Discover Tec - $25
DSAT Discover Tec lets you try technical diving equipment and procedures. Your experience fee will be applied to any future TecRec course you sign up for within 60 days of your experience date.

What You Learn
You learn about technical diving and get to try out the gear in either a pool or open water environment!

The Scuba Gear You Use
You will need your basic scuba gear and you will have the opportunity to try out TecRec diving equipment.

Prerequisites

• PADI Open Water Diver (or qualifying certification from another organization)
• Have a minimum of 10 logged dives
• Be at least 18 years old
• Download, read, and fully complete the following forms before class: Medical Statement (any statements with yes answers must be signed by a physician), Liability Release and Express Assumption of Risk for Discover Tec Diving, and Standard Safe Diving Practices

Tec 40 - $450
Tec 40 is for those divers interested in technical diving and a precurser to the PADI Tec 45 Diver and PADI Tec 50 courses. It is the first subdivision of the full PADI Tec Deep Diver course and consists of the first four dives of that course.

Because you can do one of these dives in confined water (such as a swimming pool), many divers start the Tec 40 courses in the winter months, ready to continue in open water when spring arrives.

What You Learn

• Use decompression software and dive computers to plan and make decompression dives with no more than 10 minutes of total decompression and not deeper than 130 feet.
• Use a single cylinder of decompression gas with up to 50% oxygen (EANx50) to add conservatism to the required decompression.

The Scuba Gear You Use
You use recreational scuba equipment, with some minor additions to enhance your ability to deal with tec diving conditions.

The Learning Materials You Need
You'll use the Tec Deep Diver Crew-Pak, which introduces you to

• tec diving lingo
• emergency procedures
• decompression and stage cylinder handling
• gas planning

The pak includes a manual, dive planning checklist and dive planning slate. The optional Equipment Set-up and Key Skills video on DVD is a great tool to help you practice at home in between your tec diving adventures. You'll continue to use the Tec Deep Diver Crew-Pak through Tec 50.

Prerequisites

• Be a PADI Advanced Open Water Diver (or hold a qualifying certification from another organization)
• Be a PADI Enriched Air Diver (or hold a qualifying certification from another organization)
• Be a PADI Deep Diver (or hold a qualifying certification from another organization)
• Have a minimum of 50 logged dives, of which at least

· 12 dives were made with enriched air
· 6 dives (with or without EANX) were deeper than 100 feet

• Download, read, and fully complete the following forms before class: Medical Statement (and signed by your physician), Liability Release and Express Assumption of Risk for Technical Diving, and Standard Safe Diving Practices

Tec 45 - $550
The Tec 45 course picks up where Tec 40 leaves off and takes your training as a tec diver further and deeper. It is the second subcourse in the full PADI Tec Diver course

What You Learn

• The skills and equipment and planning need to dive to a maximum of 145 feet
• The knowledge to plan and execute single and repetitive decompression dives using a single stage cylinder of EANx or oxygen to accelerate or add conservatism to the decompression stops.
• There would be no time limit to amount of decompression
• Prepare for and respond to foreseeable technical diving emergencies
• Master the basic skills and procedures you’ll need as you move into deeper technical diving

The Scuba Gear You Use
You use basic tec diving equipment.

The Learning Materials You Need
You'll use the Tec Deep Diver Crew-Pak, which introduces you to

•tec diving lingo
•emergency procedures
•decompression and stage cylinder handling
•gas planning

The pak includes a manual, dive planning checklist and dive planning slate. The optional Equipment Set-up and Key Skills video on DVD is a great tool to help you practice at home in between your tec diving adventures. You'll continue to use the Tec Deep Diver Crew-Pak through the Tec 50 course.

Prerequisites

• PADI Advanced Open Water Diver (or hold a qualifying certification from another organization)
• PADI Rescue Diver (or hold a qualifying certification from another organization)
• PADI Enriched Air Diver (or hold a qualifying certification from another organization)
• A PADI Deep Diver (or hold a qualifying certification from another organization)
• DSAT Tec 40 (or hold aqualifying certification from another organization)
• Have a minimum of 50 logged dives, of which at least

· 12 dives were made with enriched air
· 6 dives (with or without EANX) were deeper than 100 feet

• Be at least 18 years old
• Download, read, and fully complete the following forms before class: Medical Statement (and signed by your physician), Liability Release and Express Assumption of Risk for Technical Diving, and Standard Safe Diving Practices

Tec 50 - $550
The Tec 50 course completes your training as an entry-level tec diver, taking you past the limits of recreational diving.

What You Learn
During the Tec 50 course, you

• Make actual decompression dives as deep as 165 feet
• Use enriched air nitrox and/or oxygen for decompression
• Use desk top decompression software to create custom dive tables and plan your dives
• Qualify to make technical decompression dives independently

The Scuba Gear You Use
You use technical scuba diving equipment

The Learning Materials You Need
The Tec Deep Diver Crew-Pak, which introduces you to tec diving lingo, emergency procedures, decompression and stage cylinder handling and gas planning. The pak includes a manual, dive planning checklist and dive planning slate. The optional Equipment Set-up and Key Skills video on DVD is a great tool to help you practice at home in between your tec diving adventures.

