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Welcome to the DecoWarriors' website |
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We teach technical diver and instructor level courses from IANTD (the International Association of Nitrox and Technical Divers), TDI (Technical Diving International) and DSAT (Diving Science and Technology - PADI's sister company, and the brand under which they launched their TecRec programmes), in Dahab, Egypt and at various locations around the UK. Our Dahab location has the best equipped technical blending and training facility in Dahab at our disposal, the ability to blend gases from hypoxic trimix to 100% oxygen, world famous dive sites like the Blue Hole and the Dahab Canyon right on our doorstep, and some of the most incredible training sites you'll ever see - where else can you do a walk-in reef dive to 100m and do your deco surrounded by unicorn fish at a cleaner station? We're also the only IANTD facility in Dahab with an IANTD Instructor Trainer on full-time staff available to answer your questions. |  | In the UK, we provide training in conjunction with HSE registered dive contractors Dive South and Diving Leisure Leeds Ltd, at open water training locations around the country by arrangement. We offer training at all levels in the UK, from introductory "try-tec" sessions to full trimix, and can cater to open and closed circuit (rebreather) divers, whether you'd like to complete your courses in the convenient confines of an inland site or off the coast by boat. In both countries we offer the highest quality of training, by instructors who regularly dive outside of training and keep their own skills and experience fresh, with facilities which are second to none and able to provide gases, sorb, and all the support technical diving requires to do it safely. Technical diving isn't the place to take shortcuts with safety, and that's a mantra which we follow on every course, from Advanced EANx Diver to Trimix Diver. |  | We also offer guided diving whether you want a gentle dive in the shallows to get back in the swing of things, or a deep, night, deco, drift dive! If you'd like to see what it's all about from a "student's eye view", why not check out this writeup on the BSAC Travel Club website: Deeper in Dahab - Technical Diving, by Darren Astles ? |  |
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The DecoWarriors Sterling Sucks Sale |
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Written by Administrator
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Monday, 11 May 2009 14:34 |
 Good old UK Sterling has been doing particularly badly recently, and we at DecoWarriors know it's affecting many people's holiday plans - especially with so many things priced in Euros, the almost 1:1 exchange rate is making dive holidays seem like that much more of a luxury. So... we're turning back the clock and dropping our prices back to roughly where they were. A €1200 Advanced Trimix course, for example, used to work out at around £900... so we've put it down to €900! For those of you earning in Sterling, it means we're absorbing the effects of the global currency markets being out to get you... and for those of you earning in Euros, it means you can snap up a bargain with savings of around 33% compared to last years' prices. Check out the savings you could make: What's more, with a range of hotels and accommodation to suit literally every budget (with camps from just 30LE/night) you can be sure that whether you want 5* luxury or just a clean bed to sleep in, we can help you put together the perfect package. |
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 13 May 2009 09:11 )
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 Whether you're a recreational diver looking to extend the range of situations you're able to dive in, or a technical diver who'd like to try something a bit more demanding, we've got the courses for you.
With training from IANTD, TDI and DSAT, you can be sure that we're able to offer what you're looking for, from basic nitrox to advanced trimix. On this site, you'll find a wealth of information - from a first steps guide to course costs and timescales for everything from basic nitrox to advanced trimix, technical divemaster and instructor. With sites like Dahab's Blue Hole and Canyon conveniently located for teaching, and the option to complete your classroom and confined water training in the UK to save time on holiday, we're able to offer an unparalleled mixture of diving year round, as well as help booking flights and accommodation for your time in Egypt. We teach courses both in the UK and in the Red Sea - we'd urge you to try and fit in the Red Sea bit if you can. The difference between a 55m, 30 minute dive in Chepstow and the same dive at the Blue Hole at Dahab is hard to underestimate - think "hanging for 60 minutes on a bit of string attached to an SMB in the murk" compared to "doing a good, enjoyable and warm 60 minute dive as your deco stops"!
When you're booking recreational diver training, there's only a limited amount that can go wrong. When we're teaching technical instructors we refer to this as the 'get-out clause' - that is, if all else fails, head to the surface. With technical diving, that option isn't always available - you might have a physical ceiling above you and you'll almost certainly have a virtual one; a decompression obligation. It's that reason that sets technical diving apart - and it's that which should set your instructors apart.
When you're looking at technical diver training, there are a couple of simple things that'll help you make sure the person teaching you really knows what they're doing and can give you the best course. Make sure the instructor doesn't just teach - they should be diving regularly, too. Make sure they're diving regularly at a level which is higher than the level they're teaching (though admittedly this is difficult when they're teaching full trimix courses, as there isn't a higher level) - that is, if they're teaching to 48m with limited decompression, they should be qualified and diving regularly to 55 or 60m with full decompression. If they're teaching to 60, they should regularly be diving to deeper than that. All our instructors don't just teach - they dive, regularly. With us you won't find an instructor who dusts off his or her harness once a year to go teach a course - you're more likely to find one who turns up with it still wet from the day before! We train most of our own instructors to make sure they stick to our own high standards, and we don't employ instructors and divemasters until they've proved themselves capable. In entering the world of tec diving, a whole new world opens up; tread carefully, dive safely, and maybe you too could be a DecoWarrior.
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It's perhaps easier to define what isn't technical diving. Diving is, broadly speaking, categorised into recreational, military, commercial and technical. Military and commercial diving are relatively self-explanatory, so it's the often-blurry line between recreational and technical that we're concerned with.
 Recreational diving is generally defined as diving in less than 40 - 45m range (depending on training agency), in an open water (i.e. no roof!) environment where a direct ascent to the surface is possible, breathing a single gas for the entire dive, and conducting either no decompression stops or very limited decompression.  Within certain limits, some or all of those rules can be "bent" slightly without sacrificing the recreational diving label... Advanced Recreational programmes such as Advanced Nitrox or Advanced Recreational Trimix qualify the diver to perform limited decompression and to use a second gas to extend no-stop times or to accelerate the decompression stops. These "advanced recreational" programmes essentially straddle the line between technical and recreational diving; on the one side is the traditional recreational community and on the other side, the dedicated technical diving community.
 Technical diving is effectively anything that goes beyond that set of limits... but mostly, it's a mindset. It's an acceptance of the fact that you're leaving behind the relatively comfortable, statistically safe recreational diving world and entering a world where ascending to the surface isn't necessarily an option. Where gas supplies need to be enough not only to get you to the surface in the event of a problem, but to get you out of your overhead environment - whether that be a cave, a wreck or an hour's deco stops. It doesn't necessarily mean diving deeper - a 30m dive for an hour is as much a technical dive as a 130m dive for 10 minutes. But whether it's deep, long, overhead or otherwise, technical diving requires a commitment that most recreational divers simply don't want to make because for them, the rewards don't outweigh the drawbacks - and that's absolutely fine.
But if you are willing to make the commitment and to accept the challenge of technical diving in order to see sights few - if any - divers have ever seen before, come on in. You'll find that the courses will change the way you dive on every dive. That, rather than the dives you're doing, is the point where you can hold your head high and call yourself a technical diver. |
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