Introduction & Background

After being in quiet development for several years, the long awaited technical diving training program developed by InDepth Training Inc was revealed to the public for the first time at the Asia Dive Exhibition (ADEX) held in Bangkok in April 2007.

The first major revision to Technical Diving training in many years, InDepth Training’s new, modular and flexible approach represents a response to the many voices of instructors and divers alike who have been calling out for a training system which reflects the way state of the art advanced diving is being done in the present day, rather than how it was developed decades ago. Diving knowledge, equipment, gases, dive sites and techniques have evolved immensely since their humble beginnings. But in the last several decades, there has been little or no effort to update materials, training and diving techniques into an effective, integrated and flexible modern methodology covering all facets of advanced diving, until now.

ADT Training is focused on building confident, competent and safe divers through clear, simple and concise instruction with rigorous in water training and highly refined real world applicable diving skills that are up-to-date, make sense and are stripped of nonsense.

Problems with traditional training

The main problems with traditional training and the progress of advanced diving as a sport has been that technical diving is widely seen as “scary”, weird and difficult – in short, it has a very narrow appeal. It just hasn’t made enough sense and been seen as thorough, safe and professional enough. A few of the reasons for this include:

• Students from sport diving are coming into advanced “tech” programs with severe lack of basic skills, causing discomfort and safety problems.
• Initial training has been too difficult, leading to high scare-off factors and low diver retention. Conversely, later training is sometimes too lax and undeveloped, leading to the possibility of unsafe and incomplete divers as well as lower training retention.
• Lack of standardization of methodology, skills and procedures – even within the agencies!
• Outdated content, low quality materials - the internet has consistently been a better source than the course manuals. In fact, the internet communities have been light years ahead of the agencies for more than a decade!
• Manuals and courses are still utilizing outdated (and possibly dangerous) dive tables that might not fit the purpose or objective. When the course was written, perhaps they were the only tables available, but hopefully no one is actually really diving these anymore.
• Incomplete standards, poor materials and lack of standardization has left most diving instructors stranded, left to fend for themselves and feeling that they must “invent” their own updates to course obsolete content. While this has maybe worked ok for some good instructors, it leads to inconsistencies and problems due to a lack of standardization at all levels …. and a not a few disastrous accidents.
• Divers, and their instructors, have simply not been properly prepared, skills- and knowledge-wise, for the rigors of advanced diving, with resulting problems as well as in an unprofessional image and a bad reputation for the entire industry.

It is abundantly clear that the traditional training available on today’s market at both sport and technical levels does not always give divers the tools to become comfortable and confident divers, resulting in low diver retention and sub-optimal experiences for everyone involved in the industry. It is well recognized that less than 10% of Open Water students will progress to higher levels of training, and similar numbers are true for the initial technical diving course for most agencies.

InDepth’s ADT Program recognizes that divers at the advanced level tend to dive to objectives, which vary widely and differ by location, target, and individual diver/dive team. As such, we have developed a structured training curriculum which allows us to track the introduction and reinforcement of skills and knowledge throughout the training progression. In this way, divers in the icy regions of the extreme north and south can be trained using the same course standards as divers in temperate or even tropical equatorial environments, while still retaining relevancy and training integrity. We have done this by focusing on the skills and knowledge needed to attain project objectives, as opposed to the older methods which tend to treat diving skills as commodities in nature, and train all divers in skill areas which may be neither relevant to the objective nor desired by the student.

A few of the methods we utilize to ensure this:

• Everything is designed around a Modular Building Block Method.
• Comprehensive but flexible standards and course progression.
• Extensive work with FEEDBACK from the field – we are interested in what is happening!
• We have a peer review & active training panel larger than any but the largest agency.
• We look for synergy effects everywhere, keeping it simple and same – which minimizes retraining.
• Although knowledge is important, we recognize that divers are made in the water, not in the classroom.
• InDepth Training’s philosophy is to always be there FOR the instructors, helping them do the best job possible.
• Our instructor incentive’s program will ensure we retain happy, up-to-date and active instructors
• Conversely, inactive instructors will need review by an Instructor Trainer if they wish to renew after two years of inadequate activity.
• We work hard and make every effort to keep the quality level of our instructors high, because we know it will benefit us all more in the long run.

