Purpose

GUE’s Technical Diver 2 (Tech 2) course is the second in a series 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, 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.

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 passed GUE Tech 1
4. Must have a minimum of 200 dives, with at least fifty dives on double tanks/cylinders; twenty-five of these should have utilized a single decompression cylinder
5. Must have a minimum of twenty-five dives beyond Technical Diver Level 1 qualification
6. Students participating in a Tech class conducted in a cave must be at least GUE Level 2 Cave divers

Duration

The Tech 2 class is normally conducted over a five-day period. It involves a minimum of forty hours of instruction, encompassing both classroom and in-water work.

Course Limits

1. General Training Limits as outlined in Section 1.4
2. Student to instructor ratio is not to exceed 3:1 during any in-water training
3. Maximum depth 240 feet (+/- 10 feet)/70 meters (+/- 3 meters)
4. Dives should not be planned to incur more than 60 minutes of Unadjusted Decompression
5. No overhead diving except by active GUE Cave 2 Level instructors while teaching in the cave environment

Course Content

The GUE Tech 2 course involves a minimum of forty hours of instruction, designed to instill 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 hours of academics, and eight dives, four of which will be critical-skill dives and four will be experience dives. Four dives must utilize Helium.

Required Training Materials

1. Doing it Right: The Fundamentals of Better Diving. Jarrod Jablonski, GUE, 2001, High Springs, Florida.
2. Getting Clear on the Basics: The Fundamentals of Technical Diving. Jarrod Jablonski, GUE, 2001, High Springs, Florida.

Academic Topics

1. GUE organization
2. Limits of training
3. Course completion requirements
4. Review of decompression, gas utilization and risk, diving physiology
5. Accelerated, omitted, and general decompression strategies
6. Dive logistics and planning

Land Drills & Topics

1. Spool, reel, and guideline use
2. Dive team order and protocols
3. Gas switching procedures and protocols
4. Bottom, stage, and decompression bottle use

Required Dive Skills & Drills

1. All skills and drills as outlined in General Diving Skills, Section 1.5.
2. Must be able to swim at least 500 yards/450 meters in under fourteen minutes without stopping. This test should be conducted in a swimsuit and, where necessary, appropriate thermal protection.
3. Must be able to swim a distance of at least 20 yards/18 meters on a breath hold
4. Review procedures for gas failures; including valve manipulation, gas-sharing, and regulator switching (as appropriate).
5. Effectively and comfortably demonstrate the ability to deploy a lift bag/surface marker buoy in less than two minutes while hovering stationary. Participants should not vary in depth more than 5 feet/1.5 meters.
6. Effectively and comfortably demonstrate the ability to deploy a lift bag/surface-marker buoy in under two minutes while hovering stationary. Participants should not vary in depth more than 5 feet/1.5 meters.
7. Demonstrate the clean and effective removal and exchange of multiple stages and decompression cylinders while hovering horizontally. The participant must be capable of removing and replacing each of at least two cylinders in under one minute, i.e. one minute per cylinder.
9. Equipment familiarization.
11. Gas-sharing scenarios, to include a prolonged gas-sharing event.
13. Demonstrate the effective deployment of a reserve light in under thirty seconds.
15. Demonstrate excellent buoyancy-control skills, including when conducting stage and decompression gas-switches.
17. Demonstrate effective valve management by switching regulators, shutting down a valve in under ten seconds and returning the valve to the open position again in under ten seconds.
19. Comfortably demonstrate at least three propulsion techniques that would be appropriate in delicate and/or silty environments; one of these kicks must include the backward kick
21. Demonstrate good buoyancy and trim, i.e. approximate reference maximum of 20 degrees off horizontal while remaining within 3 feet/1 meter of a target depth. Frequency of buoyancy variation and the divers control of their buoyancy and trim are important evaluation criteria.

Equipment Requirements

Each student should have, and be familiar with, all of the following required equipment.

1. Tanks/Cylinders: Students are required to use dual tanks/cylinders connected with a dual outlet isolator manifold, which allows for the use of two first-stages. All dives must start with a minimum of 80 cubic feet/2250 liters of gas. Also required are two decompression cylinders: one (1) greater than 30 cubic feet/850 liters for Nitrox and one (1) 30 cubic feet/850 liters, or greater, for an additional deco gas.
2. Regulators: Two first-stages, each supplying a single second-stage. One of the second-stages must be on a 7-foot/2-meter hose. One of the first-stages must supply a pressure gauge and provide inflation for a dry suit (where applicable). One first-stage regulator for shallow decompression gas and one first-stage regulator for travel/decompression gas; each one is to supply a single second-stage and a single pressure gauge.
3. Backplate System: A rigid and flat platform, of metal construction with minimal padding, held to a diver by one continuous piece of nylon webbing. This webbing should be adjustable through the plate and should use a buckle to secure the system at the waist. A crotch strap attached to the lower end of this platform and looped through the waistband would prevent the system from riding up a diver's back. A knife should be secured to the waist on the left webbing tab. This webbing should support five D-rings; the first should be placed at the left hip, the second should be placed in line with a diver's right collarbone, the third should be placed in line with the diver's left collarbone, the fourth and fifth should be affixed to the crotch strap to use while scootering or towing/stowing gear. The harness below the diver's arms should have small restrictive bands to allow for the placement of reserve light powered by three in-line c-cell batteries (where necessary). The system should retain a minimalist approach with no unnecessary components.
4. Buoyancy Compensation Device: A diver's buoyancy compensation device should be back-mounted and minimalist in nature. It should come free of extraneous strings, tabs, or other material. There should be no restrictive bands or "bungee" of any sort affixed to the buoyancy cell. In addition, diver lift should not exceed 80lbs. Wing size and shape should be appropriate to the cylinder size(s) employed for training.
5. At least one time/depth-measuring device
6. Decompression tables
7. Compass
8. Mask and fins: Mask should be low volume; fins should be rigid, non-split
9. At least one cutting device
10. Wet Notes
11. One spool with 100 feet/30 meters of line per diver
12. One primary reel per team, with a minimum of 300 feet/90 meters of line
13. One primary light: A primary light should be minimalist in design; its power source should consist of a rechargeable battery pack residing in a canister powering an external light head via a light cord. Primary lights should produce the equivalent output of 50 watt halogen/10 watt HID lighting or greater.
14. Two reserve lights: Reserve lights should be non-rechargeable in-line three c-cell battery lights with a minimum of protrusions and a single attachment at its rear. The light should be activated by twisting the front bezel towards the body, deactivated by turning it away from the body.
15. Exposure suit appropriate for the duration of exposure.
16. At least one surface marker buoy per diver.
17. One reserve mask
18. Diver’s breathing Helium mixtures and utilizing a dry suit must have a separate (from the back gas) dry suit inflation source, such as an argon/air cylinder. Divers may not inflate the dry suit from the back gas.

Note: Prior to the commencement of class, students should consult with a GUE representative to verify equipment requirements. Whether or not a piece of equipment fulfills GUE's equipment requirement remains at the discretion of GUE and its instructor representatives. Participants are responsible for providing all equipment or for making provisions to secure all necessary equipment before the start of the course. In general, it is better for the student to learn while using his or her own equipment. However, students should exercise caution before purchasing new equipment to avoid acquiring substandard equipment. Please contact a GUE representative prior to making any purchases. Information about recommended equipment can be obtained from the equipment considerations section of GUE's web site.