It has being said that you can always spot a UTD Diver!!! Here’s what it looks like:

Your personal skills are exceptional, with a keen sense of situational awareness, a unified approach and a common attitude of ‘team.’ You are the pinnacle member of a ‘thinking dive team.’

The roots of Unified Team Diving’s philosophy and principles can be found in the Hogarthian/DIR system and its covenants. Hogarthian was a minimalist approach to a gear configuration in the early 90’s. Those who adhered to it maintained a diving ideology of “each diver” should configure their own way. DIR built upon the Hogarthian configuration by adding an element of standardization (late 90’s till now) mainly because of a large scale projects such as the Wakulla karst project. However, this rigid standardization in itself lead to a narrowing of the available  “tool set” as it was only designed for open-circuit, back-mounted, double tanks with stage bottles and deco bottles. Any deviation from that configuration such as a single tank, side-mount, or rebreather, was either excluded or “cobbled” together.

In 2008 UTD decided to go in a unique direction and take on the “cobbled” concept. We built on our roots of the previous 13 years in Hogarthian and DIR diving, evloving the “system” to the next generation. This is “Unification”. We wanted to keep our standardization and minimalist approach with the “tool” of open-circuit back-mount (DIR) but increase the “tool set,” venturing into side-mount and closed circuit rebreather. Our mission and goal was to unify these three systems (configurations) into one system while remaining consistent, scalable and interchangeable. We wanted to drive the industry forward by being inclusive rather than exclusive while keeping the minimalist approach.

This unique approach to combining the systems allows for seamless “mixed” team diving and is supported by our global community and progressive education system. We are now able to realize our mission and, in doing so, have revolutionized the scuba industry.