Blog

Dive Bikini Atoll May 2023

Dive Bikini Atoll 2023 with DDS!  Have you ever wanted to dive the best shipwrecks in the world?  Join us for one of the most anticipated scuba diving trips and Dive Bikini Atoll with DDS in May 2023 and you’ll see some of them!

A few years ago we embarked on a magical trip to Truk Lagoon and had the dream trip, only to ask ourselves how could we top Truk?  Well we instantly thought Bikini Atoll, so after missing out on trips lately thanks to Covid, this Trip will be even more amazing. Join us in 2023. Very Limited Space Available.

About Bikini Atoll

Bikini Atoll is located in the Marshall Islands in Micronesia.  This area is home to some of the biggest and best shipwrecks you’ll ever see.  Pristine ships that were retired from war service and were sunk during atomic bomb testing in 1946 as part of  Operation Crossroads where they were evaluating the effectiveness of these weapons against battle ships.

Below is a list of ships courtesy of Wikipedia:

Bikini Atoll shipwreck
Bikini Atoll Shipwreck

After the Second World War, the USA collected a ‘mock’ naval fleet for the purpose of testing the impact of different atomic bombs on a large fleet. These nuclear bomb tests were performed in several remote locations in the South Pacific Ocean, known as the Pacific Proving Grounds. Bikini Atoll was appointed one of the designated testing areas within the Marshall Islands. Between 1946 and 1958, not less than 23 atomic bombs were tested at Bikini Atoll, which resulted in a unique selection of shipwrecks from the US, Germany and Japan consisting of war battleships, cruisers, and an aircraft carrier.

More than 60 years later, the shipwrecks remain equally as impressive while they have become home to many kinds of corals and fish species. As a result, Bikini Atoll has become the ultimate wreck diving for the true fans! This exclusive and unparalleled diving destination is undisputedly ranked first on any serious wreck & technical divers’ bucket list. This is well justified; nowhere else on earth you will be able to dive into such a unique collection of historic battleships, cruisers, as well as the world famous USS Saratoga aircraft carrier with its 270m (888ft.) flight deck. For this reason, Bikini Atoll was declared the first UNESCO World Heritage site for the Marshall Islands archipelago in 2010.

About the Trip:

Exclusivity guaranteed when you Dive Bikini Atoll the charter is cut to a maximum of 16 guests over 10 or 11 nights per cruise. The Pacific Master

This custom-designed liveaboard was built with divers in mind to bring you the very best diving holiday experience possible. Previously, sailing the stunning dive sites of the Solomon Islands as M/V Taka, this steel-hulled vessel boasts an experienced boat crew, dive team and chefs to ensure the highest standards of service.

The ship features 12 cabins allowing comfortable accommodations, at a reduced capacity to cover the additional equipment required for this type of expedition based trip.

Tech divers will find on board all the latest technical diving facilities and equipment to explore these ultimate wrecks at leisure when you dive Bikini Atoll with DDS.

The rates are: $4795USD for the upper deck cabins, $3605USD for the lower deck cabins and $4200USD for the lower deck single cabins. Plus the additional port/park fee of $500USD.

  • Deco bar for stage/deco stops
  • Booster pump for gas blending & rebreather tank fills
  • Manifold twin-tanks (DIN & Intl. available)
  • MKVI filters (upon request)
  • Sofnolime for rebreathers – Dependent on Use
  • Rebreather tanks
  • 12l Deco stage tanks (band, sling & clips) – 40cuft/80cuft stage/bailout cylinders
  • Oxygen
  • Helium

Most wrecks in Bikini Atoll are located beyond recreational diving maximum depths; therefore technical diving skills and wreck experience are required, which is perfect, as DDS offers the most progressive, modern, comprehensive and challenging technical diving courses in the business.

True Master dive deck

For questions and booking, please contact our travel partner:

Fly and Sea Dive Adventures
8528 123 St.
Surrey, BC
1-888-995-3483, diving@flyandsea.com

Cave Explorer Matt Mandziuk retrieving line in a Florida Cave

Cave Diving – My Journey Into Diving Caves

Cave Diving – My Journey Into Diving Caves
by
Matthew Mandziuk

A lot of people ask me about My Journey Into Cave Diving – How I Got Into Diving Caves, and the truth is that it wasn’t on purpose. It was once upon a time when I was in Mexico doing some instructor updates for TDI. I’ve been a Technical Diving Instructor with them for over 20 years and I was looking for a trainer that could teach me more than the people I had met or worked with here in North America were able to offer. 

The Internet was relatively new to me…well most of us 20 years ago, but I had found a few trainers who kept coming up on WebCrawler and whatever other search engines I used…I think AOL. What drew me to Mexico was that the Instructor was seemingly offering something different in concept. His emails were more detailed even though English wasn’t his first language and the pictures looked like the gear was a lot tidier than my setup, which in those days was a very old school New Jersey Wreck Diving configuration, so I took a chance, hopped on a plane and went to Mexico.

We reconfigured my gear, as I was fascinated by how much cleaner and more streamlined the setup we were training new students on was and I embraced it all 100%.

It was knowledge that made sense and it made the diving so much more functional. (See the example of how my gear may or may not have looked at one point further down the post).

The Seasickness Day

One day we were out in the ocean boat diving in 14′ waves, when I got thrown from the boat by with all my gear on. Here was as good of a spot as any to drop on the wall, so we decided to drop right were I did and we conducted a nice 300’ trimix dive. As we entered the decompression phase of the dive shallower, the surge was very strong and I started getting a little queasy. After the stops were clear, we got tossed back onto the boat by the waves and we powered back to shore, I crawled tanks and all up the sandy beach on all 4’s and and kissed that unmoving ground. I likely even told it I loved it.

When my face wasn’t green anymore my Trainer started thinking about other less windy options and one of the ideas that popped into his mind was to do a deep sink hole, something I’d never seen before. I was in.

An Inland Road Trip

I remember the site well, Cenote Angelita. We drove into the jungle and parked a car, walked down a dirt pathway through the jungle of beautiful big trees, and we happened upon what looked like a tropical oasis in paradise. There were some tree roots we could use to walk down to the water way a little more safety and you could see down quite a ways into the water as the sun was peaking high in the sky just before noon.

When discussing the dive plan, we were briefed on the site and I got to discuss the dive with the dives I was diving with.  

We walked our decompression cylinders down to the water and tied a line off a series of strangler fig tree roots to clip the tanks to so they didn’t slip off the ledge down to over 200’.

We put our suits and double tanks on and on the surface we conducted our s-drill and bubble checks, clipped our additional cylinders on and away we went.

I remember looking into the air clear water and I could see all the way down to the bottom at 90’ where there was a hydrogen sulphur cloud and a beautiful reddish coloured rock in spots around the basin.

We explored the sink which was very reminiscent of Yoda’s planet Dagobah with the steam on the surface unearthing the trees sticking through the cloud, except this was now happening underwater and was one of the most mind-blowing and interesting things I’d ever seen in my life.

After taking in my new favourite site above the cloud, we decided to go in through the cloud. As we descended through the hydrogen sulphur cloud, I could actually taste through my regulator a flavour of sulphuric “rotten egg” which is a flavour everyone talks about. As I descended, I came into the darkness 40’ deeper and into a night dive like environment environment. HID Lights were just starting to come onto the market and it was my first time seeing a Halcyon 18w HID light in action. the blue light was so amazing. I was still using a 2 section car battery pack powering a 50w Halogen lamp, so my beam was yellow.

