Gas & Dive Planning
How to Plan a Dive: Start With the Exit, Not the Dive
Why DIR divers plan every dive backward from the exit, for reef, wreck, cave and technical dives, and how rock bottom and ratio deco make that work.
Read articleTechnical Training
Essentials of Tech
The personal skills class where technical diving starts.
Book this course Start with a free 15-minute consultation.
About this training
Where technical diving starts.
Most divers think technical diving is about going deeper. It isn’t. It’s about control, awareness, and a team that can solve problems without a direct ascent. Essentials of Tech is where you build that.
It’s a personal skills class in shallow open water, within no-decompression limits. The depth stays easy so the standard can go up. Go on to decompression diving or don’t. Either way, you’ll dive differently when you’re done.
What you’ll train
- Buoyancy, trim, and propulsion held to a technical standard, including the back kick and helicopter turn
- Valve shutdowns and more advanced air-sharing procedures
- Handling a decompression bottle
- Advanced gas planning and more complex ascent strategies
Course limits
- 60 feet / 18 meters
- Air or nitrox 32
- No decompression
Before you start
- Minimum age 18
- Advanced (UTD Rec 2) or equivalent certification
- 50 logged dives beyond open water, including 25 non-training dives
- We’ll confirm prerequisites together on your free call
Where it leads
- Techreational. Your first decompression course: trimix 25/25 to 130 feet with one oxygen bottle.
- Tech 1. Deeper decompression diving to 160 feet.
- Doubles. Backmount or sidemount, when you’re ready to move into twins.
- Essentials of Recreational Diving. Not ready yet? Build the foundation first.
A personal approach.
You train directly with me, in a team of three or fewer. Every skill connects to a real dive, with time for observation, practice, and feedback.
Start with a free 15-minute call. We’ll go over your experience, the prerequisites, your equipment, and what you want to achieve, then set dates together.
How we train