It's a tricky question, and you might get a lot of different answers. Tec divers will tell you that is really is about the challenge of exploring places that no one else has ever seen, as a team; or that it's about diving deeper, longer, with more complex planning, in more difficult environments.

One other, simple way of looking at it is to say that diving beyond the usual recreational limits brings you into the realm of technical diving. Those limits might, among other things, be defined in terms of:
‣ Depth: deeper than 40 m.
‣ Time: beyond the No Decompression Limit
‣ Penetration: more than 40 m. total linear penetration in overhead environment
‣ Gas: more than 40% Nitrox and/or use of Trimix (helium)
‣ Special technical gear: 2 or more tanks, sidemount configuration, etc.

However, simply exceeding recreational limits without following proper procedures and undergoing proper training is not Tec diving: it's just being plain silly.

Technical diving is not for everyone. The PADI Deep Diver manual has a good statement about it: "In technical diving, even if you do everything right, there is still a higher inherent potential for an accident leading to permanent injury and death." A lot of experienced divers enjoy decades of recreational diving without ever going into technical diving, and there is enough to learn and experience without going tec.

But if you decide to go for it, and are willing to bring the necessary skills, fitness, work, investment and commitment, we'll be very happy to provide you the best training, sharing knowledge and experience, and introducing you to a new and challenging world.

Absolutely. We're based in the Pondicherry region, in the South-East of India, but we can organize a Tec diving course anywhere you would like us to teach. Logistics, costs and fees will of course vary according to the location and available infrastructure, but we're very happy to discuss your needs in details, in order to design a tailor-made quote.

Definitely. We've been pioneering new dive sites in South India for years now, and will be happy to help you organize the logistics and explore new dive sites in your area.

Equipment is not included in the courses, as Tec Divers should have their personal equipment, which should be adapted to their morphology and to the objectives of each tec dive. Tec 40, 45 and 50 courses can be done using either Sidemount or Twin sets. Missing equipment can be rented from us, or we can advise you with the purchase of the perfect Tec diving gear, depending on your personal Tec diving goals and experience.

Yes, you can! There are numerous different agencies in the world, and every case is different. We'll be happy to sit down with you and design a tailor-made training program based on your certifications - but following list gives you an idea of the equivalent certifications to some of of the pre-requisites for PADI TecRec courses.

‣ AOW:
Proof of training beyond entry level with experience in deep diving and underwater navigation.

‣ NITROX:
Proof of training in enriched air nitrox diving with training that includes gas analysis, cylinder labeling, oxygen toxicity, oxygen exposure, determining maximum depth limits, and planning enriched air dives with different enriched air blends (not just EANx32 and EANx36).

‣ RESCUE:
Proof of training in diver rescue. Students who meet this prerequisite through a qualifying certification must provide proof of training in CPR and First Aid within the previous two years.

‣ TEC 40:
A technical certification that qualifies the student to make limited decompression dives to 40 metres/130 feet using air and EANx using open circuit scuba equipment.

‣ TEC 45:
A technical certification is one that qualifies the student to make decompression dives to 45 metres/145 feet using air, EANx and oxygen using open circuit, double cylinder scuba equipment.

‣ TEC DEEP (TEC 50):
For the Trimix course, students who qualify through a qualifying certification other than DSAT Tec Deep Diver must read the entire DSAT Tec Deep Diver Manual and complete the Knowledge Reviews prior to beginning the Tec Trimix Diver course. An assessment dive will also be required for students entering the Tec Trimix Diver course with a qualifying prerequisite certification from another train- ing organization. This assessment dive is also required for Tec Deep Diver certified students who have not made a technical decompression dive requiring a decompression cylinder to 40 metres/130 feet or deeper within the previous six months.

Technical Diving India is a project and a team specializing in technical diving, which is an advanced form of diving, requiring quite a bit of skills and experience.
If you are a beginner in the field of diving, you'll have to do several courses and a lot of dives before you can go for Technical Diving. However, we'll still be happy to advise you, and to help you book a course in recreational, non-technical diving.

‣ As a PADI Professional, being a Technical diver will open a whole new world of opportunities in the diving industry, allowing you to guide and/or train technical divers, as well as offer more knowledge and experience to your recreational students. It will open new markets for your dive centre and increase your employability as a PADI Professional.

‣ We are proud to be a member of the world-wide Dive-Careers' network. Dive-Careers' technical diving team will come to your Dive Centre to teach the entire range of PADI TecRec courses to you and your students, and can add Technical Diving modules to the IDC we organize at your Dive Centre. We will help you set up technical diving courses at your location, offering expertise and advice regarding gear, logistics and teaching related to Technical diving. If you are a freelance diving instructor, we can help you become a Technical Diving Instructor - if you are a PADI Dive Centre, we can help you become a TecRec Dive Centre.
Click here to access the Dive-Careers' website

Sidemount diving is a scuba diving technique based on an alternative gear configuration where 2 scuba cylinders are mounted alongside the diver, fixed between his shoulders and hips using a special harness, instead of on his back (the classical "backmount" configuration). While it was historically developed for cave diving in order to allow more advanced penetrations, sidemount diving is becoming increasingly popular in both non-technical and technical-diving, and offers numerous advantages, among which:

‣ Modularity: The tanks can easily be detached from the harness and staged on a line for complex decompression dives, difficult penetrations and/or to give to your buddy in some emergencies. They can also be swung to the front by unclipping the bottom clip in order to access particularly tight places in wrecks and/or caves. Furthermore, the same equipment can easily be used for different number of tanks, with 2 to 6 tanks being routinely used on a single harness.