As I took the time to take in this new environment, I noticed a lot of branches, roots, a massive hour glass shaped debris cone, just like I’d read about in the many books I’d read on the Yucatan Peninsula and the water was even clearer below the cloud that above, which we could easily see the entire length of the basin above and below over 300’ of clarity on this day.

We kept following the debris cone downward towards the bottom which I could see getting closer and closer and we stopped at a cavern entrance with a beautiful speleothem hanging and all of the divers lit up the entrance with their high tech HID lights and my halogen lamp.

I Was Mind Blown…

I was mind blown and the entire dive had eclipsed all of my best dives in quality, uniqueness, clarity of water, cool things to see. I’d gone from never diving a sink hole to never seeing spelotherms, to being thrown into a new world of let’s discover what else is out here and a trip that was only supposed to be 1-2 weeks lasted a month, as I so excitedly and enthusiastically ascended after our decompression ended and smiling ear to ear they asked how I liked that site!? My reply was that it was the best dive ever. They later replied, if you like that we have some even bigger and better treats for you “Farmer” (in response to being seasick and kissing the sand the day before).

We did a second dive at Angelita was just as good, but a bit shallower as we broke 200′ of depth on the first dive. We had even more time to swim around and play in and out of the hydrogen sulphur cloud. It was very memorable.

An Example of full columns in a Cave
Photo by Matt Mandziuk

Upon feeling renewed and excited, we did a bunch of other fun dives in the area and all these big deep sink holes just made me more curious about what else was inside them.

One day I was asked to teach a decompression lecture for a bunch of cave students and was convinced to join on the open water skills dive on day 1 of these students working on their cavern skills. It was pitched to me that I could learn how to use a reel better and it would help make the best wreck diving class in the world.

The day we did the class, then we started working on dry land drills and having never actually been taught to run line and only reading from the old NSS-CDS and NACD cave books, I was excited to see how they did things, so I sat and watched and when the students were done, I too had a chance to play with the reels and line following and then I joined the group during the simulated air sharing while blindfolded and communicating during “touch contact” and I thoroughly enjoyed being blind and feeling the way the line in my hands moved left and right and up and down and how I could use the sense of touch to feel the plastic navigational markers as a way of knowing roughly where I was and what direction was out.

I was done all of my TDI Technical Instructor upgrades and lectures by this point and it was time to immerse myself into something new. Cavern Diver Training!

My first cavern training dive was in 20’ of open water at a cent called Car Wash. It was the most intense dive of my life because I was taking everything so seriously. We have a great Cave 2 Skills Video summary of some of the skills online if you’re interested CLICK HERE.

For those who know me, I’m a pretty OCD and very thorough person when it comes to diving. I’m hypersensitive to things and usually very very aware and I liked this because it was challenging me in a new and different way.

For those who have done a Wreck Penetration, Intro to Tech, Cavern or Cave class with me, I’m sure you’ll remember our 20-30’ dives too. The shallow skills development dives set the bar for things to come.

On my Cavern Training it was not different. We spent 1.5 hours in 20’ of water doing air shares with and without visibility, with and without a buddy, we simulated a lost guideline deploying a safety/backup reel and had to relocate the line, tie-off our safety line and follow the mainline until we found an arrow marking our exit and make an exit in the proper direction. 

DDS Divers Working on Line Handling and Awareness

Don’t Be Intimidated….

While many people find a dive like serious training dive to be intense or intimidating, it just made me want more. As a matter of fact, I took the next dives so seriously that it took me 20 minutes to even realize we were in a cavern because I was so focussed on the team, the communication, the line placements and etiquette, among the other pre-dive rituals we had ahead of the penetration into the cavern, that it felt more organized diving this way.

Once we tied into the main guideline I was able to break a sigh of relief that we found it and then I was able to stop and take it all in and this cavern became something that allowed my body and mind to slow down and take it all in as the stillness was enhanced, my breathing rate lower than the last 20 minutes had been and and I heard every heart beat, the sound of every breath flowing through my long hose towards my mouth and the lights all cascading a beautiful array of light patterns around this magical limestone paradise that were created millions of years ago.

As the divers began to signal the turn and exit and somehow one at a time had “equipment failures” with masks being removed, primary lights failing, people running out of gas, etc., I was watching and waiting for my time to exit and don’t really remember if/what the problems I would’ve encountered were, but again after sorting our gear back out when the scenarios were over, and our safety stop completed, we ascended into another monumental emotional diving bliss moment as we were all smiles and ready for the next challenges.

True Beauty…

The thing I loved most about the cave diving training were the beautiful caves we were training in. Seeing the ice-age looking formations that resemble the frozen icicles at a waterfall were hypnotic, as were the stalactites and full columns (once I was able to start enjoying them and paying less attention to the main guideline or the equipment that I knew was going to “fail” on the exit).

The skills that we had to do on the class were addictive and I even “died” on my lost line drill, which is a survival skill we do as we simulate losing the primary line and having to tie off our safety spool on a rock and blindly feeling for the primary line, hoping to hook it with our reel, or even our equipment or body. 

Skills that like were very sobering and they drove home the importance of paying attention to the team and surroundings at all times.

Learning to navigate a jump from one line to another cave line was another wonderful skill too, as it extended our range into these cave passages.

What I loved most about cave diving were the rules and how organized cave diving made me feel. I used to always say Wreck Divers used brawn and Cave Divers used brains. I’m a big advocate of diving smarter, not harder and Cave Diving was something that just made sense.

One of the most interesting aspects of the Mexican cave sites was the haloclines, a phenomena of waters of different density and temperature that can create a visual disturbance like mixing fresh water into a glass of saltwater resembling how a road shimmers in the hot summer heat.
Here you’ll notice the fresh water layer on top pushing, mixed water in the middle with the salt layer along the bottom.

Halocline Formation in a Mexican Cave During NAUI Cave 2 Class

A thermocline can get more brackish as your pass through the layer and it creates a greater mix of the salt and fresh water which can obscure view of the main guideline. Learning how to dive in Halocline Formation is important.

I learned some valuable lessons on the cave class as well and helped reconfigure my equipment, as I maybe had some “wreck diving” equipment, but not stuff gear that was as streamlined or as functional as the gear I ultimately embraced. Even a little think like the importance of a good pair of fins. I was an advocate of Mares Quattro’s for years, they were a fantastic pair of fins, but couldn’t figure out why I was having to kick to keep up with some of the other divers, given I was running 5 km’s/day, my friend Nick said to me straight up “it’s your fins. They’re too big, bulk and too inefficient”. I switched to Jet fins after I got to try them minutes later and never looked back.

Technical Diving at DDS Looked Reminiscent of this in the ’80’s and ’90’s. Lots of Gear and Task Loading with hoses ,tanks and gauges galore. Be Blessed You’re Learning the Right Way from Open Water On. This is Why Divers Come From All Over North America to Train with DDS.

The importance of the right equipment that suits the team’s mission and members best is very important and another favourite aspect of cave diving, as those team members can help with the line tension, retrieving arrows or cookies if asked, while having their gear rigged the same way in the same location always.

I remember on one of my first cave trips back to Mexico, I got to dive in one of my favourite Mexican cave, where we navigated through 3 different cave systems on 1 dive! Now of course each cave once it’s connected becomes part of the biggest cave system, but once upon a time they were 3 separate cave systems.

With proper dive planning, great gas consumption and the right safety gear, cave diving can be one of the most enjoyable and stimulating styles of diving ever.

