PSA Advanced Nitrox Diver help please

[hebails]

Hi All.
I am looking to start the many courses that are available to me in order to be deeper for longer and safer.
I am weighing up the various options and would be interested to hear opinions on the PSA Advanced Nitrox Diver as opposed to TDI Adv Nitrox and Deco Proceedures.
Does anyone have an informed opinion on the relative merits of one v. the other without getting into which agency is best as I am sure that argument has been well used or even a different course with the same outcome.
Thanks in advance

[Bardo]

Originally Posted by hebails

Hi All.
I am looking to start the many courses that are available to me in order to be deeper for longer and safer.
I am weighing up the various options and would be interested to hear opinions on the PSA Advanced Nitrox Diver as opposed to TDI Adv Nitrox and Deco Proceedures.
Does anyone have an informed opinion on the relative merits of one v. the other without getting into which agency is best as I am sure that argument has been well used or even a different course with the same outcome.
Thanks in advance

Which course you choose is an important consideration but there's on that's even more important that you'd neglected to mention - which instructor you use. In my opinion (and I'm not alone in this), which instructor delivers your course is a far more important consideration than which agency your ticket comes from! Don't just sign up with an instructor because he's got a nice collection of badges - challenge him on the sort of diving he does when he's *not* teaching! Is he (or she) out there practising what he preach? In my opinion, any tech instructor should be actively diving *at least* at the highest level that they can teach.

Secondly, why limit yourself to just TDI and PSA? What about IANTD? Or - dare I say it - GUE? Whilst the latter isn't to everyone's tastes, you'd be wise to check out what IANTD has to offer in addition to the courses you've already mentioned from other agencies.

Also, I'd seriously consider something like a Recreational Trimix course over Advanced Nitrox/Deco Procedures. Not only will it teach you the same skills but it'll also give you access to helium-based diving mixtures that are far better than the nitrogen-rich mixes that a conventional Advanced Nitrox course will have you diving. That's one thing that both IANTD and GUE are very keen to encourage - that divers use bottom mixes with an END (equivelent narcotic depth) less than 30m. Fact is, Advanced Nitrox courses are beginning to be phased out by many technical instructors in favour of Recreational - and Advanced Recreational - Trimix courses.

If you have yet to choose an instructor, I can highly recommend IANTD Instructor Trainer Phil Short - I've done quite a bit of training with Phil and have always found his training to be thorough and very challenging. Phil doesn't cut corners - if you get a ticket at the end of one of Phil's courses, you *know* you've earnt it!

Phil's website - Phil Short Technical Diving

Others will also recommend Mark Powell who - incidentally - also teaches TDI and PSA courses. I've never trained (or dived) with Mark so I can't speak from experience but I know he has more than his fair share of satisfied customers on YD!

[hebails]

funny,
the reason I only mentioned TDI & PSA was Mark Powell. I have done something with him in the past and knew he did both versions.
Thanks for the info

[stevechesh]

In addition to the above, i'd also look at the max % of o2 you can get with with each agency. I don't know whether "advanced nitrox" will get you 100% with all of them, but it could work out expensive in the long run if not. . . .certainly worth researching. . .

[Gav]

Originally Posted by hebails

funny,
the reason I only mentioned TDI & PSA was Mark Powell. I have done something with him in the past and knew he did both versions.
Thanks for the info

I was going to mention Mark Powell. I'm sure if you ring Mark he can talk through the merits of each syllabus.

[hebails]

good point.
Thanks Steve

[Bardo]

Originally Posted by stevechesh

In addition to the above, i'd also look at the max % of o2 you can get with with each agency. I don't know whether "advanced nitrox" will get you 100% with all of them, but it could work out expensive in the long run if not. . . .certainly worth researching. . .

I believe both PSA and TDI Advanced Nitrox does give you access to 100% oxygen but the important thing to consider is that - in TDI's case, at least - this is limited to backgas mixes (pointless, eh!) and it's also a *no decompression* ticket (at least that's what my TDI Advanced Nitrox ticket says). If you want to use oxygen-rich deco gases to perform accelerated decompression, you need to do the Deco Procedures course too. Alternatively, do an IANTD Advanced Recreational Trimix course and get all of this plus access to helium!

IANTD *used* to give divers access to 50% max for decompression mixes but this has recently been changed. Divers can now use 100% O2 for deco mixes.

For most people, of course, access to 100% isn't really an issue but it's worth having should you choose to go on to dive a closed circuit rebreather.

[tom]

Originally Posted by Bardo

, do an IANTD Advanced Recreational Trimix course and get all of this plus access to helium!

doesn't that course have some pretty tight restrictions on the gas mixes you can use and the amount of deco you can 'legally' do though? also worth checking out When I researched it, it also wasn't clear to me whether it certified you for accelerated deco when using nitrox or air as a backgas, rather than trimix.

The standards for a lot of different courses used to be up on e-aquanauts website - probably worth a nosey around there.

[JamesW]

Give Mark Powell a ring you can't go wrong with him.
Where in the UK are you??

[hebails]

I am in LOndon so Mark is local for me