Tec Diving - DSAT

[Khaled Alwassia]

Hello,
I am about to finish my advanced Diver in the next few weeks and are looking for the next goal. I was considering a start in technical diving and tried to find some webpages which would help me to decide if that is realy a road i want to travel on.
I was told that DSAT is a good training company with a reasonalbe spread of instructors but i can not find their webpage.
I would appreciate if anyone coudl let me some links where i could make myself smarter.
Any replys & info on what is involved to take this step are very wellcome.
By the way what organisations / certifications are considered OK by BSAC.

[Keith Lawrence(BSAC)]

Hello,
I am about to finish my advanced Diver in the next few weeks and are looking for the next goal. I was considering a start in technical diving and tried to find some webpages which would help me to decide if that is realy a road i want to travel on.
I was told that DSAT is a good training company with a reasonalbe spread of instructors but i can not find their webpage.
I would appreciate if anyone coudl let me some links where i could make myself smarter.
Any replys & info on what is involved to take this step are very wellcome.
By the way what organisations / certifications are considered OK by BSAC.

Hi Khaled

I know that you're not UK based so replies about UK training wont be much help :-) DSAT are the technical arm of PADI, you can find out some basic information about their courses here - <a href="http://www.padi.com/english/common/courses/tec/default.asp" >http://www.padi.com/english/common/courses/tec/default.asp</a>
Also consider the other technical agencies such as IANTD, TDI et al, there's links to several of them on the UKRS web site on <a href="http://www.ukrecscuba.org.uk/links/links01.html#Certification_agencies" >http://www.ukrecscuba.org.uk/links/links01.html#Certification_agencies</a>
For some general links to all matters technical try the UKRS links pages on <a href="http://www.ukrecscuba.org.uk/links/links04.html#Technical_topics" >http://www.ukrecscuba.org.uk/links/links04.html#Technical_topics</a>

As for which ones are recognised by the BSAC - I don't know! You will have to ask HQ about that one. There is no problem with technical/rebreather divers diving within their branch provided that they dive within the BSAC SDP's and register their qualifications with HQ.

HTH

Keith L

[Khaled Alwassia]

Thanks Keith i will follow the links and check them out.

[Nigel Hewitt]

I was told that DSAT is a good training company with a reasonalbe spread of instructors but i can not find their webpage.

I did the PADI/DSAT Tec Deep which is basically Deep Air, Advanced Nitrox and Deco procedures all rolled up into one and frankly I'd suggest the TDI alternatives. It is good stuff but just too much course in one helping. In my case it was the instructor I wanted not the card.

nigelH

[Khaled Alwassia]

In my case it was the instructor I wanted not the card.

Nigel,
Thanks for the input unfortuneately i have to go with what is available in my market. Ok, i could go and do it in a holiday but explain that to my wife!!!!!!!! And she is a diver as well.

In any case i would liekt o check out the TDI training do you have a link to their webpage?

From your replies on this ond other forums i guess that you have some extended experience intech diving. The DSAT instructor i talk to said that i would need a double bludder BCD.
As i had not the time to question what that is at the time (OK so i am a dummy) could you be so kind to explain this to me.
I do know that it is two bludder = air sack for redundency. But is it one BDC with 2 bludder or is it a normal BCD on to which you fix a second bludder / BCD. I saw something like this on the Buddy BCD webpage.

Thanks for the help.

Khaled

[Nigel Hewitt]

&gt;In any case i would liekt o check out the TDI training do you have a link to their webpage?

See link at bottom. I have done two TDI courses on my way to where I am now. Both had good documentation and the standards the instructors were working to covered what I wanted. I've done some very good courses with instructors of other agencies and, naturally, nobody competes with PADI documents but TDI among the technical agencies are, in my opinion, next best.

The DSAT instructor i talk to said that i would need a double bludder BCD. As i had not the time to question what that is at the time (OK so i am a dummy) could you be so kind to explain this to me.

Technical diving is decompression stop diving so your buoyancy control is your life. You always plan for any one item of kit breaking so you need duplication. Duplication on buoyancy is either a wing and a dry suit or, in warmer water, two wings. However the two wings can be within the same envelope as you are only ever using one at a time. The two bladder wing is a way to supply a second wing if the first one fails. You can have two 22Kg wings inside one 22Kg outside with two feed and dump hoses. You leave the second one disconnected and if the first fails pop the feed onto the second one and get back to your stop depth. The key planning item in tech diving is that if something breaks you end up ashore after the dive, fit and well, with a repair to make. Even if it fails at 60 meters with 38 minutes of stops to do (me in March this year) you must finish the stops.

nigelH

[Khaled Alwassia]

Thanks