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I didn't see Jason's original posting on this subject but if there are any resrictions on diving here then I havn't experienced it yet. The small group of divers that I am involved with completed over 250 "technical dives" in 1995 up and down the NSW east coast of Australia and Solomon Islands (I know it is a small number but there are only 5 of us!). By technical dives I mean dives involving the use of mixed gas in some form (Trimix and/or Nitrox) and ranging in depth from 45m to 90m. The dives were completed with 7 or 8 different commercial charter operators and we have had no problems finding operators who will cater to our requirements. I think people get confused on this issue. We have found that most operators will take us to the sites we want provided they are satisfied that we know what we are doing and that they can fit our dive into their schedule.(and we are willing to pay!) There are no commercial charter operators providing a dedicated tech diving service anywhere in Australia and many operators have very little experience with this type of diving. With this in mind we have always taken some fairly simple steps to ensure that there is a complete understanding of what the dive will entail and most importantly - the time frame involved. Some operators are not interested in dealing with Tech divers - That's their problem! Some operators have asked us to limit bottom time (read - total charter time) - fair enough! Some operators would not take us where we wanted until they had seen us dive on some "easier" sites (They have no faith in C-Cards Hmmmmmm wonder why??) - Also fair enough! Having established some common ground rules with the operators we have dealt with and then having made the effort to stick to them, we now have no problems getting the charters we want. This of course only covers our experience to date in NSW. Other States may be a different problem but judging from discussions we have underway with a couple of operators in Victoria, I think 96 will be even better than 95 !! Happy & safe diving to all in 96 Chris Vautin (cvautin @ Oz-Email)
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