South East Tech Training and Dives

[frogkick]

Mark thanks for the info. our posts crossed! I'll get in touch with Paul to get some info.

Do you know if there's been a thread on the merits of the two paths available for tech diving, namely nitrox/advanced/deco/norm trimix/trimix or CCR? Most people seem to treat CCR as the end game after having done all the other stuff. Is there any value in going straight to CCR and having that piece of kit do the ppO2 work for you?

[Mark Chase]

On the subject of training rout's,

Air below 40 for me is a waste of a dive. I have done air dives (much deeper than 40) but in truth it was more about logging the depth than doing the dive. Now I dive the dive and get the right gas to do the job safely and enjoyably. 50-60 on air is IMHO very taxing but 50 or 60 on Mix is just a dive and you don’t notice the depth.

Most economical rout to Mix diving is TDI Advanced Nitrox, Deco Procedures and Entry Level Trimix. That will get you to 70m. If you want deeper then finish off with Advanced Trimix. There aren’t that many wrecks in the south that are beyond 65m so it could be a waste of time just for the occasional 80 or 90m dive

If you like you can send me your details and I will put you on the list of contacts for next year.

ATB

Mark Chase

[Andy Phillips]

Got to agree with Mark, Paul is a sound bloke, did my training with Joe Davin who I thought was pretty good. Andy hayhurst seems sound also, but the last two are a bit of a distance from you.

As for diving, as Mark said send him your details, there will be dives next year. There will be an early April trip to Swanage, and I have a feeling that a fair number of trips will be organised through Dover next year. Particually if a nice bloke who happens to have bought a new boat / business can be persuaded to do some decent wrecks.

Also I have a cunning plan for a long weekend in Brighton, details of this will be going up on this site soon.

This is for all those Northeners who recon they are hard and can handle diving in the Channel. (A2Tanx and Bren who mentioned this a while ago).

Andrew

Andrew

[Mark Chase]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (frogkick @ Nov. 19 2003,16:07)]Do you know if there's been a thread on the merits of the two paths available for tech diving, namely nitrox/advanced/deco/norm trimix/trimix or CCR? Most people seem to treat CCR as the end game after having done all the other stuff. Is there any value in going straight to CCR and having that piece of kit do the ppO2 work for you?

I don’t think CCR is the end game, I think it is a path to diving that suits some but not others. IF you can get your head around the safety issues and are confident in your self-discipline then CCR has to be the way to go. You have to dive a lot to justify the expense and have to be willing to accept the big hassle of travelling abroad with the unit.

If you’re into Nitrox depths then the unit can max bottom time and minimise dive cost but more importantly if you’re into trimix depths you can save bundles on gas and have a massive safety margin on available breathing gas at depth.

CCR is not that much more expensive than serious Trimix diving. I have two twin sets and four stage bottles and I have two more 12ltr tins to cover me for Nitrox divers. Even with this much kit I still end up with unsuitable gas in my sets for the next dive. I have £42 worth of 18/35 in one set for the last 8 weeks waiting for a deserving dive to go ahead. At the moment all my planned dives are too shallow for this mix. If I want to go deeper than 65m and do the run times to justify the cost o the dive I am looking at twin 15s as a next step with two 10ltr stages.

Either that or a CCR

Pete is a serious Mix diver and he has four twin sets including two sets of twin 15's and 8 10ltr and 7ltr stage bottles.

The BIG down side of CCRs as an end game is by the time you realise you have to have one you are well into diving probably with trimix and have spent a shed load of cash already. Then you have to spend a shed load more and give up your beloved 50+m diving for a year whilst you learn to dive all over again on the CCR.

Role on the PADI OW CCR course

ATB

Mark Chase