Someone asked me recently, why are you doing all this techy stuff? The answer for me is very simple: because I couldn’t do the dives I want to do at the level I was at. Still can’t, actually, but now I have a way to get there.

Consider the wrecks of Scapa Flow, which lie in 35-50m of water, just as one example, there are many more. I’d love to see them. So what are my options? I could use my PADI Deep Diver cert, to 40m, and have a quick look on a single 15ℓ tank of air while staying within no-deco limits (9 minutes on the RDP). Or I could crossover my PADI DM to BSAC Dive Leader and go down to 50m, again on a single, and risk a little deco on the notorious BSAC 88s. Or I could just go and do the dives regardless; there are no dive police lurking at the recreational limit (tho’ I might have some explaining to do back on the boat!) and surely my trusty Suunto Mosquito could run the deco for me. None of these options are particularly appealing. At least one of them is downright stupid. Then there is the issue of gas narcosis. I have done enough dives below 30m to have a first-hand understanding of this. I have seen people do some improbable things, and I have done (or been told I have done) some some myself. And I’ve reviewed the photos I’ve taken or the video I’ve shot after the dive and realized I couldn’t actually remember seeing alot of what’s on the camera. Seems pointless to spend time and money on some big dives and not even have the memories to show for it! And then there’s caves… I can’t deny the allure. For this I need to get the training and build experience gradually.

So so far I have taken two baby steps into the technical realm, IANTD ART, which takes me down up to 48m, with enough helium to reduce the narcosis to half that, and accelerated deco, and GUE Fundamentals, to hone the basic skills and give me a way into GUE training. I achieved only a Recreational pass at the latter, so my next step is to refine my skills to Technical pass level and book an instructor for the upgrade. I hope to do that over the next few months. Then either GUE Tech 1 or IANTD Normoxic, and then I will be ready to begin phase II of my diving career. Now that I know a bit about what’s out there, this is even more exciting than learning to dive the first time ’round was!