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Technical Diving in the Philippines

What technical diving is

Technical diving generally means diving beyond no-decompression limits, entering overhead environments, or both. It requires special equipment, training and procedures. Doing either without that training and equipment is not technical diving: it is simply unsafe.

Technical diving is not for everyone. It is not a natural next step from the diving done at dive centres, resorts or liveaboards, nor from the scientific diving we do at Marine Conservation Philippines. It is harder, carries more risk, and takes far longer to prepare for, both practically and mentally.

Even when you do everything right, technical diving involves hazards that either do not exist in regular diving or become far more severe.

Why we dive tec

Our technical divers go deep when there is work to do. Most often that means ghost nets: lost and abandoned fishing nets that settle over deep reefs, where they keep trapping fish and smothering corals for years. Now and then it means relocating or moving lost sinkers. Our deep team also supports visiting scientists whose research takes them below recreational limits.

Tec training also develops skills in our divemaster and instructor candidates, and our own staff, that few recreational professionals ever reach: precise buoyancy and trim, careful gas planning and calm problem solving under task load. That makes them better at every dive they lead, at any depth.

A decade ago, we trained technical divers to survey deep reefs. You can read how that work began, and why our priorities changed, on Mesophotic Reefs and Our Deep Team.

Diver cutting a ghost net away from corals on a deep reef

The pathway

Our tec training follows the PADI technical diving pathway, one step at a time.

  1. Step 1Enriched Air NitroxThe gas foundation
  2. Step 2Tec 4040 m, limited decompression
  3. Step 3Tec 4545 m, accelerated decompression
  4. Step 4Tec 5050 m, two decompression gases
  5. Step 5Trimix65 m and 90 m, with helium

Progressing from recreational diver to Tec 50 or Trimix level typically takes around 24 weeks. The longer you stay, the further along the pathway you can get.

The courses

We accept equivalent certifications from other diver training organisations. Each course lists only the requirements not already covered by the course before it.

Tec 40

Welcome to technical diving. Tec 40 teaches you to dive with a twinset and a stage cylinder to extend your time at depth safely and responsibly. You will learn gas planning, decompression planning, and how to handle emergencies on tec dives. Afterwards, you will be qualified to make limited decompression dives (up to 10 minutes of decompression) to 40 metres, using nitrox of up to 50% oxygen for added conservatism.

Prerequisites

  • PADI Advanced Open Water Diver
  • PADI Enriched Air Diver
  • PADI Deep Diver, or 10 logged dives to 30 metres or deeper
  • At least 30 logged dives
  • At least 18 years old

Tec 45

Tec 45 builds on what you learned in Tec 40, taking your gas planning and decompression theory further through knowledge development sessions and at least four open water dives. It also introduces nitrox blends for accelerated decompression. Afterwards, you will be qualified to make accelerated decompression dives to 45 metres, using up to 100% oxygen as a decompression gas.

Prerequisites

  • PADI Tec 40 Diver
  • PADI Rescue Diver
  • At least 50 logged dives, 10 of them deeper than 30 metres

Tec 50

Tec 50 completes the PADI Tec Deep Diver programme. You will plan and make dives with multiple decompression stops using two decompression gases, and sharpen the procedures and problem solving you will rely on at depth. Afterwards, you will be qualified to make extended range decompression dives to 50 metres.

Prerequisites

  • PADI Tec 45 Diver
  • At least 100 logged dives

Tec Trimix 65

You have reached the limits of air diving, so it is time to add helium to the mix. Tec Trimix 65 is an extensive course that refines and extends the skills from your earlier tec training. You will learn to manage up to four decompression gases and study decompression theory and models in greater depth. Afterwards, you will be qualified to make decompression dives to 65 metres using normoxic trimix.

Prerequisites

  • PADI Tec 50 Diver
  • At least 100 logged dives

Tec Trimix

The full Tec Trimix course is the pinnacle of open-circuit technical diving. It builds on your previous courses and goes further into best mix, decompression models, multi-gas computers and stage handling. After completing Tec Trimix with us, you will be qualified to make decompression dives to 90 metres using hypoxic trimix and up to four decompression gases.

Prerequisites

  • PADI Tec 50 or Tec Trimix 65 Diver
  • At least 150 logged dives

Who can train with us

Technical diving training is open to every volunteer staying in our programme for 16 weeks or longer. We also train research interns whose work requires tec, whatever their length of stay. We teach participants who:

  • Show the maturity the task requires
  • Understand and accept the greater risk
  • Accept that becoming a technical diver takes a long time
  • Can dedicate the time to put the training to work afterwards

We teach these courses to you, but we teach them for us. The courses use very expensive equipment and wear it out. We do not begin this training on a whim, and you should not either.

We dive twinsets only, as our dives start and end with beach entries and exits. You can read more about our equipment on Our Scuba Gear.

Technical diver with twin cylinders swimming over a reef

What it costs

If you stay with us for 16, 20 or 24 weeks, your tec courses are free, including the manual and certification.

Tec courses taught outside these stays cost USD 85 each, which covers the manual and certification. Air, nitrox and oxygen are always free. Helium for trimix is charged at our purchase price plus a small mark-up, to cover the losses and small inaccuracies that come with gas blending.

You do not need a separate application for technical diving. Apply for our programme as usual and let us know you are interested in tec.

Apply now See our packages
Ghost net draped over corals on a deep reef