The Technical Diver Level 1 (Tech 1) course is structured to prepare divers for the rigors of technical diving and to familiarize them with the use of different breathing and decompression mixtures. Tech 1 training focuses on expanding the fundamental skills learned in the DIR Fundamentals course (or elsewhere), and is designed to cultivate, integrate, and expand the essential skills required for safe technical diving. This will include problem identification and resolution, and building the capacity for progressively more challenging diving. In this class, students will be trained in:

a) the use of double tanks/cylinders and in the potential failure problems associated with them;

b) the use of Nitrox for accelerated and general decompression strategies;

c) the use of Helium to minimize narcosis; and

d) the applications of single decompression stage diving with respect to decompression procedures.

The class will focus on enriched air and TriOx (Helium enriched gas), as flexible and beneficial breathing gases for dives in the 40 foot/12 meter to 150 foot/45 meter depth range, and provides an excellent foundation on which divers can build their technical diving experience and prepare for GUE's Technical Diver 2 course (Tech 2).

Prerequisites

1.     Must meet GUE General Course Prerequisites as outlined in Section 1.6

2.     Must be a minimum of 18 years of age

3.     Must be GUE DIR Fundamentals qualified

4.     Must have a minimum of 100 dives beyond open water qualification

5.     Must be able to swim a distance of at least 50 feet/15 meters on a breath hold

6.     Must be able to swim at least 300 yards/275 meters in less than 12 minutes without stopping. 

Course Content

The GUE Tech 1 course is normally conducted over a 5-day period, and cumulatively involves a minimum of forty (40) hours of instruction designed to provide a working knowledge of enriched air diving, normoxic and hyperoxic Trimix and decompression mixtures, including history, physics, physiology, tables, and operational considerations.

Course requirements include ten (10) hours of academics and eight (8) dives, six (6) of which will be critical skill dives and two (2) will be experience dives.

Initial dives will be conducted in shallow water to test diver ability and to fill in any deficits in skill levels.  The last two (2) dives are to be Trimix dives at depth for experience.

Academic Topics

Equipment Requirements

1.     Tanks/Cylinders: Students are required to  use dual tanks/cylinders connected with a dual outlet isolator manifold, which allows for the use of two first stages. All dives must start with a minimum of 80 cubic feet/2250 liters. Divers must also have access to one deco tank/cylinder of 50% Nitrox.

2.     Regulators: One of the second stages must be on a 5-foot to 7-foot/1.5-meter to 2-meter hose. One of the first stages must supply a pressure gauge and provide inflation for a dry suit (where applicable)

3.     Back plate System: A rigid and flat platform, of metal construction with minimal padding, held to a diver by one continuous piece of nylon webbing.

4.     Buoyancy Compensation Device: A diver's buoyancy compensation device should be back-mounted and minimalist in nature.  

5.     Decompression tables.

6.     At least one depth-measuring device.

7.     At least one timekeeping device.

8.     Mask and fins: Mask should be low volume; fins should rigid, non-split.

9.     At least one cutting device.

10.   Wet Notes.

11.   One spool, with 100 feet/30 meters of line per diver. One primary reel per team, with a minimum of 300 feet/90 meters of line and one surface marker buoy.

12.   One surface marker.

13.   Three lights; one primary and two secondary.

13.   Exposure suit appropriate for the duration of exposure.

Note: Prior to the commencement of class, students should consult with a Living Seas representative to verify equipment requirements. It is better for the student to learn while using his or her own equipment but we may have rental sets available upon request.

Complete course Standards & Procedures can be found at GUE's website. click here