And here are some examples from our training standards and course methodology:

• All courses have prerequisite experience dives.
• Instructor to Student ratios are based on environment AND instructor experience.
• General Equipment requirements and guidelines more comprehensive and well-defined.
• Minimized chart and formula clutter – we teach understanding of diving, not chart reading.
• All formulas and calculations are taught with depth in ATA, it’s simpler, safer and easier: depth is pressure not distance.
• We work heavily with memorization techniques and shortcuts (field calculations) including decompression on the fly and various re-calculations underwater when necessary.
• Procedures and planning designed to minimize or eliminate CNS concerns.
• Decompression and overhead procedures reworked and standardized to simplify bail-out, lost gas, missed decompression etc.
• Training Tables: We only use modern well established algorithms including deep stops, mixed gas and accelerated decompression. We recommend all dives planned as repetitive dives, not as initial dives as it simplifies a lot of things and improves safety (bubble model physics allows us to do this smoothly: crushing of gas nuclei and the benefits of accelerated decompression inert gas washout effects).

All courses are designed to be challenging, individually adapted, interesting and fun experiences that facilitate effective learning, maximize safety and solidly prepare you for real world diving and meeting your true potential, enabling you to do advanced diving at a level only dreamt about before.

Skills I - Entering the ADT program

The commencement point of the ADT course progression is the Skills I course, which is a Diving Foundations Course. This course defines what InDepth’s Advanced Diving Technique concept is all about in terms of:

• Basic methodology and philosophy
• Equipment
• Preparation
• Buoyancy, Balance & Trim (BBT)
• Propulsion techniques
• Basic skills
• Training drills
• Emergency drills (gas sharing, etc)
• Team procedures
• Effective active and passive communication
• Situational awareness
• An introduction to the ADT Thinking Diver Concept

What is learned in this course will lay the foundation for going into any of the other programs, and therefore, all students will enter the ADT program through this course first. Out of necessity, to comply with and appreciably retain higher levels of ADT training, most crossover students will also have to go through the Skills I course before being able to take the next suitable step in the progression.

A few specific advantages gained by lowering the traditionally very high threshold of technical diving and making Skills I a much more unintimidating first step for prospective students with lowered cost and simpler logistics, especially for season- and city-based operations are:

• Skills I is all about just that, “skills”. It can all be done in the shallows – even in a pool, if large enough. Although it really is designed for and intended as a preparation course for “hard-core” technical diving, many divers not immediately interested in further ADT courses (such as cave, wreck or tech) can appreciate and enjoy the quality of the basic diving skills training – just to improve themselves at their own level of diving. In fact, the techniques learnt can be invaluable for sport divers interested in photography, videography and diving in delicate environments such as on coral reefs and over silty bottoms.

• Although Skills I is primarily for the twinset diving style, there are provisions to enable instructors to teach the course with single tank configurations (only requiring minor alterations). It has also been made a prerequisite certification for all InDepth sport diving instructors and largely integrated into the instructor development program.

Some will equate this course to the offering of one the newer and more modern dive training agencies with regards to diving and superficial skills content, but training goals and focus as well as materials, standards, underlying philosophy and methodology differs significantly.

The next step – Many options to choose!

After Skills I, divers can choose between the Cave, Wreck or Tech (Deeper Diving) tracks as you can see by following the solid arrows on the course flow chart. Trimix and Rebreather tracks mandatorily require Tech I as that has the extensive foundations of Nitrox, physics and decompression theory and practice.

The segregation of environments, techniques and skills of the different paths in the progression gives instructors and students much more flexibility in their training based on environment, individual needs and style of diving. Course sizes are roughly equivalent across the board, making them easier to digest as well as manage logistically and time-wise.

The most common path: Tech I

The Tech I course is a foundations course of decompression diving and incorporates what is commonly known as Nitrox, Advanced Nitrox, Decompression Procedures etc… and takes it to the next level, ADT style! Like all our courses, it expands on ADT concept and the foundation of skills and techniques learned in Skills I. There are several new and innovative concepts in the learning process as well as in the execution of dives. The signature methodology Ascent Training allows students to become supremely confident in the proper decompression ascent procedures before the real diving even starts, improving the learning curve, saving valuable time and vastly increasing student safety, comfort and fun.

