Accelerated Deco

[David Parker]

Again it is dependant on instructor, however IANTD offer there Tech Lite course for around £275 which incorporates advanced nitrox & the deco theroy bit all in one course. If you pass the course it would allow you to buy nitrox up to 100% for staged decompression.

Phil Short is a well respected instructor.
Phil Short Technical Diving

[Mal Bridgeman]

Originally Posted by liamm

does this course involve two stage/deco cylinders?

Do you mean the normoxic trimix? I am not sure it's specified but since it's a 60m ticket then 2 deco gases would be the sensible way to do those depths, I think.

I did a write up of my course here but I don't think Frank teaches anymore.

HTH
Mal

[GLOC]

Originally Posted by David Parker

Again it is dependant on instructor, however IANTD offer there Tech Lite course for around £275 which incorporates advanced nitrox & the deco theroy bit all in one course. If you pass the course it would allow you to buy nitrox up to 100% for staged decompression.

Phil Short is a well respected instructor.
Phil Short Technical Diving

Not sure if Phil teaches 'one-offs' in Australia. If so, nice little earner if the student pays the flight costs

[Mark Chase]

Originally Posted by TonyDragon

Hi All
I'm interested in being able to use richer nitrox mixes to carry out accelerated decompression. However, rather than just going out and buying a Vytec I want to do a course so that I understand the theory behind it. Would the TDI Decompression Procedures Course teach me what I want to know or would I need to go on and do Extended Range as well?
Also, if anyone has done this course I'd like to hear what you thought of it, or if there are any better alternatives.

Thanks

Tony.

Hi Tony

I did TDI Advanced Nitrox which teaches the use of Nitrox to 100% for accelerated deco. I then did TDI Decompression Procedures and Entry Level Trimix as a combined course.

We discussed several options for decompression systems ranging from single gas to multiple gas and across VPM Bhulman and GF deco. We also tried out three or four computerized decompression software packages for dive planning.

I would expect any instructor teaching these courses to cover similar material.

Extended range is a deep air certification. OK if you dive in warm blue oz water then deep air is viable but your better off doing the mix course in case you get into tougher conditions maybe around Sydney where Trimix would better suit the dive. You can still dive deep air on a trimix cert if you want to.

ATB

Mark

[The Duck]

As Mal and David say above, it is not specified in the course criteria that you must use two cylinders, though it is up to the individual instructor.

If you do go down this route, I'd suggest getting your instructor to ensure that you do at least get to play around with two stages as it's not quite as striaght forwards as it first seems.

[Druid]

Originally Posted by David Parker

Again it is dependant on instructor, however IANTD offer there Tech Lite course for around £275 which incorporates advanced nitrox & the deco theroy bit all in one course. If you pass the course it would allow you to buy nitrox up to 100% for staged decompression.

Phil Short is a well respected instructor.
Phil Short Technical Diving

IANTD Advanced Nitrox (Tech Lite) uses up to 50% nitrox for accelerated deco, not 100%. It's what my card says anyway.

[Last Man Standing]

I did the TDI Deco Procedure course, which as most have already stated, gives you accelerated deco, using mixes for which your existing nitrox ticket allows, and gives you a depth limit of 45 mtrs for deco dives.

I did my course using twins as my main set and a single stage cylinder. The course covered all the usual deco theory plus the extra stuff needed to understand how to conduct staged deco safely. There seemed to be a bit of leeway with the course content and my instructor was happy to cover any subject relating to staged deco dives. We spent a lot of time on dive planning, which is the real key to safe deco diving.

In the water we reinforced all the skills connected with technical diving, such as buoyancy control, shutdowns, out of air situations etc and then completed plenty of skills specific to the stage, such as removing it, refitting it etc. Of course, its no use making a great dive plan if you don't follow it, so there was plenty of emphasis on timing and discipline during the dives.

As the series of dives progressed, my instructor began to task load me, just to see if he could put me off the dive-plan or to see how I reacted if the dive plan was compromised. I can remember him 'running out of air' at 45 mtrs, about 2 minutes before the point when we needed to start the ascent!

It was a great course, which I thought equipped me well to plan and conduct a stage dived. I felt I had a good instructor, who had a wealth of experience of this type of diving and was keen to pass on his knowledge. So, as others here have said, its a good course but get a good, recommended instructor because you'll learn so much more than just the basics.

[The Duck]

Originally Posted by Druid

IANTD Advanced Nitrox (Tech Lite) uses up to 50% nitrox for accelerated deco, not 100%. It's what my card says anyway.

Used to - it changed, sometime during '07 (I think)

[TonyDragon]

Hi All
Thanks for all the replies, seems like the Advanced Nitrox and Deco Procedures combined is the way to go. Doesn't sound like I need to bother with Extended Range if all it adds is depth. I'm a BSAC Dive Leader so strictly speaking already qualified for 55m, though I agree with Mark (among others) that Trimix is the way to go if that sort of depth becomes a regular thing.
Though Mark, not all water over here is warm and blue , I'm in Victoria where conditions are far more like at home, cold, dark and drysuit temperatures. Got ot admit though, that's not the case at the moment, 20 degrees and 30m viz last weekend, hope it holds out until Saturday

[Mark Chase]

Originally Posted by TonyDragon

Though Mark, not all water over here is warm and blue , I'm in Victoria where conditions are far more like at home, cold, dark and drysuit temperatures. Got ot admit though, that's not the case at the moment, 20 degrees and 30m viz last weekend, hope it holds out until Saturday

My heart bleeds for you M8.

ATB

Mark