Welcome to the Quinn Atkinson's PADI Tec Rec Training Website

What is technical diving?

 

Technical Diving (normally referred to as Tec Diving or Tech Diving) is a form of scuba diving that exceeds the limits of recreational diving and includes one or more of the following: diving beyond 130 feet, required stage decompression, diving in an overhead environment beyond 130 linear feet from the surface, accelerated stage decompression and/or the use of multiple gas mixtures in a single dive. 

Technical diving requires advanced training, extensive experience and specialized equipment, but that’s the fun part!

What will I learn in the PADI Tec Diver and PADI Trimix Diver Courses?

 

Your first time wearing double cylinders, you quickly realize that you’re taking the next step forward in exploring deeper.  The PADI Tec 40, 45 and 50 Diver Courses teach new motor skills required for technical diving, along with how to prepare for and respond to reasonably foreseeable emergencies just as you did during your Open Water Certification Course. Some of the subjects covered are gas management, dive planning computer software, valve shutdown drills, how to use decompression cylinders, lift bag deployment, equipment configuration, tec terminology, and diving with different decompression gas mixtures.

After your PADI Tec 50 Diver Certification you can continue on toward the PADI Trimix Diver Course where you explore the outer edges of technical diving.  During the Trimix course you will find that when adding helium to your breathing gas you reduce the narcotic effects of nitrogen, thus giving you a clear head at 240 feet which is essential when exploring a deep wreck.  The Tec Trimix Diver course introduces the principles and knowledge needed to dive with trimix. While expanding on what you’ve already learned in the PADI Tec Diver Course, you will also find that there are unique demands and skills required for diving with helium mixes.  Some of the exciting challenges in this course include managing four decompression cylinders, using travel gases, and a tec rescue.

   Quinn and Dude about to go on a dive

Why should you learn how to Tec Dive?



Quinn and Bobby on diving the Hydro Atlantic 

Some divers, like me, want to visit places underwater that relatively few people can see. For instance, there are wrecks that lie at depths well below 130 feet or maybe you just want to stay longer than the recreational limits allow on a 100 feet deep wreck.  Other divers want to explore deep reefs that have organisms you don’t find on the shallow reefs.  Then there are divers that just enjoy the challenge and focus tec diving requires.

Tec diving does require significantly more effort, discipline and equipment. It’s not for everyone, and you can be a diver your entire life without making a tec dive and still enjoy a lifetime of diving.  But, if you are ready for an adventure; this is the place for you!