These are your UTD Technical, Rebreather, Cave, and Wreck Courses
Here are the descriptions of the UTD Scuba Diving technical and rebreather courses. We define technical diving as depths below 130ft/39m using stage decompression. If you are ready to start your deeper adventures, or continue your tech or rebreather training, this is the place. The UTD cave and wreck course info is also below.
One Course or a Package
We have slightly changed the online courses for Technical, Cave, Wreck, and Rebreather divers. The introductory courses remain the same – Essentials of Tech, Techreational Diver, and Overhead Protocols are individual course. Those course materials are priced at $119 each.
Once you move on to the more advanced classes within a category, we have packaged the course materials, so Tech 1, Tech 2, Tech 3, and Tech Gold are in a single package for $169. This means you can take all four of the advanced tech courses with one set of course materials. The same is true for cave – Cave 1, 2, 3 and Gold are a package. Same for wreck penetration and the same for the rebreather courses. This simplifies the process and eliminates much duplication within the advanced course materials. All prices are in US dollars.
Essentials of Tech
Essentials of Tech is the UTD crossover course to bring you into the world of technical diving. Essentials is a personal skills course that prepares you for the rigors of technical dive training. In Essentials of Tech you will learn the personal skills needed for safe technical team diving – s-drills, valve drills, stage and deco bottle handling, gas switch procedures and much more. This course generally takes place in shallow open water.
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Techreational Diver
Techreational is UTD’s first step in tech diving. You will be trained to depths of 130ft/39m using one oxygen bottle for decompression. This is the place to experience your first time on a dive when you cannot go directly to the surface, but must stop on the ascent to decompress. You’ll learn to manage your deco bottle and your ascent profiles to create a safe, fun adventure with your technical diving team. The standard gas for Techreational Diver is trimix 25/25.
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Tech 1
UTD’s Tech 1 course takes you to new levels in tech diving. Training you to depths of 160ft/48m using normoxic trimix one nitrox 50 decompression bottle, you will advance your team skills and understanding of decompression theory. Tech 1 opens up a new and vast range of diving opportunities in a safe, controlled way. After 25 Tech 1 dives you can add a “two-bottle endorsement,,” giving you the option to decompress using both nitrox 50 and oxygen.
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Tech 2
Tech 2 adds another level of complication but gives you more depth and more time underwater. You will be trained to depths of 200ft/60m using normoxic trimix as a back gas and two deco bottles – nitrox 50 and oxygen. Decompression times can approach 60 minutes. Tech 2 adds a new level of adventure to your diving.
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Tech 3
Tech 3 takes you into the world of diving using hypoxic trimix as a back gas, giving you the training to explore depths to 250ft/75m with decompression times up to 90 minutes. You will use multiple stages and multiple deco bottles and will plan your ascents using Ratio Deco 3:1 profiles.
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Tech Gold
Tech Gold is the ultimate technical diving class. On successful completion of Tech Gold you will remove all depth and time restrictions from your open circuit dives. Your training will include ‘Cascade Ratio Deco’ for ascent planning, along with continued training on multiple stages and multiple deco bottles.
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Rebreather – Closed Circuit and Semi-Closed Circuit
UTD offeres a complete series of closed and semi-closed rebreather courses for technically-trained divers. We begin with mCCR1 and pSCR1 – our two entry rebreather courses that train you to 100ft/30m within non-decompression limits. You can then move on to mCCR2 and pSCR2 which have depth limits of 160ft/48m and up to 30 minutes of deco. The level three RB courses take you to 250’/75m, and the RB Gold courses remove all depth and time restrictions.
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UTD CAVE AND WRECK PENETRATION COURSES
Overhead Protocols
UTD Scuba Diving’s overhead programs begin with Overhead Protocols. This non-certification course is a mandatory prerequisite for Cave 1 and Wreck 1 classes. OHP prepares you for the training you will do in the cave or the wreck without the added expense and complication of going to the cave or wreck environments. Generally taking place in about 20ft/6m of open water, you will learn the personal and team skills needed to safely dive in an overhead enviornment. This includes normal and emergency procedures, but the training is done while navigating on a guideline first with full visibility, then with a blacked-out mask, simulating a no-visibility situation in a cave or wreck. On successful completion of Overhead Protocols, you can move on to Cave 1 or Wreck 1.
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Cave 1
Once you’ve completed Overhead Protocols you will move on to the cave environment where you will start to explore and experience the wonders of cave formations and decorations. Cave 1 is the first half of UTD’s full cave program and trains you to dive in a cave to depths of 100ft/30m while remaining on the ‘main line.’