Cave Diving is Not Dangerous. Breaking the rules, exceeding your level of training or experience is. The caves have been here for thousands and millions of years before divers started exploring them, they’re not the hazard, human error is.

In Cave Diving they use the expression “There are Old Cave Divers and There are Bold Cave Divers, but No Old Bold Cave Divers”. Having lost friends diving, it’s not fun, but at some point a rule was broken or a training limitation in the majority of the losses I’ve had to endure. Thinking of your friends and family first will act as insurance in wanting to return home safely, so that you don’t make unnecessary risks and you can keep your mind in the game.

Don’t Make Unnecessary Risks, it’s not worth it.

Sun lit Jungle in Mexico on the trail topside to the world's largest underwater cave system. Sun light beaming like subtle lasers through the tree branches
The Sun light beams gently kiss the jungle as we make our way to the dive camp during the World’s Longest Underwater Cave Expedition in Mexico.

From Student to Teacher and Explorer


My cave training opened me up to a lot of amazing adventures, but the faster approach to the training was something I wasn’t as keen on. 

Many divers do a “zero to hero” cave class in certain places, it’s not to say it can’t be done, I did it, however, I was the only diver who knew how to frog kick, turn or fin backwards along with 2 students who’d done open water and advanced with the same instructor in a backplate/wing, but reverse frog wasn’t a required skill, nor was any previous experience in doubles and this is still the case in a lot of the more mainstream agencies.

I really felt like the other students could’ve benefited from a foundational skills class which really was just starting to become a thing 20 years ago. It was rare that divers would have learned the foundational skills and have proper horizontal trim. A Cave Instructor in Florida one day told me they are there to teach a student as much as they can in a week so they don’t die in a cave. Many have never worn doubles, been horizontal or frog kicked, so they do the best they can and they offer them the opportunity to re-take the course within 6-12 months of they practice and get the diving in, but what they really should do is teach them the foundational skills first and then focus on the cave skills/training next. On my cave class the others were new to all the gear and techniques and the open water dives we had done prior to the cavern dives were designed to try and teach them the basics of modern diving.

Cave diving was a lot more mental for me than physical, having to think of the procedures to lay a clothes pin (now we use cookies) or when to arrow and where, as I felt we were hit with a series of navigational decisions and there was a lot of additional gear thrown in like stages and so on.

Complex Navigation involves multiple navigational decisions, entering and exiting in different places, doing circuits, T’s, traverses, set-up and clean-up dives to execute the dive properly.

It wasn’t until I got out on my own exploring new caves, some known, some undiscovered cave sites that I started to gain or retain the knowledge and apply it. I had the skills, I could do the drills, but putting them to practical use was really what made me feel like a cave diver and made me a better diver.

Many divers are quite content just following the main guideline in and out, it’s enough for some people and definitely how you’d want to start off if you haven’t done a cave dive for a while. Ease yourself into the dives doing easy navigation or what I often call diving like a “pedestrian cave diver”, as the simple tour is a nice way to reacquaint yourself with the caves and running the reel and tying into the main guideline, you can assess the conditions and note the navigational jumps or places of interest for future dives.

When it came time for me to be teaching Cavern Diving, I had no interest in teaching Cave Diving. I had a few friends in Florida and Mexico who I’d send friends to dive with and train and that was good enough, but none of them really stuck with it and my local divers were getting more and more keen to go to see these amazing springs and cenotes.

All of the years I spent in Florida and Mexico started mounting up, I started seeing the masses who were cave diving and they were destroying the fragile stalactites in Mexico or breaking the limestone features of the Florida caves.  My favourite decoration in Ginnie Springs got destroyed last year I named it “Scooby Doo” Rock and one day someone decapitated Scooby likely with Doubles or a Run Away Scooter.

scooby-doo-rock
Scooby-Doo Rock before some ass decapitated him. Below is the after math of a beheaded Scooby

As more years went by, I started seeing people flutter kicking even in a no flow cave in Split Fins destroying the visibility, hand swimming and vertical diving habits, along with people pulling hard on the cave guidelines which should never be pulled or heaved on, and only held with caution letting the line slip effortlessly through your fist as you grip it in a touch contact hand position. Most divers didn’t know how to run line properly or at all, while some people were just running a single long line for 200’ into the caves and tying in to the main line with no regard for the other lines, divers, teams or anything.

During those days, it was our Divers loved ones who were telling me that they didn’t trust anyone random person to train their loved one’s and they insisted when their loved one was ready to step it to the next level that I’d be teaching them because if I was the only one they trusted 100%, which was flattering and I accepted eventually, which turned out to be a great move.

For the last 13 years I’ve enjoyed teaching caverns and caves, but finding a cave agency I could relate to and enjoy working with was a serious decision too. I teach for 5 different agencies, but what I wanted out of an agency was a brand that suggested divers get more diving in between each level, much like I had wished I’d done vs the “Zero to Hero” approach, so I looked at all the agency standards and all of the prerequisites that each agency insisted on and none of them were requiring experience in doubles, or a foundational skills series of skills such as fin kicks or horizontal trim, posture, buoyancy, which is why I looked at NAUI as my preferred Cave Diving agency. Seeing the NAUI Standards was a game changer for me.

NAUI allowed divers to dive a 1/3 of their gas in, out and exiting with 1/3 for reserve, while the majority were doing 1/6th in/out and 2/3 let for exit. No jumps off the mainline, or 1 at best. Being able to participate in multiple navigational decisions was also a great offering, as was the depth limit of 100’ max, no stop limits and insisting certified Cave 1 Divers had to log 20 logged Cave 1 dives after their certification above and beyond their cave training dives, obtain a technical certification before engaging in Cave 2.

There were gaps left in my basic cave training that I saw as a bit of a short coming with some of my dive buddies on my cave class not knowing how to fin using a modified frog kick, not having experience in doubles, trim, reel handling or line awareness prior to a NAUI Intro to Tech Class, no experience with stage/deco/ bottles prior to being handed them in a cavern/cave setting, lack of familiarity with canister lights and back-up lights, rescue diving scenarios dealing with oxygen toxicity and more.

Cave Diving has given our Canadian Divers another way to keep their skills sharp during the winter months and while most divers fade in and out of the recreational diving spectrum, I do find that those who commit to an Intro to Tech/Cavern course and actually pass, never stop diving, as Cave 1 and Cave 2 become their next classes and then as it’s been now 11 years later many of those Cave 1 and 2 divers are still joining us on our trips today.

Cave Diving offers some amazing exploration opportunities, some great personal challenges and some different opportunities for photography and other offerings too.

Cave Diving Explorers Nick and Matt Mandziuk assemble a decompression habitat on a deep cave diving expedition on Cenote el Pat in Mexico
Setting up a Decompression Habitat as part of a Trimix Cave Diving Expedition in Mexico

Avoid Rushing Through Basic Training and Into The “Trendy Toys”


There is never a substitute for experience.  Getting your skills in place and your hours up are the only true way to become a proficient diver.  It doesn’t happen easily or overnight.

Surround yourself with a group of Divers you can learn from.  We use a mentorship mentality that helps prepare new DDS Divers who aren’t trained in the DDS philosophies and we encourage our “home grown” Divers to stay as active as they can and to get involved as much as they can.

We are trend setters and people that were responsible for helping establish many of the protocols and procedures now taken as the bible of diving.

