Step into the World of Technical Diving: SSI XR Foundations to Extended Range Courses
If you want to become the best diver possible, there’s no better way than enrolling in a technical diving course. Whether you want to explore deep wrecks and reefs or simply spend more time cruising at 40 metres, a technical diving course can open up these opportunities.
But where should you start?
In this post, we’re breaking down how to get into technical diving, how to become a tec diver and how the courses work.
Why Become a Tec Diver?
Technical diving is any type of dive where you can’t make a direct ascent to the surface. This is what we call having a “ceiling” over you.
This ceiling could be a physical restriction, such as a wreck, cave or mine. But it can also be a “soft” ceiling—a decompression obligation.
| 🔍 What is decompression? The longer and deeper you dive, the more inert gas (such as nitrogen) dissolves into your body’s tissues. When you ascend, this inert gas then begins to come out of your body’s tissues. This is the process of on-gassing and off-gassing, with the latter preventing decompression sickness. For recreational dives, we stay within our “No Decompression Limit” (NDL), which is the maximum amount of time we can spend at a given depth while still being able to directly ascend to the surface. Dives within our NDL restrict the amount of inert gas in our body. On the other hand, when we exceed our NDL on a dive, we then have to perform decompression stops during our ascent. These stops give the inert gas in our tissues enough time to come out. |
During technical diving we have an increased need for safety procedures, they also open up a whole new world of possibilities.
For some of us, the allure of the deep attracts us. There’s nothing more exciting than the feeling of freefalling into the deep blue. For others, increasing your depth and bottom time can enable for longer explorations of shipwrecks, such as the many wrecks found in the Red Sea. There are many reasons to take up technical diving, generally saying if you are in love with diving, entering the world of technical diving will widen your hoirzon!
And for other divers, technical diving can allow you to stay much longer in the 20 to 40 metre region, increasing your chance of wildlife encounters. In all cases, whatever your motivation may be, a technical diving course will bring your skill level to new heights.
Because of the demanding nature of technical diving and the need to conduct them safely, you’ll be pushed to become the best diver version of yourself possible. But don’t let the challenge put you off. As long as you have the right mindset and minimum skill level, you’ll be able to become proficient in technical diving.
What Technical Diving Courses do I Need to Take?
In the SSI system, there are 3 courses which make up the beginner technical diving courses. These are:
- SSI Extended Range Foundations
- SSI Extended Range Nitrox
- SSI Extended Range
We recommend beginning with the SSI Extended Range Foundations and Extended Range Nitrox courses combined. Taken together, these courses will take a total of approximately 6 days to complete. At the end, you’ll be certified to dive to 40 metres and accumulate up to 15 minutes of decompression time, using up to 100% oxygen as a decompression gas. So this represents your first step in to the world of technical diving!
However, if you have more time during your stay with us, it makes sense to also complete the Extended Range course. This certifies you to dive to 45 metres with a maximum of 25 minutes of decompression time, extending your range. If you decide to complete all three courses together, you should plan at least 7 to 8 days of diving.
It’s important to understand that while each course has minimum standards, we at Lagona Divers Technical like to push our students far beyond the minimum requirements. This means giving you more time to master the skills, and where necessary, extra dives to consolidate your knowledge. As you now should understand technical diving carrys a higher risk so it is important that you really know what you are doing!
Likewise, every student has different needs, strengths and weaknesses. For this reason, course schedules can change from one student to the next. While we say that the courses can be completed in a minimum number of days, it may be necessary to add an extra training day to the schedule.
Let’s now have a run down of how each course works and what you can expect on the day-to-day schedule.
SSI Extended Range Foundations
The SSI Extended Range Foundations course does just as its name suggests—it focuses on the foundations of technical diving.
In this course, you’ll learn the following:
- The philosophy, history, pros and cons of different equipment configurations—either a twinset or sidemount configuration
- The concept of DIR (“Doing it Right”)
- Advanced buoyancy control, trim and streamlining
- Advanced propulsion techniques, ascent and descent procedures
- Team diving procedures and situational awareness
To enrol in this course, you only need to be a certified open water diver with a minimum of 24 dives. You can choose to complete it either in a twinset or sidemount configuration. However, you’ll need to already be a certified sidemount diver to complete the course in sidemount configuration. And even if you’re not interested in pursuing technical diving further, you can complete the course in a single tank configuration, increasing your skill level as a recreational diver.
In the Foundations course, you’ll learn the “why” behind every aspect of your equipment configuration as well as the reasons certain technical diving skills are performed in a specific manner.
Just as we have to first learn to walk before we can run, the Foundations course focuses on the essential “basic” skills every diver should have. But while these skills may be basic, performing them to the highest standard possible isn’t so easy—at least not during the first dive. That’s why this course focuses on just a few in-water skills, and attempts to make them perfect.
Day 1
The first day of the SSI XR Foundations course begins with an equipment configuration workshop.
During this session, you’ll be introduced to a new configuration, that being a twinset. If you’re completing the course in sidemount, we’ll run over the sidemount configuration once more, refining your knowledge of the setup. You’ll also be introduced to the equipment configuration concept of “DIR,” as well as tips for streamlining and making your setup as efficient and minimalistic as possible which is an important factor for technical diving!
During this session, you’re encouraged to ask as many questions as possible, so that you truly understand the why behind every inch of your equipment. As technical diving consist of many small details and procedures it is important you understand why and what are the reasons behind it.
You’ll also be introduced to the concept of a “balanced rig,” efficient weighting techniques and redundancy.
After a lunch break, you’ll jump into the water for your first dive of the course, in your new equipment configuration.
