Video Blog: Gold Rating

Comment

Comment by Andrew Georgitsis on October 30, 2009 at 1:38am

Guys

Thanks for all the great discussion about this stuff, some very interesting points of view for sure.I always appreciate a healthy debate. It show you care as much as we do about UTD.

I want to clarify some things, first of all keep in mind that UTD training progression is built on small building blocks, small steps. One of the things I realized was that sometimes the steps in-between classes was too big. Going from one deco bottle to three bottles, increasing depth 100'/30m and doubling the deco exposure was just too big a step for a lot of students. So, we have created a certification path that both employs an educational process of small steps (building blocks) and also recognizes experience in that diving range.

Thinking about of students and the possible training variables for each step. We can see that some students find it stressful if we add deco/stage bottles and some if we increase depth and some if we increase deco time or exposure/risk. Each person has their own values as to what stresses them and why they want from the class and/or certification. So, some people like me have never minded adding equipment, it does not both me, some may be freaked out by increasing depth and some may be freaked out by the increased "overhead" deco time. So, we want to be sure to add these variables slowly and only 1 or 2 at at time not all three at once. Often in the past the community has seen certification as increasing breathing gas ability and you and I know this is somewhat moot and silly. Gas is gas is gas and you don't need certification to breath it only to buy it. We are trying to change this perception and get students to see that certification is about increasing your depth, equipment requirements and deco (exposure/risk) not simply the gas you can buy. However some countries require that the gas requirements be on the card and some need the certification to get on certain boats boa and some countries they don't care about breathing gas only about the depth rating on the card. So, as a certification agency we must take all these things into consideration when building a training progression and issuing a c-card for proof of that training and/or experience.

So let's take a quick look at the classes:

Rec 1 NDL (Min Deco) - Depth 60'/18m
Rec 2 NDL (Min Deco)- Increase Depth 100'/30m
Rec 3 NDL (Min Deco)- Increase Depth 130'/39m

Tech 1 - Increase Deco Exposure & Increase Bottle - 1 Deco - No Depth Increase - 130'/39m
Tech 2 - Increase Bottle 1 Deco/1 Stage - Increase Depth 160'/48m - No increase in Deco Exposure
Technical Gold - 2 Deco Bottles - Same Deco Limits - Same Depth Limits
(In my blog I misspoke about range as depth, I was meaning your ability to do clean deco - Please forgive me, I shot these blog off the cuff they are not rehearsed or prewritten)

Trimix 1 - Increase Deco Exposure/Risk, Increase Depth - 200'/60m - No increase in Equipment
Trimix 2 - Increase Bottles 2 deco/ 1 stage, Increase Depth - 250'/75m - No increase Deco
Trimix Gold - Increase Depth 330'/100m+, Increase Deco Exposure/Risk

So as you can see these are nice small steps in which we slowly increase two of the three variables. Either Depth and Deco or Bottles and Deco or Depth and Deco. We try NOT to increase all three variables at the same time and therefore overwhelming the students.

Now, to address the Tech Gold and Trimix 1 class. I feel there is a good size step between the two. Even though a person is carrying two deco bottles and diving in the 160'/48m max range when they are Technical Gold, in the Trimix 1 class we focus on increasing the depth to 200'/60m and increasing the deco exposure/risk to 60min. This may seem a small step to some and a big step to others depending how you value depth increases and deco/exposures increases.

I certainly hope this clarifies some of the questions below, and most importantly Remember the Gold card also signifies that someone has taken the time to gain the much needed experience to solidif

Comment by Jeff Seckendorf on October 29, 2009 at 7:21pm

Chris,

The range increase is in Trimix Gold, where we are increasing training depth and effectively removing depth and bottle restrictions, leaving it to the judgment of the diver. There is no range increase in Tech Gold. It's the Tech 2 2-bottle endorsement, just with a new name.

Got to keep an eye on the big picture here. All of this is to help guide divers to get more experience, rather than go from class to class. So in this case, with the gold cards, we're just saying 'come out of Tech 2 and go dive.' As I said earlier, Tech Gold can go straight to Trimix 2 if it's appropriate. It may not be in the Pacific northwest, but it might be in the Red Sea. It's all about judgment.

Jeff

Comment by Richard on October 29, 2009 at 12:09pm

Both trimix courses are more about experience than some hidden secret to diving 2 or 3 etc bottles or gases. e.g. 15/55 really isn't anymore challenging to dive than 21/35, unless you have to work alot on the surface. I consider trimix1-2 "loosely structured mentoring" moreso than a class.

Some of my buddies need the cards to get on boats or buy gas. For me up here, I fill my own tanks and boat liability doesn't seem to be on anyone's radar. So we set our own limits based on what we are comfortable with and capable of.

Comment by Richard on October 29, 2009 at 11:33am

Tech2 + endorsement is still limited to 30mins of deco whereas trimix1 is more like 60mins deco (30mins each bottle). For some regions/waters, 200ft (trimix1) really is alot bigger dive than 150ft (tech2) - its not about which gases you get to use.

Depending on the site my area of WA/BC certainly gets exponentially more challenging as you go deeper - mostly because the deeper sites have increasing amounts of current. As always, if you build enough experience you don't need to follow any card/agency guidelines (there are very few scuba police). But you do run the risk of not knowing what you don't know.

Comment by Jeff Seckendorf on October 29, 2009 at 8:20am

Hey Chris,

Tech - same as Tech 2, but adds a second bottle for deco. No increase in depth or max deco time (still limited to 30 minutes of deco), doesn't change the bottom gas (21/35).

Trimix - Removes the 250'/75m depth restriction and continues work with multiple bottles (more than 3).

We've had this Tech rating for a while, the "Tech 2 2-bottle endorsement." All we've done is name it. For Trimix divers, it does expand range.

At the same time, this helps us define the training and experience progression for both Tech and Trimix divers, and offers a little recognition for experience. Although you and I tend to dive a lot, remember that there are many divers who will take a long time to reach the 25 experience dives required just to apply for the advanced Tech and Trimix training. So we wanted to add something to the training progression that recognizes experience.

I like this, especially for Tech, because it adds another small, incremental step in a diver's progression of training. A Tech 2 diver is welcome to do the new rating, or move directly to Trimix 1. A Technical Diver with the gold rating has the option of going straight to Trimix 2 if he or she wants a slightly bigger step. But any Tech diver who's been at it for a while doing experience dives may want the more intensive training of Trimix 1 over Tech Gold.

We're working to maintain the high quality of the training, while at the same time making it accessible for more people, and in some cases more flexible.

Jeff

Comment by Marc Blackwood on October 29, 2009 at 7:42am

not the same gases. Tech 2 =/= 18/45.