We innovated the most modern Sidemount Configuration before anyone started diving long hoses and embraced the most modern CCR Rebreather Configuration with back mounted diluent and off-board O2 before it was the norm.

A lot of divers jump into certain concepts because the wrong people are promoting the wrong progressions, maybe it’s because they themselves couldn’t dive the right gear for a physical reason like shoulder surgery or bad back, but nothing is better off a boat or driving a scooter than doubles.

Sidemount is a tool to get you into a place you can’t fit on singles or doubles or for shore diving. It is better suited after Cave 2 when the divers have extensive cave experience, the ability or desire to do tighter passages or “no mount” passages even. Sometimes caves are not accessible on doubles, so Sidemount is the Correct Tool Here.

There are many caves that are simply too tight to get into with doubles, so once you’re familiar with all the cave diving has to offer, Sidemount becomes another tool you can use for expeditions where you don’t know if the cave will widen or narrow further.

Sidemount is Not for Mixed Gas Diving and is a horrible choice when diving off a boat, especially if people are diving an unrefined Sidemount configuration which is typically what we see locally from most shops/instructors/divers who are not cave divers.

Sidemount is amazing in places where doubles aren’t available for rent, because you can maintain the redundancy.  Sometimes on shipwrecks or in caves, doubles don’t fit, so Sidemount is the tool of choice as well as for those who medically can’t reach their valves due to spinal or shoulder injuries (having an ill-fitting drysuit/undergarment are no excuse).

Rebreathers with small little 2-3 litre cylinders are also an issue we have. Most Cave Divers Do Not Carry Enough Bailout Gas. A Cave Level 1 Dive = 140ft3 bailout minimum. A Cave Level 2 Dive = 225ft3 bailout Minimum. This means said Cave Diver Needs to be excellent with multiple Decompression Cylinders. In NAUI Cave 2 Divers Learn to use 3-4 additional bottles plus doubles.

Get Good on Stages and Doubles Before Venturing into Sidemount or Rebreather. Once you’re proficient in those styles of diving You can do DPV Overhead/Cave Course which may be safer on a CCR for gas time and efficiency as you’re travelling further back in the cave, but you should always swim it first on Open Circuit First and See how many cylinders it takes for if/when the DPV fails and you may swim on out of it for real.

Taking the right training, buying the right gear, putting in the right amount of time practicing is essential for any divers success. Don’t Rush into caves, technical diving, rebreathers, sidemount diving.  Don’t Take Shortcuts in Your Training.

There are so many amazing dives sites at every depth level and ever training level you succeed at. There is always a next deepest, and next best as well.

Don’t even attempt to dive a Rebreather in a Cave unless you can hover motionless for 5 minutes no skulling horizontally, Knees Up, Fins Up, Arms Out in Trim and complete all the Foundational Skills with 2 Stage Bottles On. I say this because several people have been unsuccessful in Intro to Tech with us and jumped into a Rebreather and somehow got Normoxic Trimix certified standing and kneeling on the bottom, ascending holding the anchor mooring lines and flutter kicking silting out the ships just like their Instructors do.

Your Best Option for a Rebreather is Manual not electronic, so you’re in charge of your PO2 and can control your ascents easier without the set point screaming at your as the PO2 reduces on an automatic unit as it goes shallower while still trying to achieve it’s constant PO2. Run it at a .6 PO2 on ascent or manually. On Deep Cave Exploration a constant mass flow valve or needle valve modified from the original KISS Rebreather design is another great option.

Matt Cave Diving in Mexico with the White Arrow Explorer CCR Rebreather
Matt after a CCR Cave Dive in Taj Ma Ha Puerto Adventuras, MX

Cave Diving is for Divers Who Have Elite Skills and Discipline and a Desire to be the Most Polished Divers They Can Be.

Spending a lot of time in Florida, Dominican, Mexico and enjoying the recreational and exploration aspects of cave diving have been very fulfilling. I throughly enjoy expedition style diving, having been featured in magazines, YouTube videos, agency and personal expedition projects, including helping friends map the largest cave system in the world, just a couple of years ago, in a land so far away from this Covid pandemic are what keep me motivated and keep me going forward.

If Cave Diving Interests You, Do it Right. Take a Foundational Skills Class with DDS. If you’re curious about doubles, take a NAUI NTEC Doubles Workshop with Us, which will start you down the right path in equipment configuration basic foundational skills, while our NAUI Intro to Tech Course is the best Foundational Skills Class there is. It offers the right skills, information and adventure. Intro to Tech dovetails seamlessly into Cavern/Cave 1 too, so do it right and take the best training path. Don’t leave gaps in your training. Don’t Rush and Never Accept a Certification Card You Yourself Do Not Feel You Earned.

Our Cave, Wreck, Overhead and Technical Diving Courses are The Best in the industry! No other training agency offers a more through and complete Cave Diving Education and having such a small number of Cave Instructors keeps the quality high and the demand high.

Going from a Left Post Breathing Hose Stuffer to one of the First DIR Based Diving Instructors was the best move we made as a shop. Divers come for the best training offerings from around the Canada, the USA and other countries. I’ve been a Top Certifying Technical Diving Instructor over the last 20+ years and with your help will continue to offer the Highest Calibre of Recreational, Cave, Technical, Sidemount and Rebreather Training Possible.

Seeing the benefits of Divers learning in backplate/wing from open water, encouraging continuity in gear configuration, improving team diving communication and functionality and being able to up the game whenever possible are just some of the ways we’ve helped set the standard higher.

I am frequently involved in cave and shipwreck and other random dive expeditions of known and unknown entities and we continue to challenge myself and others through new environments and equipment whenever possible.

empty_spools_of_cave_line
There is nothing more fulfilling than running new line through a virgin cave emptying your spools Sistema Sac Aktun Expedition 2017

If You Want to Learn More About our Modern and Progressive Training Offerings, CLICK HERE

Thanks For Reading, Let’s Go Diving Soon!

Matt Mandziuk

Follow Me On Instagram @divesith and @dansdiveshop

 

Vertical Diving SeaHorses Sucking it Up

Diving Dry with Doubles

Diving Dry with Doubles
by
Matthew Mandziuk

Diving Dry with Doubles.  Have you ever noticed that the most active divers on the dive site are the one’s who are Diving  Drysuit with Doubles?  Quite often its the same 10-12 divers who sign up for a lot of the same trips and who often prefer diving together with the group.  The reason for that is comfort, with their kit, with the group, with themselves in the water, whereas the other 10-12 guests are a revolving door of divers with a ranged diving background.

In this blog we are going to talk a little about the benefits of diving Diving a Drysuit with Double Tanks.

By the end of this reading you should have a clearer understanding of the partnership between diving with a drysuit and doubles, the benefits of diving with a drysuit and doubles, some of the training offerings with divers in a drysuit and doubles and where diving in a drysuit and doubles can take you.

Why should you start Diving Dry with Doubles? 

At first it sounds a little much, diving a nylon or neoprene full body suit, hood, gloves and then more weight than we even used in a wetsuit?  Drysuit divers wear approximately 6-8lbs minimum in fresh water (more in salt because of the added buoyancy)  more weight than a diver in a single piece 7mm jumpsuit (or about the same weight as they’d wear with an old school farmer John and Jacket).

That added weight can be inconvenient at best.

Where does one put that extra weight?

Most of our DDS Divers utilize a backplate and harness system which promotes better horizontal trim, posture and streamlining , it’s expandable and fully adjustable to accommodate the drysuit much easier than a jacket bcd can and is far more comfortable.