As Nitrox sport diving courses have been diluted to what they are meant for – sport diving, and the theory base is subtly different and needs to be reinforced anyhow there is no prerequisite of a Nitrox certification before going into this course, although theory portion will seem heavier to the students without the previous experience.

Trimix in the ADT concept

Trimix I is the next logical step from Tech I for divers wanting to go deeper or become more proficient at intermediate depths. Unlike many other offerings out there, ADT actually focuses on what trimix does best; reducing narcosis on deeper, longer and/or more complex dives. The course is done in the comprehensive no-nonsense ADT style, based on skills and techniques learned in Skills I and Tech I, with two decompression gases and comprehensive (compared to other agencies) trimix theory.

There is no doubt that trimix as a breathing gas has immense advantages for the discerning diver in terms of narcosis reduction, breathing resistance and decompression benefits on intermediate and longer dives. However, there are also potential drawbacks (not always fulfilled). Lately, trimix has become increasingly popular within the technical diving community, and due to largely irresponsible and over-zealous positive marketing hype, it has been excessively used even on dives where it has perhaps not been needed – and by divers who might not be fully aware of its potential risks. Trimix shouldn’t be used as a “hype” gas to be used by undertrained divers in shallow water for the perceived benefits of lower breathing resistance or narcosis reduced to zero because it’s perceived as cool or “optimized”; as such, it is fixing a problem that shouldn’t be there in the first place (fix or change your regulators and work on your cardio and breathing technique). This is both risky and very expensive. And it may be responsible for far too many divers not only wasting their money on unnecessary gas, but developing physiological complications and even crippling DCS events.

InDepth Training and the ADT concept believes in putting trimix back where it belongs: as the primary gas of choice for deeper, longer and more complex dives by well-trained and knowledgeable advanced divers who are well aware of both benefits and dangers. There are circumstances where trimix is a good choice even in reasonably shallow waters for high-flow and decompression benefits, but only on extreme dives – dives that should not to be attempted by divers at a lower level than this anyhow.

Overhead environment training

The Cave I course is equivalent in level to other Intro to Cave courses. The normally prerequisite “Cavern” course is a single tank “sport” course, an unnecessary deviation for the ADT progression. The essential beginner parts are naturally covered. As students will come from the Skills I program as a prerequisite, their motor skills, BBT and team practices will already be at a level suitable for cave diving, Beginning reel, line and overhead work poses less of a challenge, thus allowing for more orientation and familiarization, plus more reinforcement of hard skills required in the cave environment.

The Wreck I course is similar to Cave I, but in the wreck environment. All prerequisites and all penetration skills and procedures are essentially the same (no more two worlds, no more sloppy wreck penetration – the wreck environment is just as serious and hazardous, if not more so, than the cave environment). As application, hazards and fringe knowledge required are quite different – the wreck and cave progressions will always remain separate, although since all core skills and procedures remain the same, it will be easier to cross-overs between the environments.

ADT fully integrates Rebreathers into training

Rebreather I is a generic course for rebreather diving using air as a diluent gas. As each rebreather is unique and handles somewhat differently, the course is necessarily specific per rebreather; however with the generic blueprint and the ADT systematic, cross-overs between different units are incredibly simplified, saving costs and grief for students and instructors alike.

A student can start light decompression diving once he’s become familiar with his particular unit (with Tech I as a prerequisite). In fact, all ADT courses are designed to cover the aspects of rebreather usage in them as well. Any and all of the courses can be done on a rebreather – including cave and wreck, even the Skills I and Tech I courses can be done in conjunction with the Rebreather I course to make a very comprehensive rebreather program indeed.

Coming next: Level II - Advanced

When a student wants to move on beyond Level I, all Level II courses naturally require the Level I prerequisites to be completed first. The recommended path is to do Skills II first, and do Trimix I before doing Tech II, as you can see by the solid arrows in the chart.  However, if circumstances dictate, or by choice, an instructor can elect to run the Level II course after Level I without going via Skills II, or run Trimix II without going via Tech II – as indicated by the dotted arrows. The same applies for Level III. This gives the program a bit more flexibility when needed.

