DIR FUNDAMENTALS

• 1. Must meet GUE General Course Prerequisites as outlined in Section 1.6 (cf., GUE's Standards and Procedures)
• 2. Must be a minimum age of 16 years of age
• 3. Must be a certified open water diver from a recognized training agency
• 4. Must be able to swim a distance of at least 50 feet/15 meters on a breath hold

5. Must be able to swim at least 300 yards/275 meters in less than 14 minutes without stopping. This test should be conducted in a swimsuit and, where necessary, appropriate thermal protection

Course Content
The DIR Fundamentals course is normally conducted over a 2 to 3-day period. Combining lecture and practical (in-water) sessions, this course focuses on cultivating the foundational skills required by all diving practice. It is focused on increasing diving fun by reducing stress and increasing diver proficiency through proper control of buoyancy, trim, propulsion, teamwork, and other DIR principles. Course requirements include a minimum of eight (8) hours of academics and four (4) open water dives.

TOP

TECH DIVER 1

Purpose
The Technical Diver Level 1 (Tech 1) course is structured to prepare divers for the rigors of technical diving and to familiarize them with the use of different breathing and decompression mixtures. Tech 1 training focuses on expanding the fundamental skills learned in the DIR Fundamentals course (or elsewhere), and is designed to cultivate, integrate, and expand the essential skills required for safe technical diving. This will include problem identification and resolution, and building the capacity for progressively more challenging diving. In this class, students will be trained in:

a) the use of double tanks/cylinders and in the potential failure problems associated with them;

• b) the use of Nitrox for accelerated and general decompression strategies;
• c) the use of Helium to minimize narcosis;
• d) the applications of single decompression stage diving with respect to decompression procedures.
  The class will focus on enriched air and TriOx (Helium enriched gas), as flexible and beneficial breathing gases for dives in the 40 foot/12 meter to 150 foot/45 meter depth range, and provides an excellent foundation on which divers can build their technical diving experience and prepare for GUE's Technical Diver 2 course (Tech 2).

  Prerequisites

• 1. Must meet GUE General Course Prerequisites as outlined in Section 1.6
• 2. Must be a minimum of 18 years of age
• 3. Must be GUE DIR Fundamentals qualified
• 4. Must have a minimum of 100 dives beyond open water qualification
• 5. Must be able to swim a distance of at least 50 feet/15 meters on a breath hold
• 6. Must be able to swim at least 300 yards/275 meters in less than 12 minutes without stopping. This test should be conducted in a swimsuit and, where necessary, appropriate thermal protection.

  Course Content
  The GUE Tech 1 course is normally conducted over a 5-day period, and cumulatively involves a minimum of forty (40) hours of instruction designed to provide a working knowledge of enriched air diving, normoxic and hyperoxic Trimix and decompression mixtures, including history, physics, physiology, tables, and operational considerations. Course requirements include ten (10) hours of academics and eight (8) dives, six (6) of which will be critical skill dives and two (2) will be experience dives. Initial dives will be conducted in shallow water to test diver ability and to fill in any deficits in skill levels. The last two (2) dives are to be Trimix dives at depth for experience.

  TOP

  TECH DIVER 2
  Prerequisites

• 1. Must meet GUE General Course Prerequisites as outlined in Section 1.6
• 2. Must be a minimum of 21 years of age
• 3. Must have a minimum of 200 logged dives, with at least fifty (50) dives on double tanks/cylinders; twenty-five (25) of these should have utilized a single stage
• 4. Must be able to swim a distance of at least 60 feet/18 meters on a breath hold
• 5. Must be GUE DIR Fundamentals and GUE Tech 1 qualified
• 6. Must have a minimum of twenty-five (25) dives beyond Technical Diver Level 1 qualification
• 7. Must be able to swim at least 400 yards/365 meters in less than 12 minutes without stopping. This test should be conducted in a swimsuit and, where necessary, appropriate thermal protection.

  Course Content
  The GUE Tech 2 course is normally conducted over a 5-day period, and cumulatively involves a minimum of forty (40) hours of instruction, designed to instil in divers a working knowledge of extended range diving; including physiology, tables and logistics. Special emphasis is placed on extended exposures and on their associated considerations (gas consumption, DCS, Oxygen toxicity, and thermal concerns). Course requirements include a minimum of six (6) hours of academics, and eight (8) dives, four (4) of which will be critical skill dives and four (4) will be experience dives. Four (4) dives must utilize Helium.

Purpose
The GUE Technical Diver 2 (Tech 2) course is the second in aseries of three courses designed to develop technical diving excellence, building upon previously learned skills with a focus on extending essential technical diving skills. Tech 2 training focuses on building diving proficiency at increasing depth to 240 feet/70 meters using Helium diving gases with Oxygen enriched decompression gases. These skills include: the use of multiple stages, the use of Trimix, the use of greater percentages of Helium, gas management, Oxygen management, decompression, accelerated, omitted and general decompression strategies, dive planning, and technical equipment configurations. Course participants will gain experience working with a variety of different gas mixtures for use as bottom mix and multiple decompression gases. This course culminates in a true understanding of "best gas" selection in the 100 foot/30 meter to 250 foot/75 meter range.