To learn more about backplates in general, please click the hyperlink above.

Divers diving in Canada with a single tank often times use a stainless steel backplate with a weighted single tank adapter, that system has a total negative buoyancy weighting of approximately 10lbs.  Nearly enough to sink anyone in a 7mm wetsuit with 2-3lbs maximum per side additional, however a drysuit diver is going to require an additional 6-8lbs minimum depending on the undergarments they wear.

In an attempt to  promote proper horizontal trim, the diver will want to re-distribute the weight evenly around the body with a maximum of 4-5lbs per hip pocket and up to that much weight on each of the single tank straps for a total of up to approximately 20lbs of weight plus the backplate system = 30lbs. Doesn’t that seem like a little much?

In an attempt to minimize the weight the diver wears, many will go to a single steel tank which can be 2-8lbs negatively buoyant by todays standards diving with a Faber steel cylinder.

A few years ago Worthington cylinders were preferred for their additional negative buoyancy characteristics with the X7-100 and X8-130 being the 2 most popular options.  In Faber the FX100, FX133 and LP85 are our most popular sizes.  Strangely enough the 100’s and 130’s were also the most suitable tanks for doubling up for deeper dives.

Faber FX100 swings from -8.41lbs full to -0.59lbs empty.
Faber FX133 swings from -9.08 full to +1.45lbs empty
Faber DVB85 swings from -3.8 full to + 2.32 empty

Worthington X7-100 had a swing of -10lbs to -2.5lbs
Worthington X8-130 had a swing of -11.7 to -2lbs

Having a tank that is negatively buoyant allows divers to reduce overall weight required and keeps some of that negative buoyancy behind you which helps improve your trim rather than having all that weight on the hips, but you don’t want to overweight yourself with tanks too heavy and underwear too thin.  Try and find the balance.  Many divers will even favour aluminum tanks for shallow shore diving with thin garments.

Adding an extra tank minimizes or eliminates the need for additional weight while adding a safer configuration that builds on our progressive single tank system utilizing a long hose/short hose and spg on 24″-26″ HP hose and it gives divers  the ability to solve a catastrophic failure thanks to redundant regulators.

Aluminum twins are popular option for divers looking for a great wetsuit set that can be used with a drysuit, however, they are more suitable for use on shallow dives.  When worn with a drysuit the diver will have to wear a heavier steel plate, a v-weight with lead down the centre of the tanks and a compact and streamlined wing.  They are easy to dive with little learning curve.

Steel tanks will take the diver further through deeper dives, caves, wreck penetration and offer more reserve gas on the divers back to deal with emergencies.

Vertical Divers with all the weight on the waist in a jacket bcd with dangling everything

DDS Diver John displaying perfection with great trim, buoyancy, control and style as he swims around the Tugs in Tobermory, ON

Many divers prefer the additional gas capacity of the steel tanks as well as the larger sized tanks allow divers to dive deeper and stay longer in comparison to the standard aluminum 80 tank which is still the most popular scuba diving tank on the market.

 

Drysuit Divers and DDS Divers have better trim because a drysuit surrounds the entire body with a little bit of air (less is better).

Redistribute weight, minimize weight and enjoy easier diving.

 

As divers tend to dive more off the dive boats and spend more time on their favourite dive sites, divers start looking at how to get more bottom time.

Diving Nitrox allows divers to gain up to 50% more bottom time on sites around 100′ and deeper, while yielding even more bottom time shallower, however, the limiting factor at that point tends to be their breathing rates and the sizes of tank they use, so a steel tank will in fact increase their bottom time an allow them to achieve their dive plans up to the Nitrox NDL most dives.

For divers who find even on Nitrox, the NDL isn’t always long enough, extending their range into decompression diving often is the trick, as a diver learns how to properly and safely plan their dives with a little bit of decompression utilizing advanced nitrox mixes to accelerate decompression times.  This is where doubles are most beneficial.

DDS Divers practicing bottle handling

When a diver combines the drysuit for maximum exposure protection and comfort along with a set of twin tanks, they no longer have to worry about switching out their tanks on that rocking dive boat in between dives, they no longer have to worry about adding weight to their hips or anywhere usually on their body, and they can certainly benefit from the increased balance and comfort that doubles offer.

You’ll also find divers enjoy just going out and working on foundational skills is easy to observe as our divers are always out in open water honing their skills.

Diving Dry with Doubles allows for more even balance in the water as the tanks are placed over top of each lung rater than down the spine like a single tank, while giving the diver a more comfortable suit to don and doff.

Drysuits are easier to put on than a 5-7mm wetsuit.

Drysuits are more effective for warmth retention.

Crushed neoprene or trilaminate Drysuits don’t compress with depth like wetsuits which get thinner with each atmosphere making the diver heavier because of the initial weight they start the dive with, as well as making the diver colder because those thick suits become much thinner every 30ft/10meters they descend.

Are Doubles For You?

If you can carry them on your back, reach your valves and dive with them comfortably, the answer is yes!

 

Look at the number of  accidents that have happened in recreational diving situations with single tanks, especially on deeper dives.  Most recreational diving accidents occur in a single tank with no redundancy (pony bottle, sidemount, h-valve, doubles) or lack of training.

A diver breaths their tank empty, their buddy runs out of air and they didn’t reserve enough gas for them and their buddy to ascend, they went in cold water and the regulator froze up, they hit the regulator or tank valve off a shipwreck or overhead environment creating a catastrophic failure, the BCD freezes, their dive computer blows off the end of their high pressure hose (another reason to wrist mount your computer) so they panic seeing bubbles streaming out of the high pressure hose, etc….

Minimize the risk, Increase the Fun and Learning and be more mentally and physically prepared with more advanced training.

If you’re interested in diving deeper than 80′, cavern or cave diving, technical diving, ice diving, mixed gas diving or wreck penetration, you should do it on doubles.  To many people did it wrong and it cost them their lives.

Be the best diver you can be.  Get involved with DDS and we’ll make you the best diver you can be with our training, experience dives, trips, charters and exploration offerings.

We’ve found these factors to be some of the most beneficial tools to extend your diving into a more fun and exciting world:

Dive Planning: Plan Your Dive, Follow Your Plan, Have an overplan, bailout plan, but don’t deviate from the main dive plan

Gas Management: 1/3 down and around, 1/3 back, exiting water with 1/3 of your gas supply 

Redundancy: Doubles allow the ability to shut down your regulator in the event of a failure, free flow, freeze-up, burst disc failure etc. Isolation manifold allows to shut down and switch over by isolating and shutting down the offending post or just shutting down the offending post.

Narcosis Management: Don’t Dive Deep On Air.  You’re narc’d at 130ft/40meters whether you know it or not.  Don’t dive deep on air, it’s silly, outdated and unsafe with education and helium training available now.

Team Diving: Serious Diving requires divers you can trust in an emergency and in an pinch. Don’t just dive with the randoms you find on a boat down south, they’re usually once a year divers with horrible habits and inferior training.  Dive with divers you have a positive history with or as ask us and we can refer you to more progressively minded shops

No Solo Diving on Deep Dives: Solo Diving is popular now, we’d likely choose this option if diving south with random divers instead of having to buddy up with people that we don’t feel comfortable diving with, however, deeper dives require piece of mind, extra equipment and a proper plan with lots of “what-if’s” to be safe guarded against.  It’s not worth solo cave, solo deep (exceeding NDL) or solo overhead environment without buddies

Analyze Your Mixes: Always, Always, Always analyze your mixes when you pick your tanks up, make sure they’re labelled and if diving with a fill that was “just filled” and you have to grab and go, analyze it again before your day of diving begins.

