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What is Tec Diving?

Technical Diving allows you to extend your diving beyond recreational “no stop” limits. This allows you to plan longer dives at shallower depths, or to plan dives to more advanced depths and locations. Technical (tec) diving allows you to greatly expand your diving skills and knowledge and can provide you with experiences and exploration opportunities in places very few people will ever see:

Increased Range - Exploring deeper than 40 metres/130 feet
Increased Diving Environments - Diving in caves, shipwrecks or other special environments
Increased Skills - Using specialized gas mixtures and decompression procedures
Specialized Equipment - Using highly specialized equipment, like a closed or semi-closed circuit rebreather

Cave Diving, Rebreather Diving and More

Tec diving attracts experienced divers who want to go places other divers cannot. These types of divers usually enjoy a challenge and are willing to focus on technical diving demands. Tec divers are able to visit reefs and wrecks at depths well below the 40 metre/130 foot recreational limit. With specialized training, they can explore underwater caves and other places well beyond the reach of mainstream sport diving.

Start With Tec 40

Give Technical or Rebreather Diving a Try!

Are you curious about technical or recreational rebreather diving? Sign up for a Discover Tec or Discover Rebreather experience. A PADI TecRec Instructor will help you try out tec diving equipment or a rebreather in a pool (or pool-like environment) and show you some basic skills.

Discover Tec Try Rebreather

Continuing-Education

Tec 40

Consists of three knowledge development sections, three practical application sessions and four training dives. Designed for the diver transitioning from recreational diving to technical diving.

Continuing-Education

Tec 45

Part 2 of the PADI Tec Deep Diver program. Extend your depth limit to 45 metres/145 ft. Learn to plan & execute repetitive decompression dives using a single stage/decompression cylinder.

Continuing-Education

Tec 50

Part 3 of the full PADI Tec Deep Diver program. Develop competency & have the skills to dive to a max of 50 metres/165 ft. Learn how to extend & accelerate decompression stops using up to 2 gases.

Continuing-Education

Tec Sidemount

Wearing more than one tank has become increasingly popular for technical diving. With the Tec Sidemount Diver course you can apply what you learn to other TecRec courses.

Professional

Tec Sidemount Instructor

As a Tec Sidemount Instructor, you can teach the advantages of sidemount diving to tec divers or introduce scuba divers to tec diving with the Tec Sidemount Diver course.

Continuing-Education

Tec Trimix Diver

This course turns experienced tec divers into extreme divers. During this course, you'll make dives as deep as 90 metres/300 feet, use multigas trimix computers, & handle up to 4 stage/deco cylinders.

Continuing-Education

Tec Trimix 65

Extend your depth range the right way with a blend of helium, oxygen & nitrogen (trimix). The Tec Trimix 65 course introduces you to using trimix down to a maximum depth of 65 metres/210 feet.

Professional

Tec Trimix Instructor

As a Tec Trimix Instructor you can teach the full range of deep open-circuit tec diving courses, including Tec Trimix 65 and Tec Trimix Diver. It's a respected certification only a few achieve.

Continuing-Education

Tec Gas Blender

Being a gas blender is a key job at a busy PADI Dive Center or Resort. This course teaches you how to blend enriched air nitrox and helium-based gases using one or more blending methods.

Professional

Tec Trimix Instructor

As a Tec Trimix Instructor you can teach the full range of deep open-circuit tec diving courses, including Tec Trimix 65 and Tec Trimix Diver. It's a respected certification only a few achieve.

Continuing-Education

Discover Rebreather Program

Breathe without exhaling bubbles as a rebreather diver. You'll get longer no stop limits, learn to reuse the gas you exhale by recycling the good part and replenishing it for your next breath.

Continuing-Education

Advanced Rebreather Diver

Dive in silence and train to dive as deep as 40 metres/130 feet. Learn about scrubbers, oxygen consumption and bailout requirements including how to configure a bailout cylinder system.

Continuing-Education

Tec 40 CCR

The Tec 40 CCR course is your entry into the tec diving realm. Learn the details of proper setup, predive checks, dive planning, failure and problem management and teamwork for CCR diving.