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Cave 2
Cave 2 completes your “full cave” program, adding cave navigation to experience. You will learn and practice gaps, jumps, T’s, circuits, and transits in the cave in both normal and emergency situations to depths of 130’/39m (if you are trained to those depths). Cave 2 is the first step toward becoming a true cave explorer.
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Cave 3
Cave 3 continues your cave exploration training adding stage and deco bottles to your repertoire. This will extend the amount of time you can spend in the cave and open the door to the UTD cave scooter program. Training will allow you to add limited decompression to your dives giving you yet another option to extend your dive time.
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Cave Gold
Cave Gold is your cave exploration class. In this program you will learn how to truly explore an untouched cave. You’ll learn surveys, mapping, navigation techniques for exploration, and how to manage complex restrictions. Cave Gold is the ultimate cave exploration class.
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Wreck Penetration Courses
UTD’s wreck penetration courses follow a similar progression as the cave program, beginning with Overhead Protocols, which is basically the first half of Wreck 1. The four wreck penetration courses, Wreck 1, 2,3, and Gold guide you to deeper depths and longer penetrations while maintaining the highest regard for safety, proper gas management, team skills, and ascent profiles.
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UTD PROFESSIONAL SERIES COURSES
Technical Gas Blender
UTD’s Technical Gas Blender course trains you mix nitrox and trimix breathing gases using the most common blending methods – partial pressure, continuous flow, and membrane systems. You will explore the practical and theoritical aspects surrounding the use and blending of UTD standard gases, You will learn how to manage a varitety of blending stations and compressors and you’ll become comfortable analyzing and labeling your mixes. The Technical Gas Blender online course is part of the UTD Technical Course Package.
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Cylinder and Valve Technician
This course trains and certifies you to perform visual inspections on scuba cylinders. You will learn to properly and safely inspect, clean, and label aluminum and steel scuba tanks and also perform maintenance on a variety of scuba tank valves. This is a valuable course for anyone working as a dive professional or if you are a diver wishing to inspect your own cylinders.
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Where do you start? How do you navigate the world of dive centers, instructors, training, and certification?
The first step is not why you want to dive – that’s personal. The first step is understanding the difference between training and certification.
UTD Scuba Diving is focused on training. We will help you earn certification, but first and foremost we will train you to be a powerful, safe, and aware scuba diver.
We start with the most basic skill that every diver needs – team awareness. Scuba diving is a team sport. Your team is your safety net – backup air, backup brain. Team awareness is the single most important aspect of UTD Scuba Diving training. You will always focus on your team for safety, efficiency, and for fun.
Next is buoyancy control. Buoyancy control is how you manage your position in the water, controlling your depth so you don’t crash into the ocean floor destroying marine life and churning up so much silt the rest of your team can’t see. Buoyancy control is also managing your ascent from depth so you don’t go rocketing to the surface potentially aggravating the effects of breathing compressed air at depth.
Buoyancy control is the key to safe and fun diving, and we teach it first. Every open water class starts in a pool where you learn to control your depth using your breath. Breathe in go up; breathe out go down. We start you without the encumbrance of any scuba equipment – just a regulator to breathe from attached to a tank on the surface.
Once you master that, we slowly make it more complicated, first adding a wet suit, which floats, or has ‘positive’ buoyancy, then adding some weight to offset that. Then we practice again using your breath to control your depth in the water.
The next steps are to slowly add equipment, and finally a scuba tank, so you are completely self contained yet still using your breathing to control your position in the water.
All of this is so you don’t crash into the bottom or go uncontrollably to the surface.
We also teach you to kick properly, forward and backward, so you can maintain precise control of your horizontal position in the water.
At this point you are a scuba diver, ready for a series of open water training and experience dives. Your instructor will take you into the water where you will explore this amazing environment and practice the skills you learned in the pool. All of our open water training dives have an exploration part and a training part – fun and safety.
Your last dive in your open water class is all about you. You and your team will take your instructor on an exploration dive. You will perform pre-dive checks, discuss the dive plan, water entry, navigation, ascent profiles, and your exit strategy. Your UTD instructor will help you when you need it, but you are the captain of your dive.
And at the end of it all, you arrive at the beginning of your scuba diving life, UTD certified and ready to explore the world underwater, to go safely where few can go, and to live the dream of diving around the world.
The UTD Scuba Diving foundational course package is your ticket to brilliant diving across the world. Train, dive, and live the world underwater.