Most of the level II courses still have equivalences in other organizations / systems. But the concept of the Skills II has no equivalent elsewhere. It is going back to the basics and reinforcing them again, then adding on advanced techniques and more extensive watermanship drills. Again, it’s “skills” only, so just like Skills I it can be done in pool environments – although a rather large pool may be needed.

The Tech II signature course

Tech II is NOT an “extended range” course – that is still Tech I & Trimix I territory. Yes, it is normally taught in the same “range” but that is pretty much the only likeness. Extended range courses in modern times are not a popular course for students or instructors; their current forms just do not match the 21st century technical divers’ objective requirements.

Tech II is a unique “signature” course for InDepth Training. It incorporates such things as advanced decompression strategies, technical rescue techniques, extended bottom times using stages, “decompression on the fly” techniques - including a previously unreleased, but well tested and proven technique to calculate highly accurate VPM-B profiles on the fly, in-water recompression theory and narcosis management techniques. Tech II is actually recommended to be done on trimix, although air training with moderate narcosis could be an option required by some students. Flexibility, remember? Trimix is not always available. No need to jump to the gun, however, as we are not advocating deep air diving – quite the opposite. But, unfortunately, we do live in a real world, not an ideal world. Trimix is not a fix-all solution and does not eliminate narcosis problems; it merely reduces them – so there is a definite place and need for this training.

However, note that a main premise of InDepth Training philosophy (and it is also firmly written in the standards) is that at no point in the course progression is an equivalent narcotic depth of more than 40m (130ft) a requirement.

Other Level II courses

Trimix II is roughly equivalent to Full Trimix, Advanced Trimix and such – although it naturally done in a modern ADT style. AND all InDepth Trimix II instructors are required to be Trimix III divers. You can trust InDepth to only provide instructors with solid diving experience beyond what they are teaching, not below. The main difference to Trimix I is the move to hypoxic mixes, gases that cannot sustain consciousness at the surface, expanded theory and more focus on logistics and contingency planning. It can be done to two levels, 80m and 100m depending on locality, student prerequisites and ability. The manual and theory are the same; the number of dives different, of course. Upgrade from 80m to 100m will only be a matter of quick review and the extra required dives. Also, in some places, training dive depths are limited by law, such as in the UK where they can’t be more than 80m.

Rebreather II is simply put mixed gas training for Rebreathers. It can be done to three levels, 60/80/100m depending on locality, student prerequisites and ability, but is still the same course and manual and with similar conditions to Trimix II.

Cave II is the ADT equivalent to Full Cave in the traditional cave diving world. It incorporates complex navigation such as jumps, gaps, traverses and longer penetrations.

Wreck II does not have an equivalent that we know of. Again, it mirrors Cave II in penetration skills and procedures, although set in the very different wreck environment. There will be no “direct” crossovers between cave and wreck, but as (finally) techniques are the same it will be very much facilitated to train. Wreck II will be difficult to run in many locations as it’s intended for BIG multi-level wrecks, we are talking serious deep penetrations here…

Level III - Extreme

Unlike for Level I and II, where we’ll all be decent and nice instructors. The whole of Level III is intended as an elitist monster level, it is the final frontier of advanced diving and we’re moving it forward! We’ll demand the utmost of you and put you to the absolute limit, as there is absolutely no room for complacency or mistakes at this level.

The Level III program content and their (limited) availability will be announced at a later time. Please watch for announcements, or just become a registered member of the InDepth website http://www.indepth-training.com to receive email alerts with our news items.

Final Word

We hope you find the InDepth ADT program to be a breath of fresh breathing-gas! And we encourage your feedback, input, complaints, criticism, and suggestions, which we promise 1) will be given a full review and 2) we shall acknowledge to you what action will be taken. The dive training industry already has enough “black holes”, and InDepth Training does not need to join them!

Thanks for your time, interest and attention! We look forward to being of useful service to you and to the world community of serious divers!