aspects in diving, whether dive planning, equipment, cylinder mounting ideas and more. Technical diving will help you reassess old skills and introduce you to a new realm of diving that will encourage a fresh and exciting perspective on a sport you love. New skills, boundaries, equipment, and what’s not to get excited about!
So as you can see, technical diving is not an exclusive club, in fact its quite the opposite. Technical diving is a new and exciting way of looking at scuba, how to understand physical and mental boundaries, how to gain confidence and how to be safer and have more fun!