A new IANTD Technical and Normoxic Trimix workbook

IANTD started the Technical Diver program almost two decades ago. Tom Mount (IANTD CEO) and Kevin Gurr (ex IANTD UK licensee) developed the workbook made available for the IANTD Technical Diver Instructors who used it as a teaching tool. Today IANTD has updated this workbook as Technical Diver and Normoxic Trimix Diver manual with new instructor slides, a new material review updated by Tom Mount, Kevin Gurr and Georges Gawinowski (IANTD South East US Training Director) and, a new cover.

To my knowledge IAND/IANTD was  the first scuba diving agency to start Technical diver programs in the 1990's. And it was an intensive program. I can remember my first Technical diver course in France; the dives were done on air up to 200 fsw/60 msw using decompression mixes ranging from Nx 32 to pure o2. It took a good week to complete the program.

Next step was to take the Trimix Normoxic diver course for those who wanted to go into Trimix or get rid of the narcosis before it appeared. It took another week to complete that course. Spending time was necessary for us students to understand and get familiar with diving with a new equipment configuration and using Trimix Normoxic 21% o2 and 25% Helium, even though we regularly dove at these depths before (a CMAS *** diver used to be trained to dive at 200 fsw/60 m) depth. We used to call that a "giclette" in France meaning the perfect mix to get to 200 fsw/60 msw depth.

Along with the Technical Diver manual and workbook well adapted, we had another useful tool the Technical Diver Encyclopedia which IANTD updated in 2010 and renamed The Tao of Survival, a 400 pages encyclopedia. After 2010 many new technical diver programs were created.

The new IANTD Instructor, like his peers before him, still has to prepare his lectures following the logic he/she received during the class. Here are briefly listed the 4 steps I use with when I teach my Technical divers and Technical diver Instructor candidates:

• Step 1 

 Prepare the student with some reading of the Tao of Survival encyclopedia.

• Step 2

 Have the student participate in the lectures during which he/she is in possession of the IANTD student's kit, gets introduced with the slides, and decompression tables.

• Step 3 

 Prepare the student for the final exam with the questions on the workbook. Correction and review with the Instructor.

• Step 4

Final exam.

Please always make sure that you use these pedagogical tools it will help you understand the concepts required for the course.

You can order your kit at WDT dive shop.

Georges Gawinowski
IANTD SE Training Director