Continuing-Education

Tec 60 CCR

The next step in becoming a tec CCR diver. Learn to complete multiple decompression stops, manage life-support problems, and dive with trimix/heliox as a diluent. It's a considerable challenge.

Continuing-Education

Tec 100 CCR

Significantly more challenging than the Tec 60 CCR Diver course. You'll learn to plan and make dives with hypoxic trimix/heliox using a Type T (technical) CCR to a max depth of 100 metres/330 feet.

Professional

Tec Instructor

The entry course into tec diving and your opportunity to join the PADI TecRec professional ranks. Certifications from other diver training organizations may apply - ask your Tec Instructor Trainer.

Professional

Tec 60 CCR Instructor

Build on your Tec 40 CCR course & become a Tec 60 CCR Instructor. Train tec divers to extend their CCR diving adventures down to 60 metres/200 feet & dive through multiple decompression stops.

Professional

Tec 100 CCR Instructor

Learn to guide divers through meticulous dive planning and execution of 100 metres/300 feet dives. Configure and use 4 different offboard bailout systems and practice different emergency scenarios.

Professional

Tec Deep Instructor

Tec Deep Instructors contribute to deep exploration by training the next generation of tec divers. Certifications from other diver training organizations may apply - ask your Tec Instructor Trainer.

Why PADI?

PADI TecRec courses set the bar for technical and rebreather diver training. These courses provide a strong foundation and result in divers who are both confident and competent. TecRec Courses will greatly expand your diving knowledge and skills, and PADI TecRec courses are designed to offer comprehensive and realistic training that is both robust and industry proven.

As a technical diver you will learn how to manage the risks associated with diving beyond the limits of recreational diving.

Rebreather Diving

Simply put - rebreathers help save and recycle your gas, which allows you to stay much longer underwater. Rebreathers are quiet, so you can get closer to wildlife, and they optimize the oxygen/nitrogen you're breathing. Taking advantage of these benefits requires special training in using these technologies, and each rebreather model has its own special requirements.

Although they are recreational diving courses, PADI’s Rebreather and Advanced Rebreather Diver courses fall under the TecRec umbrella because you learn to use closed circuit technology within recreational limits. The Tec CCR (closed circuit rebreather) Diver courses, on the other hand, train you in using CCRs in technical diving, with training available to 100 metres/330 feet.

Rebreather Diver Tec 40 CCR

Sidemount Diving

Wearing a scuba cylinder on your back works for most diver most of the time, but it's not always the best option. Some recreational and tec divers use sidemount, which repositions the cylinders along your sides under your arms. Sidemount has several advantages including easy cylinder donning and removal, a lower profile (often useful in activities like cave diving) and less need to wear tanks out of the water. Although it appears awkward, it is one of the most streamlined and comfortable ways to dive.

Try Sidemount

Teach technical diving by becoming a TecRec Instructor

There are many instructor ratings you can apply for to teach TecRec courses. These ratings have/require different applications and experience, please contact your PADI Regional Headquarters for more information. Read more below on specific courses a Tec instructor can teach.

Learn More

More Information

Tec diving and rebreather questions, answered

In most cases, recreational scuba masks, wet suits, dry suits and fins can often be used for tec diving. However, tec diving is its own activity with its own requirements, so for open circuit tec diving you'll usually need two new dive computers that can accommodate mixed gases and staged decompression, more regulators and a tec BCD. For closed circuit diving you'll need a rebreather, which usually has its own BCD and integrated computers. If you like scuba equipment, you’ll love tec diving!

Going deeper and staying underwater longer does increase risk – the potential to be seriously injured is higher. Understandably, this is why technical diving isn’t for everyone. However, with proper training, you learn to manage and reduce these associated risks to a level most people consider reasonable. But, the risk is nonetheless higher than in mainstream recreational diving.

Visit PADI’s dive shop locator and set the Filter to TecRec Centers, or simply click on this link to start your search.

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