Practice , Practice, Practice: Complacency Kills.  Work on trim, buoyancy, bottle handling, dealing with simulated emergencies, smb deployment, alternate fin kicks, etc.  Be the most polished and best diver you can be.

Fit is Everything

Don’t just jump into drysuits and doubles blindly.  It requires the right fitting suit and undergarments first and foremost.  Many brands of drysuits are inferior in fit and quality, even the brands offering “custom fit”.

You’ll notice most shops try and pedal the cheaper suits that are like garbage bags or garbage bags wrapped in lycra to cover up the garbage bag look. This is like buying a drysuit from McDonald’s!  Don’t Waste Your Money

If you truly want to LOVE your drysuit and want to enjoy using it, take the time to get properly measured and properly fit.  Don’t just let the dive store hand you a suit off the rack and tell you that it’ll fit you perfectly, we’ve had that happen to several students from out of town that couldn’t complete their required skills during Intro to Tech Training and ended up renting suits from us to finish the class, then ultimately buy a brand new suit from us.

Do it Right.

We are partial to Diving Unlimited International because they offer the best quality, service, workmanship and there is an actual after sales service with them.  They are our top choice for hard to fit people too.  It’s all about comfort and fit with them.

DUI have great value priced suits with their Coronado, San Diego and Yukon II suits and the new Cortez (2019) suits obliterate most brands “top of the line suit” for quality, features, performance, as well as coming with user replaceable quick change ZipSeals, meaning you don’t have to send the suits away for service unless you damage the suit or zipper!  No brand can compete with that!

Santi offers a great quality and great looking suit.  We do their stock and modified stock suits.  You’re allowed up to 4 alterations at no extra cost with them and they do offer custom too.  Suits are very tough and stylish with a beautiful Euro look of elegance and colour.  They do take some time 2-3 months typically (sometimes less sometimes more).

Fourth Element offers the most flexible drysuit on the market.  It’s durable and looks great and they’re using technology to their advantage instead of dive stores who can miss measure someone by using BIOMAP technology to digitally create an image of the person to cut the suit for.  Great suits for a great price with great service…it might just take a bit more time to get the suits made 2-3 months typically.

BARE offers a great stock suit at a good price depending on what you get with the suit from your LDS.  Just but it from DDS and you’ll be happiest.

The Drysuit Underwear is as important for fit and mobility as the drysuit itself.  Santi offers modified stock and custom underwear, DUI offers DuoTherm ultra stretch polartec suits for custom fit as well as a great selection of stock sizes in up to an XM450 material which is exceptional underwear for cold water.  Fourth Element offers an amazing range of suits for a range of conditions made with some of the nicest feeling and fitting materials.

Learn more about diving doubles by stopping in or sign up for a Discover Doubles NTEC night with us.  

NTEC will introduce you to the doubles configuration, foundational skills you should master, emergency drills and more. It’s a perfect prep-workshop that introduces divers to the principles that will help lay the groundwork moving forward towards more regimented training with the right guidance, education, exercises and more to help ready you for our NAUI Intro Class.

Our NAUI Intro to Tech Course is a Rudimentary Elements of Diving Course that will highlight the foundational skills and develop them from a recreational perspective that will dovetail into more advanced and technical diving activities and show recreational divers a preview of what their diving can be like by testing and honing a divers finesse, comfort, trim, buoyancy, effortless skills, problem identification and reactions, team diving, smb deployments, buoyancy refinement, fin techniques and so much more.

2 divers swimming across an old wooden shipwreck
Tiller Wreck, Port Dalhousie

NTEC and Intro are the 2 most exciting, modern, challenging classes that will help improve your skills and enjoyment in the drysuit the most. Tie in NTEC and your PADI Drysuit Specialty Course together and see diving with a  different mindset than what you’d hear/see/learn in a traditional PADI system of diving education.

Diving Dry allows for longer bottom time in cooler water or more dives per day. A more comfortable gear up experience from a boat.

When you look at our DDS dive trip pics on Facebook or Instagram you’ll notice aside from a pool or an open water course weekend, the majority of the divers you see on our trips and con-ed classes are all in drysuits and you’ll notice that a lot of the same divers come out year after year on our charters and trips because their level of enjoyment is substantially higher than a wetsuit divers.

A friend of ours had a shop in Massachusetts and they trained their divers exclusively in drysuits.  They offered by far the most expensive open water course from NY-Maine and everywhere in between, yet their continuing education rates were 400% vs a national industry average of about 25% of divers who go diving and train after open waters.

So they found enormous success training their divers and promoting colder water diving trips because like DDS, they realized the best diving in the world was around the Great Lakes, Atlantic wrecks, Florida and surrounding areas. They were right.

In Closing

Drysuits will last you longer than a wetsuit, will give a diver buoyancy control that is easier to maintain when you where a little “squeeze” on the suit vs a wetsuit which compresses and changes depth the deeper or shallower you go.

Drysuits will allow for colder water immersion and more dives per day, while in between dives the divers will warm up faster, so the energy that is rejuvenated is much higher, especially with todays’ warmer Thinsulate’s and heated systems.

Combining a drysuit with a set of doubles sets a diver up for a lifetime hobby where anything is achievable.

The divers can spend more time under the water enjoying their hobby.  They don’t have to change tanks awkwardly on the boat in between dives like single tank divers do.  They add a larger gas source to deal with emergencies such as low on air or an equipment failure, while also adding redundancy in the event of a regulator or valve failure.

Aside from a little extra weight on land, there isn’t much difference between a single tank and a lot of lead to sink a recreational diver and a set of doubles.

For divers who can’t wear a set of doubles, try Sidemount!  Sidemount is a great option for divers who don’t have the ability to reach back to shut a valve down or who have had back surgery or a physical limitation that negates the ability the wear doubles on their back.

At Dan’s we believe in a more fun progression, so training our divers the right way from the very beginning is so imperative and gives them so many more options moving forward beyond Open Water, Advanced, Drysuit, Rescue, Divemaster and Instructor.  Don’t get caught in the boring progressions that the recreational agencies endorse, there is a much more fun, challenging and enjoyable progression ahead.

Experience more in the world of scuba diving instruction with Dan’s and let us show you a better way to do things that makes more sense and creates better divers.

Dan’s is an innovator of progressive recreational and technical diving, bringing the most modern skills and philosophies forwards before anyone in Canada as we continue to lead and offer the highest standards and most exceptional dive training for recreational and technical diving and have helped shaped some of the finest explorers in the world of scuba diving too.  Train with Dan’s and see a brighter diving future.

TDI Advanced Nitrox Decompression Procedures Course

TDI Advanced Nitrox Decompression Procedures Course

Join us for your TDI Advanced Nitrox Decompression Procedures Course and see how much more exciting it is when to be diving deeper, longer on bigger and better dive sites!

When it comces to technical diving, deep diving isn’t just setting a dive computer, seeing deco and calling yourself a tech diver, there is a lot that goes into becoming a technical diver, both mentally and physically.

Technical 1 Divers doing a Helitrox Dive on Dufferin Wall in Tobermory, Ontario

Through our TDI Advanced Nitrox Decompression Procedures Course classroom and watermanship teachings, you’ll learn what technical diving is, advanced decompression theory, dive planning, gas management, decompression gas planning, as well as tracking both CNS and Pulmonary Oxygen toxicity.

