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In response to a posting by William E Sadler.... -- Bill... you asked a few questions...I will try my best to answer what I can...First, TDI as an off-shoot of IANTD... About a year ago, Brett Gilliam, Mitch Skaggs and a bunch of other IANTD folks decided their philosphical differences with IANTD warranted a move, so they made it and formed TDI. (I am being diplomatic here, bear with me.) TDIUs focus is to streamline technical and extended range dive instruction by presenting a simplified training program, and then making it affordable and accessible. The best example I can cite is the Nitrox program. Basic is training to use NOAA I & II, simple stuff perfect for recreational divers to plug into, not a great deal of physics, all over in a four hour course, $150 to $175 Canadian, prerequisites, 10 logged dives and certification from a recognised sport scuba agency. From there, students have a couple of options if they want to <advance>. They can take advanced nitrox, which trains them in the <benefits, hazards and proper proceedures for utilizing EAN21 through 100 per cent O2 for dives not requiring decompression.> This is designed to keep trainees within <sport time and depth limits> but to introduce them to the full benefits of Nitrox, without making them commit to deco and all that that may mean. Or, if they want to get into deco and stages and more stinky stuff, they can go on to the Extended Range (technical diver) program. Actual course objectives in brief are <to train recreational divers in the proper techniques, equipment requirements, and hazards of deep air diving to a maximum of 220 fsw and utilizing nitrox mixtures or oxygen to accelerate staged decompression. > Prerequisites are 100 logged dives and certification as a nitrox diver (TDI or equivalent). As far as acceptance of your certification, I see no problems at all if you want to go onto extended range training with TDI. Just where you come in the scale of things depends on the type of diving you do (log book and talking to the instructor) rather than the brand of plastic you carry...rereading your message, I guess the bottom line is this...if you walk into a TDI fill station and ask for a 30% mix in your back tanks and an 80% in your deco bottle, will they oblige? CanUt say, IUve seen guys pull out a NSS-CDS full-cave card on a Caribbean dive charter only to be told <Hey, whatUs this, havenUt you got a PADI open water card or something like that?>...But as far as getting into TDIUs program and getting some credit for your current experience and training...E-mail me directly and I will find an instructor in your area... Take care, dive safe, come up smiling... Steve A Candian TDI instructor ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Internet: steve.lewis@pr*.or* (Steve Lewis) This message lovingly processed in beautiful Muskoka, Ontario, Canada by: PrimeTime BBS - (705)689-1757 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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