Because technical diving is one of my passions I often get asked about what it is. I thought I would answer that here. While there are many ways to define technical diving, this description is my personal understanding and philosophy.

Let me start by saying that I have only been a tech diver since 1998, and don’t consider myself an expert. I have had the opportunity to dive with, and learn from, some of the biggest names in the sport, and I continue to learn every day.

Technical dives are classified as any dive outside the recreational no decompression limit, any dive deeper than 100 feet, dives with a physical ceiling (cave, wreck, ice) or mandatory decompression stop, and dives requiring multiple gases.

If you are diving at 60 feet for more than an hour, you are tech diving and should have the proper training and equipment. It is my belief that any dives to 100 feet or deeper should also be considered tech dives because of the limited time with no decompression, the significant increase of air consumption, and the increasing amount of impairment due to nitrogen narcosis (that is caused by the increase in pressure.)

Tech divers may also use different gases for different dive types. The gases used include:

Air
Oxygen
Helium
Nitrox
Trimix
Heliox
Heliair

Note that some of these gases are deep diving gases, but not all of them. For example: Nitrox may not be safely used past 130 feet and pure oxygen has a max depth of 20 feet. As you can see, tech diving is not necessarily deep diving.

Many divers get into tech diving to extend their bottom time and slowly move on to more advanced dives. It is possible to tech dive with very little modifications on your exisiting gear, but most divers prefer a whole new set of gear. A tech diver will have a redundant system for all the equipment, such as two regulators connected to two cylinders that may or may not be connected to each other, two buoyancy compensators, back up lights, cutting devices, etc.

We still believe in the buddy system, however, a tech diver should be prepared and be able to handle any emergency with little assistance.

If you are starting to become curious about ship wrecks or are increasingly pushing your computer to the max no decompression limit, you are the perfect candidate for tech training. Tech training will make you an overall beter diver and and will give you a much better understanding of the sport.