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Given that you are
already a nitrox diver and reasonably comfortable in the water, the accepted first step on the tech ladder has always been the Advanced Nitrox level courses. With IANTD at least, these were joined as far back as 2003 by their Advanced Recreational Trimix diver program, something that has met with great success. How these courses relate and what they present may need a little clearing up though.
These advanced courses offer an either
/ or situation, you don't have to do both. Their academic, skill, and dive content is more or less identical, but certification limits slightly different. Advanced Nitrox training
is limited to 42m, and is of course, air and nitrox based diving. Advanced Recreational Trimix, by virtue of the use of safer gases, lets us train to 48m whilst providing very manageable levels of narcosis. For a little more background on trimix see here Recreational Trimix Diving
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Both advanced courses explain and utilize full technical diving equipment configurations, something that at first can present a very interesting challenge to one's diving abilities, but set up right, quickly becomes comfortable. Both courses cover all the aspects of oxygen safety, gas management and so on that will carry with you to the higher levels of training. Decompression theory is well grounded so you get a good overall understanding of what is happening to you in the water and how to effectively use nitrox decompression gases. We also cover dive planning carefully in terms of learning to foresee and manage any probable emergencies for the environment being dived and how to deal with them rather than have them escalate into actual incidents, an interesting and thought provoking exercise.
Necessarily, learning to choose the right mixes and calculate equivalent narcosis is part of the Advanced Recreational Trimix course, but this is the only significant extra component.
Click image to enlarge it.
So, either Advanced Nitrox or recreational Trimix is the choice you face initially. Same course, different gas is what it can be boiled down to. And once most people realize they have this option, 99% choose Advanced Recreational Trimix,
as unless all their technical diving is going to
be very shallow ( yes that does exist, Subic Bay Wrecks, or Mexican caves for example ) then it doesn't make a great deal of sense to restrict yourself to the relative confines of Advanced Nitrox only.
Having gone through one of these courses you have taken the first and perhaps most eye opening step in the technical progression. In open water, the Normoxic Trimix and full Trimix courses await you. In the overhead environment, Technical Wreck is one of the best courses you can aspire to in the Philippines given the almost unlimited number of ships on the bottom from nitrox to very deep trimix depths. It's all there waiting for you and as your skill level grows, the opportunities grow with it. Contact us for details of the next available programs.
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