Prerequisites

•PADI Advanced Open Water Diver (or hold a qualifying certification from another organization)
•PADI Rescue Diver (or hold a qualifying certification from another organization)
•PADI Enriched Air Diver (or hold a qualifying certification from another organization)
• DSAT Tec 45 (or hold aqualifying certification from another organization)
•Have a minimum of 100 logged dives, of which

· 20 were made with air enriched air
· 25 dives must be deeper than 60 feet
· 20 dives must be deeper than 100 feet

• Be at least 18 years old
• Download, read, and fully complete the following forms before class: Medical Statement (and signed by your physician), Liability Release and Express Assumption of Risk for Technical Diving, and Standard Safe Diving Practices

Get College Credit
You may be able to earn college credit for the PADI Tec 50 Course.

Tec Gas Blender - $250
More people are diving with enriched air and this means the demand for enriched air fills is also increasing. However, there needs to be someone qualified to administer these fills to meet this demand. This is where the DSAT Gas Blender course comes in. This course can result in one of two certifications: DSAT Gas Blender or DSAT Trimix Blender.

What You Learn
The DSAT Gas Blender course will train you as a qualified gas blender, allowing you to provide gas mixes to appropriately certified consumers.

You'll learn the physical properties of oxygen, its associated hazards, handling requirements and what cleaning equipment is necessary. Finally, you will learn the five methods of obtaining the desired enriched air nitrox mix and the various methods used to obtain proper helium mixes.

The Learning Materials You Need
What are the four main types of oxygen? What is oxygen clean? What are the five methods for blending Enriched Air? These questions and more are covered in the DSAT Gas Blender manual

As a gas blender you must be familiar with the physical properties of oxygen, its various forms and purities, hazards and special handling requirements. The DSAT Gas Blender Manual and CD-ROM, in conjunction with your instructor, will familiarize you with the procedures and techniques needed for gas blending.

Prerequisites

• PADI Enriched Air Diver certification (or qualifying certification from another organization)
• Be at least 18 years old
• Download, read, and fully complete the Liability Release and Express Assumption of Risk for Agreement for Gas Blender Course.

Technical Diving FAQ's

What is technical diving?
Technical scuba diving is defined as diving other than conventional commercial or research diving that takes divers beyond recreational scuba diving limits. It is further defined as and includes one or more of the following:

• Diving beyond 40 metres/130 feet deep
• Required stage decompression
• Diving in an overhead environment beyond 40 linear metres/130 linear feet of the surface
• Accelerated decompression and or the use of variable gas mixtures during the dive
Because in technical diving the surface is effectively inaccessible in an emergency, tec divers use extensive methodologies and technologies and training to manage the added risks. Even with these, however, tec diving admittedly has more risk, potential hazard and shorter critical error chains than does recreational scuba diving.

How long has technical diving been around?
Good question. Most people would agree that cave diving is a form of technical diving. Cave diving developed in the late 1960s and 1970s, developing into a discipline largely like it is today by the mid 1980s. In the early 1990s, several groups of divers around the world began experimenting with technologies for deep diving (beyond recreational limits) to explore both caves and wrecks. These communities united and emerged as “technical diving” or “tec diving” with the publication of aquaCorps (no longer in print), which dedicated itself to this type of diving. Since then, tec diving continues to develop both in scope and in its technologies.

Why would I want to be a tec diver?
Tec diving not only has more risk, but it requires significantly more effort, discipline and equipment. It’s not for everyone, and you can be an accomplished, avid top-notch diver your entire life without making a tec dive.

That said, there’s a cadre of individuals who want to visit places underwater that relatively few people can. Many spectacular, untouched wrecks lie at depths well below 40 metres/130 feet. Deep reefs have organisms you don’t find in the shallows. Some people enjoy the challenge and focus tec diving requires. Still others love being involved with cutting edge technologies. These reasons make tec diving rewarding.

The DSAT TecRec Difference
The DSAT TecRec program debuted in 2000. Although TecRec is not the first tec diving program (cave diver training has been around for decades), it repeatedly receives accolades for its merits.

• TecRec courses are integrated into an instructionally valid, seamless course flow that takes you from beginning tec diver to one qualified to the outer reaches of sport diving using different gas mixes.
• Each level introduces you to new gear, planning and procedures appropriate to extend your diving limits.
• You can complete the basic level, Tec Deep Diver, as a single course, or divided into two or three courses. This gives you learning efficiency, instructional integrity and schedule flexibility.

The Scuba Gear You Use
Tec diving uses much more equipment than recreational diving. The technical scuba gear typically uses two to four or five regulators, a dive computer, and some accessories.

Prerequisites
TecRec prerequisites vary (see individual course descriptions), but the following applies to anyone interested in technical diving: You must be

• 18 years or older
• A mature, responsible person who will follow the required procedures and requirements strictly and faithfully
• Medically fit for tec diving (physician’s signature required)
• Willing to accept the added risks that tec diving presents
• An experienced diver with at least 100 logged dives
• Certified as a PADI Rescue Diver. PADI Enriched Air Diver and certified as a PADI Deep Diver or equivalent (for this program equivalency is proof of training in recreational deep diving 18 meters/60 feet to 40 meters/130 feet consisting of at least four dives and training in nitrogen narcosis considerations, contingency/emergency decompression, making safety stops and air supply management OR, have a minimum of 20 logged dives deeper than 30 meters/100 feet.)