You’ll learn how to follow a decompression schedule, handle emergencies, contingencies, plan for over staying your dive plan and ensuring you have enough gas to safely get yourself back up to the surface.

Decompression is a course requiring sound thinking and judgement. Decompression divers cannot simply ascend when they have a problem.  All issues must be solved underwater, especially with a decompression ceiling above you.

Students will complete a series of eLearning and classroom sessions, as well as local diving shore dives, dive charters followed by a completion of open waters and certification dives in 1000 Islands with us as part of our Rockin’ Rockport Trips.

Starts May 4/5 2024

Prerequisites:

Naui Intro to Tech
50 logged dives
Physically Fit
Must be able to swim 400 meters <10 mins.
Breath swim hold 50′

Availability:

This course is available privately for individuals or groups as well either locally or wherever you are located.

Your training will include a minimum of 7 dives (on air/nitrox not exceeding 130′) or 11 dives (with Helitrox not exceeding 170′) including planning and executing staged decompression dives conducted over a 4-7 day period.

Training Agency:

TDI

Additional Details:

Technical Decompression dives will be conducted on air/nitrox to a maximum depth of 40 meters/130 feet, or up to 150′ for those divers wishing to participate in the Helitrox Diver upgrade.

Divers can benefit from a clearer head, due to reduced narcosis and CO2 loading, maximizing gas elimination  gradients and hyperoxic decompression.

This course is your first step beyond the normal recreational sport diving limits.

This course introduces the prospective technical diver to many essential skills which will become instinct in a real technical diving environment. Some examples include: Emergency procedures and Failure drills, Gas Management, Bail out and Contingencies, Proper buoyancy and Fin Technique introduced during your Into to Tech Course, proper gas switches not exceeding MOD and more.

The Prospective Technical Diver must have the proper mind set and educational background and experience level to become a SAFE technical diver. Remembering that the technical diver cannot just simply surface in an emergency situation.

If you’re interested in this program a CD is available upon request with a wealth of information

Students will be expected to have maintained their skills at a level of at least NAUI Intro To Tech prior to the Start of this intensive training process or above.

Students will have to show up ready to dive properly and dive well or you will not pass this course.  All foundation skills must be completed with proper trim, buoyancy, time requirements and in the right gear configuration.

Cost:  1 Person $1500.  2 People $1200.  3-4 People $799+HST TDI Advanced Nitrox/Deco or $1 Person $1800, 2 people $1500, 3-4 people 1199+HST for TDI Advanced Nitrox/Decompression Procedures with NAUI Helitrox Diver (Hyperoxic Trimix >170′).  Course cost includes Certification Fee, Student Materials, online TDI eLearning code or NAUI Student Materials.

Accommodations, Park Entrance Fees, Gas Fills, Transportation and Dive Charter Fees are Extra.

What gear will you need?

You’ll need a Technical Diver setup with double tanks, decompression bottle (properly rigged with MOD).  Gear is to be Simple and Streamlined, complying with equipment configuration requirements.  A full gear list will be given to all candidates.

Where do I go from here?

Here are some popular examples of courses commonly taken by graduates of this course:

  • Helitrox
  • Technical Wreck Penetration
  • Cave1
  • Cave 2
  • Trimix Level 1
  • Advanced Trimix
  • Extreme Exposure Trimix
  • CCR or pSCR Diver
tdi-trimix-course

NAUI Trimix Course

NAUI Trimix Course

Our NAUI Trimix Course builds on the foundation skills and on the dive experiences of your previous technical courses, but with the addition of learning how to dive with more than one deco cylinder on dives requiring substantially more decompression time at deeper bottom depths.

Our course gradually steps you deeper and deeper as deco stops get deeper and longer and your dive sites get bigger and deeper.

You’ll learn how to manage Normoxic trimix mixes with a narcotic depth range of 100-130′ containing a bottom concentration of as low as 18% oxygen and as high as 23% oxygen through a series of training depths based on a maximum PO2 of 1.3-1.4ata for bottom mix and 1.6 for decompression mixes to a maximum training depth of 200′.

This course will be conducted locally and in Presque Isle, MI

Prerequisites:

Rescue Diver
NAUI Technical Decompression/TDI Advanced Nitrox/Decompression Procedures Diver or equivalent
100+ logged dives

Availability:

This course is available privately for individuals or groups available locally or wherever you are located.

Training Agency:

TDI

NAUI Technical

Additional Details:

Our NAUI Trimix Diver Course is for technical divers wishing to dive to a deeper depth taking advantage of the benefits of a true Trimix diluting the partial pressure of Nitrogen (reducing Narcosis) and in deeper diving dilluting the PPO2 to avoid CNS O2 Toxicity.

This course covers topics such as Helium, Oxygen, Nitrogen for breathing gasses. Argon, CO2, Carbon Monoxide, advanced physiology, physics and chemistry of diving (kinetic energy, specific heat capacity, tissue solubility and more), dive planning, table model comparisons, Isobaric Counterdiffusion and variations of trimixes are just a few of the many topics to be discussed. To enroll in either Trimix course, you must be certified as a diver with Advanced Nitrox, Decompression Techniques, Helitrox, Heliair.

The Trimix Diver Course consists of two levels. These courses will give you the skills and knowledge needed to minimize the risks of utilizing helium-based Trimix breathing gas mixes for dives to a maximum depth of 200′ (TDI) or 240′ (NAUI) requiring staged decompression and utilizing EANx mixtures and/or oxygen during decompression. This Team driven program offers some of the most challenging skills found in technical diving and test the diver more than any previous course to date in the students technical diving path. Upon Successful Completion of the course you will be able to plan and execute technical dives that require staged decompression and utilize helium-based trimix breathing gas mixtures and EANx and/or oxygen for staged decompression to depths within normoxic trimix ranges.

When the Diver gets to the Trimix level they are the most experienced technical divers. Extensive experience in double tanks is needed prior to enrolling in this course. We expect a minimum of 100 dives, 25 of which should have required mandatory decompression. Trimix Divers wishing to upgrade their skill sets, depth rating, knowledge and procedures will move into our Trimix Level II course.

Course does not cover cost of dive charters, gas fills, lodging or food.

Cost:  1 person $1500+HST.  2 $1200+HST.  3-4 $999+HST

DDS NAUI Intro to Tech Divers exploring the R.H. Rae off Picton in Lake Ontario

NAUI Intro to Tech Course

NAUI Intro to Tech Course

The Naui Intro to Tech Course is a game changer, changing the way recreational divers think about their diving skills and offers the ultimate challenge along with a window into their diving future, we begin unlocking doors to the right skills, the right information, the right techniques, the right knowledge and the right equipment configuration.

Our NAUI Intro To Tech Course presents new challenges for Recreational Divers, while taking a fundamental diving approach to buoyancy, trim, team diving, above and below the surface through above land problem solving and underwater scenarios that require sound solution thinking and finesse, while refining and mastering the rudimentary skills that most Divers tend to lack at the Recreational (and some Technical Agencies) diving level.

Many divers consider our NAUI Intro to Tech Course the turning point in their diving career because it opens divers up to the more exciting challenges ahead like Technical Diving, Wreck Penetration, Trimix, Cave Diving, Technical Sidemount, Ice Diving and Expedition Diving for future dive explorers.

Every aspect of technical diving is introduced in this course, so it offers a window to their diving future laying out a crystal clear path to ultimate perfection.