Even if it is your first step in to technical diving, all dives during the Foundation course have a maximum depth of 12 metres with strictly no decompression allowed. This means you’ll spend ample time in the shallows refining your skills.
During the first dive, you’ll focus on getting the feel for your new equipment configuration. You’ll also begin practising propulsion techniques such as frog kick, modified frog kick, back kick and modified flutter kick, as well as hone your trim and position in the water.
The day will end with a thorough debriefing and some adjustments to your equipment to optimise it based on your performance in the water.
Day 2
On the second day of the SSI XR Foundations course, we’ll do 2 dives.
The minimum standard for the course is 4 dives with a cumulative bottom time of 240 minutes, but we often exceed this time by a lot more.
During these two dives, you’ll continue to practise what you learned on day one, as well as some additional skills. This can include torch handling, out-of-gas situations, teamwork, DSMB deployment and regulator and mask skills.
Here the focus will be on giving you more leadership throughout the dives and refining your buoyancy and team awareness.
Detailed debriefings and minor equipment adjustments will be interspersed with long dives on the second day.
Day 3
On the third day of the course, there’s only one more dive left to complete for the Foundations course. During this dive, you’ll combine everything you’ve learnt over the past two days, performing all skills to a level you couldn’t have imagined possible on the first day.
If you’ve opted to combine the Foundations course with the Extended Range Nitrox course, we’ll jump straight in for another dive in the afternoon, beginning to complete some of the skills necessary for the XR Nitrox course.
SSI Extended Range Nitrox
After completing your Foundations course, you’ll have a solid grasp on the fundamental skills of technical diving. You’ll also start to feel much more comfortable in your new equipment configuration.
The next step down the technical diving route is to enrol in the SSI Extended Range Nitrox course. The XR Nitrox course certifies you to:
- Independently plan and conduct decompression dives with an equally or more qualified buddy
- To a maximum depth of 40 metres
- With a total accumulated decompression time of 15 minutes
- Using one decompression gas with a maximum oxygen content of 100%
To enrol in the course, you’ll also need to have completed your SSI Deep Diving and Enriched Air Nitrox 40 speciality courses, as well as have 24 logged dives.
Day 1
If combined with the XR Foundations course, the XR Nitrox course will begin officially on day 3 of your time with us.
You’ll begin by running through the course objectives, as well as brushing over some of the key theoretical topics that will be covered.
On the first day of the XR Nitrox, you’ll begin by learning how to configure a decompression stage tank. This will give us the opportunity to already talk about important topics such as oxygen toxicity, staged decompression and off-gassing efficiency.
After a lunch break, we’ll then jump into the water for a confined water dive where we’ll run through the key skills of the course. These skills build upon what you learnt in the XR Foundations course, adding some new skills with the stage tank.
After a solid confined water session, we’ll finish with a debriefing as well as a theory session in the classroom.
Day 2
If everything went well during the confined water dive and you feel comfortable, we’ll then move onto conducting simulated decompression dives on day 2 of the course.
Depending on how long briefings, theory and dive planning sessions take, we’ll do between one and two dives on day 2.
These dives are planned just like real decompression dives, including CNS, OTU, TTS and gas volume calculations. However, they will be conducted within the no decompression limit of your dive computer, to a maximum depth of 30 metres.
This enables you to experience how a decompression dive works, including the ascent, descent, timings, gas switch and hand signals used, without having any real decompression obligation.
During the time between dives, we’ll make the most of our time by continuing with theory sessions in the classroom.
Day 3
On day 3 of the XR Nitrox course, the schedule can be different depending on the progress you’ve made so far.
If we manage to complete both simulated decompression dives, we can start with the real decompression dives on day 3. If not, we’ll spend day 3 completing the last simulated deco dive and perhaps squeeze in a real deco dive in the afternoon.
The last two dives of the course are real deco dives to 40 metres with up to 15 minutes of decompression time, using one decompression gas.
During these dives, we’ll put everything you’ve learnt to the test, giving you emergency scenarios to deal with during the dives. This will make you a confident technical diver, allowing you to enjoy tec dives outside of the course with the knowledge of what to do in any situation.
If we manage to do two dives on day 3, we’ll be able to already certify you as an SSI XR Nitrox diver. If we squeeze only one deco dive in, we’ll finish the second one on the next day.
SSI Extended Range
If you only have time for the SSI XR Foundations and XR Nitrox courses, then you can look forward to the SSI Extended Range course for your next holiday. But if you have enough time to squeeze in the Extended Range course, it’s definitely worth doing.
The Extended Range course enables you to dive to 45 metres with up to 25 minutes of decompression, using one decompression gas. If you want to have a clearer head at depth, you can opt to complete the course using trimix.
To enrol in the course, you need to have completed the SSI Extended Range Nitrox course as well as have 50 logged dives.
Schedule
The SSI Extended Range course consists of one confined water dive with a minimum of 90 minutes bottom time and 2 open water decompression dives to 45 metres.
If you decide to combine the Extended Range course with the XR Foundations and XR Nitrox courses, we’ll already include the confined skills on day 1 of the XR Nitrox course. This means we’ll be able to move directly to the 45 metre dives after the 40 metre dives.
If you can only complete the first two courses in one holiday, you can come back and complete the Extended Range upgrade in your next holiday. In this case, the course will last 2 days, consisting of one 90 minute confined dive and two 45 metre dives.
Enter the World of Technical Diving: Lagona Divers Technical
Now you know how to become a technical diver. The next step is the doing.
So if you’re interested in technical diving, feel free to contact us to complete your course here in Dahab, Egypt—the Mecca of tech diving.