‣ Streamlining: Having nothing on your back not only allows you to penetrate tight places, it also reduces entanglement hazard by removing the tanks for your back, where the valves can get caught in a line out of your field of vision. Your vertical profile is decreased, allowing smooth movements in the water even when carrying multiple tanks, and your entire system is constantly under your eyes, where you can control it.

‣ Redundancy: Not only do you have at least 2 tanks, but all your tanks are also 100% independent, with their own regulator. A failure in one breathing system therefore have no influence whatsoever in other cylinders, which results in increased safety.

‣ Sidemount:
Use sidemount equipment with 2 cylinders to plan and make no stop recreational sidemount dives

‣ Technical Sidemount:
Use sidemount equipment with up to 4 cylinders in the context of technical diving, to plan and make decompression, technical sidemount dives.

Important notices
‣ Sidemount certification is a mandatory pre-requisite if you want to do technical courses or technical dives using sidemount configuration.
‣ The Technical Sidemount certification is not mandatory for doing courses and dives on sidemount configuration, but strongly advised if you want to become a more proficient sidemount diver in the context of technical diving, as you'll learn and practice more techniques, with more tanks, under the supervision of an instructor.
‣ The Technical Sidemount certification contains all the skills of the Sidemount certification, plus a lot more - meaning that you don't need to do the Sidemount certification prior to doing the Technical Sidemount certification.
‣ If you already are sidemount-certified, you can upgrade to a Technical Diving certification in just 2 days, in order to gain new knowledge, technique and experience for your tec dives.

‣ Sidemount certification is a mandatory pre-requisite if you want to do technical courses or technical dives using sidemount configuration.

‣ All tec courses can also be done on backmount configuration using a twin set (2 tanks on your back, and decompression/travel gases clipped to your harness in front).

‣ We are personally big fans of sidemount configuration (especially for dives requiring less than 6 cylinders), as it offers, in our opinion, a modularity, a streamlining and a redundancy that is hard to achieve with backmount configuration in the context of tec diving, and opens up a lot of possibilities: wreck diving, cave diving, etc.

‣ Having said so, there is absolutely no issue if you prefer to do your courses and dives with us using twinsets on backmount. Personal preferences vary, and what matters, at the end of the day, is your ability to perform the necessary skills and follow the appropriate procedures using standardized gear that matches your needs and your morphology.

The standard PADI Nitrox course allows you to use Enriched Air mixes with up to 40% oxygen. Some other training agencies, like TDI, also offer an "Advanced Open Course" to train divers to use mixes with a higher percentage of oxygen (between 40 and 100%). PADI has included the Advanced Nitrox curriculum into the PADI Tec Deep courses: the Tec 40 course allows you to use Nitrox Enriched Air up to 50% oxygen, and the Tec 45 course allows you to use Nitrox Enriched Air up to 100% oxygen.

The PADI Tec Deep course is the name of the entire curriculum comprising the Tec 40, Tec 45 and Tec 50 courses. In other words, "Tec Deep" is an umbrella term for those 3 courses, and anyone who goes through the 3 courses will be considered a "Tec Deep Diver".

Tec 40 qualifies you to:
‣ 1. Dive to a maximum depth of 40 metres/130 feet using air or enriched air.
‣ 2. Make dives with up to 10 minutes required decompression.
‣ 3. Use enriched air nitrox with up to 50 percent oxygen (EANx50) during decompression to make it more conservative.
‣ 4. Conduct technical dives with up to 2 tanks.

The PADI Deep specialty only allowed you to dive down to 40 meters (point 1) - but did not include points 2, 3 or 4. The Tec 40 course contains a lot of additional knowledge, skills and dives, and constitutes the base of decompression diving - while the Deep Specialty was still limited to no-stop-diving.

The name of the Tec 40, Tec 45 and Tec 50 courses might be misleading: the main difference between them is not the depth. Technical diving requires patience, and experience has to be gained slowly to ensure safety and mastery of skills and procedures. Knowledge, skills and qualifications vary greatly between these 3 courses:

‣ Decompression: The Tec 40 course allows you up to 10 minutes required decompression, while the Tec 45 and Tec 50 do not have a time limit on decompression, which will be evaluated for each dive based on experience, needs, conditions and logistics.

‣ Decompression gas: The Tec 40 course allows you to use Nitrox Enriched air up to 50% oxygen as a deco gas, but only to add conservatism to the dive - in other words, you'll still run your dive profile as a singe gas dive, based on your bottom gas. The Tec 45 and Tec 50 courses allow you to use up to 100% oxygen as a deco gas to conduct accelerated decompression.

‣ Tanks: The Tec 40 course qualifies you to conduct decompression dives with up to 2 tanks, the Tec 45 course with 3 tanks, and the Tec 50 course with 4 tanks.

‣ The Tec Trimix 65 is the first level trimix course open to certified Tec 50/Tec Deep Divers. The DSAT Tec Trimix65 course introduces Tec 50 divers to the first stages of trimix diving to a maximum depth of 65 metres/210 feet. Certified Tec Trimix 65 divers are qualified to make multi-stop trimix decompression dives that employ EANx and oxygen for accelerated decompression, and Trimix with 18 % or more oxygen as bottom gas.

‣ The Tec Trimix 65 course does not qualify you to use Trimix with less than 18% oxygen, or to dive down to 90 meters, like a Full Trimix course would.

‣ The Tec Trimix 65 course is considered a subcourse within the Tec Trimix Diver course, but is not mandatory: Tec 50 divers can go straight to the Full Trimix course, which contains the Tec 65 course.

‣ The Tec Trimix 65 course is particularly interesting for divers who want to split their Trimix course in 2 courses for logistical or financial reasons, for instance if they want to get a Trimix certification quicker.

The standards for the course changed recently - the new standards allow us to go to a maximum depth of 90 meters / 300 feet during the Full Trimix course, instead of 75 meters.