hi guys and gals daza hear.


just thought id give you a report on the tdi courses i have resently undertook.

i partook in the tdi advanced nitrox, deco prociedures and exstended range courses as a block course hoping thay would compliment each other alowing me to get the best out of the courses with regardes to knowledge and skill, and i must tell you i have not been disapointed.

the simple no bulls@*t way the manuals are put together convayed a relitively easy to understand and digest cericulum which in my opinium is an exalent way to conduct the righting of any learning material instead of uselessly trying to confuse the studentwith big impressive words and complex outlines.

i found the instructore thomas increadibly knowlagable and easy to talk to witch soon stayed any unsetaling nerves about the course i had.

the theory part of the courses was fearly intense as you are taking in a lot of information in a short period of time but with the help of thom evarything started to clik into place nicely.
a good reading and knowledge of the manuals before your class room sessions is a good idea as you only get out what you put in in these courses and thom made it quite clear that if i was not capable he would fail my ass.
meaning i could hit every critereier for a pass but he can and will faill students on attitude.
which was very pleasing to me as it showed he was very passionet about what he dose and not just after the pay day.

when it come to the practical side of the course i soon found that beeing profissiant with a twin set helps a lot as you have less ground to cover.
but even with being used to the old twin set i found it a very steep learning curve to get to the twin set and pearls or quads.
coupled with the quad training comes the run time slates or following them should i say, as i totaly ballsed it up on the first simulated deco dive, i had 4 short deco stops with 1 gas switch, with free floting smb deploymant. yes it sounds straight forward i know but i had a set back with my smb totaly loozing my run times and profile leaving me disapointed in my self to say the least.

thom asked me after the dive how i felt i cursed my self a bit and thought that this is too mutch to learn in too little a time.
three weekends of diving later and skills surcats and i was performing simulated trimix dives to 55 metres on air utalizing travel gas and multiple gas switches with SMB deployment :D with run time slates comprising 9 or more stops( including pyle stops).
well chuffed with myself and the organization but most of all the instructer thomas and andy the safty diver for the profesionall non condacending way the courses were presented and carried out.

any more deatailed info about the course just ask cheers for listening dazza :)

Nice one Daza - I'm thinking about advanced nitrox/deco procs myself later this year, thanks for the writeup about your course.

Tom

cheers thom

listen if you want to know anything els or have any questions just ask as the right up i did was kinda vaige as i was in a bit of a hurry.

glad your thinkin about doin as its a real eye oppening and learning experiance.
youl come away very confident in your knowledge and skills as i did and be looking forward to perfecting those skills.

thought i was a perfectionest before but know i have a lot more to perfect.......ITS GREAT :D :) :P

Well done Daza, nice report and it brought back plenty of memories - not all of them pleasant, there were times when I thought my head would explode with all the things I needed to do at the same time.

Glad you stuck with it and saw it through to the end, it does get easy from now on and with practice you stop looking at your slate and computer all the time and relax and enjoy the dives.

See you soon. :ph43r:

cheers kim

your right as i came through the course towordes the end i was finding more time to carry out the tasks i needed to carry out.

totally enjoyed it althoughe it was hard work.

cheers for the help with the manuals etc mutch apresiated.

p.s. i am totaly hooked on the softwares and am enjoying planning my dives for perfection witch i hope to come close to achieving soon enouphe.

:) :) :D daza

Daza,

What software are you using?

I have been using Vplanner for a couple of years now and get on fine with it, it's easy to use and it gets updated regularly, there is also a version for Pocket PC's so I can mess around with the plan on the boat if necessary.

The guys over in Egypt still swear by Zplanner but that hasn't been updated for 2 or 3 years so I would have thought it's way out of date now, although it seems to do the job just as well as Vplanner and is just as easy to use.

Personally I can't see much difference but I'm sure someone with more technical knowledge could explain where the differences are, but more important is how significant they are and what effect they have on your plans.

I would have probably used Zplanner myself as that's what was used when I was taught but it was already obsolete then and you couldn't get hold of it through normal channels, or download from the web.

Glen and I had joined the London School of Diving 2 years ago but let our memberships lapse as there really wasn't much there for us. I still get their newsletters and the latest one says there are starting a technical section in May that's going to be run by Mark Andrews - I know there are big changes going on with PSA and TDI(UK). I don't know Mark personally but Leigh has a lot of time for him so that's good enough for me have you heard anything about what he's doing.

hi kim

im using z plan at the muinet but i do have v plan.
i think the differences are slite beetween the two with the algorithems and deco modles having slite differenses. i have run a couple of comparisons with most of the changes beeing at the end portion of the deco, only a muinet hear and ther but you are right both softwears are quite versitile alowing you to completely custimise them.

as for the z plan being dated i think it is to an exstent but the basics of deco diving are all there and acounted for and not a hell of a lot changes, i suppose as long as you chek chek and chek againe the results of the softwaer to eliminate the bugs most softwares are prety good.

on the subject of mark andrews i am starting my trimix with him next week and am doing the P.S.A. EQUIVELANT as i have heard it is the moste intense and difficalt course to undertake due to the expectanseys of p.s.a. and mark.
so should be interesting :o :huh: :( .

plus he co wrote the manual so i am looking forward to his tuition as for what he is up to besides courses i am not to sure but ill keep my ears open.

drop me your adress as i have the ultimate softwaer disk with multiple softwares including, dsat trimix and nitrox blending softwears, decanting softwears and a hole bunch of other realy cool stuf i know you would like to get your hands and eyes on if you havent already got em :D B) :lol: .

speak soon daza