What is the difference between tech diving and recreational diving?
Well, recreational divers can explore underwater worlds that non-divers will never see, but in tech diving you can see all the sites recreational divers can, and you can also go deeper and stay longer. Being a Techie opens up even more places to explore, but to do so tech divers have to use alternate breathing gas’s and tons of gear. Consequently, tech dive sites can be limited for logistical reasons.
Every scuba diver is required to complete a training course to become certified to dive. Both tech and rec divers have a training path for continuing education. Recreational divers can choose specialties, such as fish identification or wreck diving, while the tech divers path includes trimix, rebreather, twins and sidemount.
Open water divers can dive to a maximum depth of 18 meters while experienced divers can dive to a maximum depth of 40 meters. Technical divers however can go beyond 40 meters when planned but have to make decompression stops. These extended limits means the tech diver can explore a wreck longer, or go further back into a cave.
Recreational divers use an RDP or dive computer to plan their dive. Most recreational dive computers give visual instructions that make dive planning extremely easy. Tech divers have rigorous planning procedures. Preparing gear, gas mixtures, and planning staged decompression, takes more time. Recreational divers see planning their dives as a tedious necessity while Tech divers recognize planning is half the fun!
While every diver needs a set of scuba gear to go diving, tech divers use at least twice as much gear as recreational divers. Because of the need for more gear, equipment cost is higher for technical divers.
Going deeper for longer periods of time presents more risk to technical divers. However, the goal of the training is to mitigate this risk. You’ll have the experience, training, and equipment to handle extreme situations. The extra risk for tech divers lays the way for phenomenal experiences.
If you are interested in becoming a Tec Diver or want to know more about tec diving check out our tech courses or drop us a line for more info.
