Extended range diving
Extended Range Diving
Extended-range diving is a more complex form of decompressing diving and represents the maximum depth that you can dive with 21% oxygen as your main gas. The equipment, skills, diving procedures and risk management are more complex and involved than TDI’s decompression procedures for example.
Diving at this level requires excellent skills all across the board. You should be able to back kick and have good buoyancy and awareness. Moreover, a big part of the course is about understanding narcosis management. The deeper you go, the more it will affect you. Learning to recognise the signs and being able to honestly assess how compromised you may be by it, are very important elements of the course. Furthermore, there are issues with gas density when breathing air beyond 40m. This is also covered during the course.
TDI Extended range
Deep air diving can be hazardous. Although you can go deep using air, it doesn’t mean you should. Whilst extended-range diving may allow you to dive to 55m (180ft), dives can equally be done in the 30-40m (100-130ft) range to get even more bottom time than with basic decompression diving. I personally don’t teach the TDI extended range course, as I’m not a big fan of diving deeper than 30m (100ft) on air. The helitrox course is a better stepping stone between decompression procedures and trimix.
Dive Raid’s Deco 50 course is outlined on the decompression courses page. It includes the use of trimix to reduce narcosis.
The Deco 50 and helitrox courses are good preparation for the full Trimix course. For more information, contact me.
Qualification and training limits:
- Max depth for training- 55m
- Certification- Use up to 100% oxygen to undertake decompression dives to a maximum depth of 55m
The minimum prerequisites for starting this course include:
- 18 years old with parental consent
- Decompression procedures diver
- Advanced nitrox diver
- 100 logged dives
Qualification and training limits:
- Max depth for training 50m (200ft)
- Certification- Use a single deco gas of up to 100% oxygen to perform trimix decompression dives to a maximum depth of 50m (200ft).
The minimum prerequisites for starting this course include:
- 18 years old with parental consent
- Deco 40 diver or equivalent, rescue diver, O2 provider, deep diver, nitrox diver
- 100 logged dives
Header image photo credit: James Emery Photo
