TDI skills

TDI skills

TDI has produced a comprehensive series of tech diving skills demonstrations on their YouTube channel. Rightly, they make the point that you shouldn’t attempt to practise them without undertaking proper training first. The skills are run through in their entirety, with no breakdown of the individual steps. This has its pros and cons of course. In other videos found online, skills are often broken down so much that you don’t see the actual skill properly.

Historically, TDI has been known for not having a set or standard way of doing things, such as skills and diving procedures. For some instructors, this is seen as a bonus as it gives them the flexibility to do things their way. The valve drill, also known as a full shutdown drill, is a good example. It seems that no two instructors teach it the same way, and you’ll find a lot of discussion online about the best way to do it.

The other end of the spectrum is GUE, which has a very definitive way that instructors need to teach a skill, so that if you dive with any GUE diver around the world, you know that they do things exactly the same as you.

Information on TDI courses can be found here.