Our NAUI Intro to Tech Course is available to recreational divers in a single tank with H-valve configuration or for those divers wishing to move into Tech Diving with back mounted Doubles.

Sidemount Option: Available to those with a physical limitation that prohibits use of doubles (a poor fitting drysuit is not a real reason).  A Sidemount Team would be required, as no mixed teams are permitted. Can be combined with NAUI Tec Sidemount Diver.

Our program will help you develop better buoyancy, fin techniques, propulsion methods, all the while Improving Trim, Breaking BAD Habits, Diver Communication, Problem Solving abilities, Risk Management, Dive team Planning, Dive Equipment Streamlining, Horizontal Out of air sharing and more in backmounted doubles.

This course is available privately for individuals or groups locally or wherever you are located.

We are happy to offer this course locally or anywhere else in Canada.  DDS is a mobile shop with the ability to teach anywhere you need us.

This Program has become one of the scuba worlds Most Popular Courses for good reason. We feel Intro to Tech is the BEST Diving course on the market today, designed to challenge the diver with new skills, techniques and awareness. Step up to the plate and challenge yourself to be the best diver you can be.

Pre-requisites

For divers of all skill levels
Must be 18 or Older
Open Water Diver or equivalent
Minimum of 25 logged dives
5 dives on EANx
400 Meter Swim
50′ Underwater Breathold with Gear
NTEC Doubles Primer Completion with DDS Mentorship Endorsement

Training Agency

NAUI TEC

Additional Information:

Our Naui Intro to Tech program offers the candidate a Fundamental approach to refining and mastering the rudimentary skills such as Buoyancy, Fin Technique/Propulsion Methods, Improving Diver Trim, Breaking BAD Habits, Diver Communication, Problem Solving abilities, Risk Management, Dive team Planning and Team Communications, Dive Equipment Streamlining, Rescue Techniques, Horizontal Ascents/Descents, Valve Manipulation drills, Air Sharing and more.

The Naui Intro to Tech program also offers divers a look deeper into diving science, physics, physiology and decompression theory using zero calculation tables, the 120 Rule and NAUI RGBM and other decompression models.

Divers will be introduced to a safer, more versatile and more user friendly/beneficial equipment configuration (NTEC) allowing divers take advantage of the benefits of diving with a long hose (5-7ft), a streamlined back flotation buoyancy system which is the heart of the system, a reel and lift bag for mid-water ascents and drifting decompression stops, proper light requirements and more.

All gear is designed to be streamlined using a Hogarthian approach revolving around the KISS principal to give divers the freedom to improve their skills. Keep It Simple and Streamlined.

This course is conducted only over a period of 4 days making it a rather intensive program. Students must understand that these skills might not be able to be mastered without practice outside of the Naui Intro to Tech program.

All training dives are filmed so divers can see themselves in the water and see the learning curve from pool to open water training sessions. Dives are conducted in shallow water which affords us maximum bottom time for skill development.

This course is intended for divers of any skill level from Open Water Diver to Open Water Instructor and will benefit all who take it, especially divers wishing to progress into more serious aspects of diving requiring this type of discipline, comfort and finesse in the water.

Graduates of this program will also be able to enroll in more advanced programs with the skills and confidence to succeed in those programs including technical diving courses like Technical Decompression Diver, Helitrox, Trimix, not to mention it goes hand in hand with Cavern, Wreck Penetration and our Cave diving courses, which will build on the foundation started with Intro to Tech.

We believe NAUI offers the best scuba diving course progressions offering a little bit more than your other agencies with regards to more theory, more diving and higher standards, while our instructional staff are the countries leading Technical Diving educators and active Explorers.

If  you want a challenging course that will test your skills, knowledge and abilities, NAUI Intro to Tech is the course for you.

Cost:

$650+HST/ea (minimum of 3 students) includes materials and certification fees.

$800+HST/ea (2 students)

$1200+HST Private

Private instruction out of town may bear other additional expenses for travel, meals, fills, etc.

If you’re interested in this program a wealth of information to share.  Start changing your diving habits for the better today with Dan’s Dive Shop and our exceptional progressive dive training.

FREE Divers Alert Network Student Member Insurance

Start changing your diving habits for the better today with Dan’s Dive Shop and our exceptional progressive dive training.

For more information on our training check out our Blog.  Here’s a great starting point: Challenges Will Reward Your Longterm Goals

If you can’t make a local class in Niagara, we can present this program to you anywhere else you may be in Canada or other graphic regions. We routinely offer this program in Georgian Bay, Humber and other locations around Ontario and we’ve taught this course in other province and countries, so ask us and we’ll set something up for you and your group.

padi-sidemount-diver-course

PADI Sidemount Diver Course

PADI Sidemount Diver Course Recreational

The PADI Sidemount Diver Course introduces recreational divers to Sidemount Diving  and the basic gear configuration, foundational skills and techniques utilized by more progressive sidemount divers.

Sidemount was once thought to be only for the advanced cave diver, but now open water divers are experiencing this wonderful style of diving, which adds redundancy, simplicity and a more streamlined diver profile.

Our Sidemount configuration is more modern, more streamlined and better laid out.  Many of the leading brands of equipment have endorsed our Sidemount configuration.

Learn about the development, configuration and techniques needed to safely dive sidemount as a stand alone workshop or as part of a specialty diver course.

Sidemount Courses are available weekdays with notice or on scheduled weekends.  This course is available privately for individuals or groups locally or wherever you are located.

Recreational Sidemount Pre-requisites

Open Water Student (PADI)

NAUI Technical Sidemount Course Pre-requisites

Open Water
25 dives minimum
Intro to Tech certification
Training Agency

PADI
NAUI

Diving Sidemount was once thought to be only for the advanced cave diver, but now open water divers are experiencing this wonderful style of diving, which adds redundancy, simplicity and a more streamlined diver profile in the water.

DDS staff have been exploring caves and wrecks for years long before Sidemount was the newest coolest way to dive, as it is one of the best tools an explorer can use when diving a range of different environments.

Learn about the development, configuration and techniques needed to safely dive sidemount as an open water diver.

We use the Halcyon Zero Gravity and Contour systems as our main sidemount systems, as well as Dive Rite and xDeep systems, but we have experience using Armadillo, Hollis SMS100, SMS50, Katana II, Razor and have worked on various other configurations.

What You will learn:

The history of sidemount diving
Reasons and opportunities for sidemount diving
Equipment considerations and rigging for sidemount diving
How to manage equipment problems
Skill refinement including buoyancy, trim, weighting, fin techniques, gas management, air sharing, emergency procedures, SMB deployment and more.

You will complete 1 academic session, gear rigging session, confined water pool session and 2 dives TDI/SDI, 3 dives PADI, 4 dives NAUI.

Cost:

Recreational Sidemount Course is only $350 +HST Does not include any park or dive charter fees. Students can save $50 when purchasing your entire Sidemount kit from DDS (Harness, Regulator packages, Tanks).

We love sidemount diving and have been hosting sidemount workshops and educational experiences since 2007.

Students from dive stores, clubs and individuals located out of town can benefit from this course as we can come to you or you can do the course on site with us.

Divers are required to have a complete STEC (Sidemount Technical Equipment Configuration) a standardized sidemount configuration promoting the same principles as our backmounted gear configuration NTEC (NAUI Technical Equipment Configuration).

Learn to Sidemount Dive better, more streamlined and get ready for more fun shore diving, cave diving and explorations.