Max Deco: 30 mins
Applicants for a Technical Diver Level 1 course must:
- Be physically and mentally fit.
- Hold insurance that will cover diving emergencies such as hyperbaric treatment, e.g., DAN Master-level insurance or equivalent.
- Be a nonsmoker.
- Obtain a physician’s prior written authorization for the use of prescription drugs, except for birth control, or for any medical condition that may pose a risk while diving.
- Be a minimum of 18 years of age. Documented parental or legal guardian consent must be submitted to GUE HQ when the participant is a minor.
- Have earned a GUE Fundamentals – Technical certification.
- Must have a minimum of 100 logged dives beyond autonomous entry-level scuba diver (or equivalent).
- Submit a completed Course Registration Form, Medical History Form, and Liability Release Form to GUE HQ.
- The Technical Diver Level 1 course is normally conducted over six days. It requires a minimum of seven dives (including three trimix experience dives) and at least forty-eight hours of instruction, encompassing classroom lectures, land drills, and in-water work.
- Instructor fee
Not included
- Course registration fees of $150 USD paid online at GUE HQ.
- Introduction: GUE organization and course overview (objectives, limits, expectations)
- Dive planning, minimum gas, gas strategies, and gas management
- Gas properties: breathing gases, oxygen, narcosis, and hypercapnia
- Decompression theory: history, overview, and decompression sickness
- Practical decompression: general guidelines, DecoPlanner, ratio deco, and other considerations
- Emergencies: accident prevention and management
Land Drills
- Reel and guideline use
- Dive team formation, communication, and protocols
- Back gas regulators/valve failure modes and management
- Decompression cylinder set up
- Gas switch procedures
- Decompression cylinder failure protocols
- Unconscious diver recovery
- Backup light deployment
- Decompression gas sharing
Certification Requirements
- Must be able to swim at least 375 m in less than 14 minutes without stopping.
- Must be able to swim a distance of at least 18 m on a breath hold while submerged
- Certification is awarded after completion of course and a pass mark of 90% or more is achieved.
- If a passing mark isn’t achieved the first time round, students may retake the exam.
- Maximum training depth 51 metres
- No overhead diving
- Maximum of 30 minutes of unadjusted decompression as established by GUE’s DecoPlanner.
- Student-to-instructor ratio cannot exceed 3:1
- A 50% deposit is required upon confirmation of enrolment, the remaining balance is due before the start of the class.