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What is Tec Diving?
Technical Diving allows you to extend your diving beyond recreational “no stop” limits. This allows you to plan longer dives at shallow depths, or to plan dives to more advanced depths and locations. Technical (tec) diving allows you to greatly expand your diving skills and knowledge and can provide you with experiences and exploration opportunities in places very few people will ever see:
- Increased Range - Exploring deeper than 40 metres/130 feet
- Increased Diving Environments - Diving in caves, shipwrecks or other special environments
- Increased Skills - Using specialized gas mixtures and decompression procedures
- Specialized Equipment - Using highly specialized equipment, like a closed or semi-closed circuit rebreather
Deeper Diving, Rebreather Diving and More
Tec diving attracts experienced divers who want to go places other divers cannot. These types of divers usually enjoy a challenge and are willing to focus on technical diving demands. Tec divers are able to visit reefs and wrecks at depths well below the 40 metre/130 foot recreational limit. With further specialized training, they can explore inside wrecks, underwater caves, and other places well beyond the reach of mainstream sport diving.
Start With Tec 40
Give Technical or Rebreather Diving a Try!
Are you curious about technical or recreational rebreather diving? Sign up for a Discover Tec or Discover Rebreather experience. A PADI TecRec Instructor will help you try out tec diving equipment or a rebreather in a pool (or pool-like environment) and show you some basic skills.
Discover Tec Try Rebreather
Technical Diving Courses
Continuing-Education
Discover Technical Diving
This short experience is designed to introduce divers to basic technical diving skills and procedures in a confined water setting. Discover Tec may credit toward the Tec Basics and Tec 40 Diver courses.
Continuing-Education
Tec 40 and Tec 40 Trimix
Consists of seven knowledge development sections, four practical application sessions and four training dives. Designed for the diver transitioning from recreational diving to technical diving.
Continuing-Education
Tec 45 and Tec 45 Trimix
Extend your depth limit to 45 metres/150 ft. Learn to plan and execute repetitive decompression dives using a single stage/decompression cylinder.
Continuing-Education
Tec 50 and Tec 50 Trimix
Make extended range dives up to 50 metres/165 ft. Learn how to make dives with multiple decompression stops, using two decompression gases.
Continuing-Education
Tec Sidemount
Wearing more than one tank has become increasingly popular for technical diving. With the Tec Sidemount Diver course you can apply what you learn to other TecRec courses.
Professional
Tec Sidemount Instructor
As a Tec Sidemount Instructor, you can teach the advantages of sidemount diving to tec divers or introduce scuba divers to tec diving with the Tec Sidemount Diver course.
Continuing-Education
Tec Trimix Diver
This course turns experienced tec divers into extreme divers. During this course, you'll make dives as deep as 90 metres/300 feet, use multigas trimix computers, & handle up to 4 stage/deco cylinders.
Continuing-Education
Tec Trimix 65
Extend your depth range the right way with a blend of helium, oxygen & nitrogen (trimix). The Tec Trimix 65 course introduces you to using trimix down to a maximum depth of 65 metres/210 feet.
Professional
Tec Trimix Instructor
As a Tec Trimix Instructor you can teach the full range of deep open-circuit tec diving courses, including Tec Trimix 65 and Tec Trimix Diver. It's a respected certification only a few achieve.
Continuing-Education
Tec Gas Blender
Being a gas blender is a key job at a busy PADI Dive Center or Resort. This course teaches you how to blend enriched air nitrox and helium-based gases using one or more blending methods.
Professional
Tec Trimix Instructor
As a Tec Trimix Instructor you can teach the full range of deep open-circuit tec diving courses, including Tec Trimix 65 and Tec Trimix Diver. It's a respected certification only a few achieve.
Continuing-Education
Discover Rebreather Program
Breathe without exhaling bubbles as a rebreather diver. You'll get longer no stop limits, learn to reuse the gas you exhale by recycling the good part and replenishing it for your next breath.
Continuing-Education
Rebreather Diver
Get longer no stop limits, reduced gas consumption (reuse most of your exhaled gas), & unmatched wildlife encounters because you don't release annoying bubbles.
Continuing-Education
Advanced Rebreather Diver
Dive in silence and train to dive as deep as 40 metres/130 feet. Learn about scrubbers, oxygen consumption and bailout requirements including how to configure a bailout cylinder system.
Continuing-Education
Tec 40 CCR
The Tec 40 CCR course is your entry into the tec diving realm. Learn the details of proper setup, predive checks, dive planning, failure and problem management and teamwork for CCR diving.
Continuing-Education
Tec 60 CCR
The next step in becoming a tec CCR diver. Learn to complete multiple decompression stops, manage life-support problems, and dive with trimix/heliox as a diluent. It's a considerable challenge.
Continuing-Education
Tec 100 CCR
Significantly more challenging than the Tec 60 CCR Diver course. You'll learn to plan and make dives with hypoxic trimix/heliox using a Type T (technical) CCR to a max depth of 100 metres/330 feet.
Professional
Tec 40 Instructor and Tec 40 Trimix Instructor
Tec 40 Instructors introduce divers to tec diving and open up the world of tec exploration to the next generation. Ask your PADI Tec 50 Instructor Trainer how you can get started.
Professional
Tec 40 CCR Instructor
This course is the entry into the ranks of Tec CCR professionals and qualifies you to conduct Discover Rebreather programs and teach the Tec 40 CCR Diver course.
Professional
Tec 60 CCR Instructor
Build on your Tec 40 CCR course & become a Tec 60 CCR Instructor. Train tec divers to extend their CCR diving adventures down to 60 metres/200 feet & dive through multiple decompression stops.
Professional
Tec 100 CCR Instructor
Learn to guide divers through meticulous dive planning and execution of 100 metres/300 feet dives. Configure and use 4 different offboard bailout systems and practice different emergency scenarios.
Professional
Tec 50 Instructor and Tec 50 Trimix Instructor
Tec 50 Instructors develop tec divers to extended their range ready to take part in many types of tec exploration - Ask your Tec 50 Instructor Trainer.
PADI TecRec courses set the bar for technical and rebreather diver training. These courses provide a strong foundation and result in divers who are both confident and competent. TecRec Courses will greatly expand your diving knowledge and skills, and PADI TecRec courses are designed to offer comprehensive and realistic training that is both robust and industry proven.
As a technical diver you will learn how to manage the risks associated with diving beyond the limits of recreational diving.
Rebreather Diving
Simply put - rebreathers help save and recycle your gas, which allows you to stay much longer underwater. Rebreathers are quiet, so you can get closer to wildlife, and they optimize the oxygen/nitrogen you're breathing. Taking advantage of these benefits requires special training in using these technologies, and each rebreather model has its own special requirements.
Although they are recreational diving courses, PADI’s Rebreather and Advanced Rebreather Diver courses fall under the TecRec umbrella because you learn to use closed circuit technology within recreational limits. The Tec CCR (closed circuit rebreather) Diver courses, on the other hand, train you in using CCRs in technical diving, with training available to 100 metres/330 feet.
Rebreather Diver Tec 40 CCR
Sidemount Diving
Wearing a scuba cylinder on your back works for most diver most of the time, but it's not always the best option. Some recreational and tec divers use sidemount, which repositions the cylinders along your sides under your arms. Sidemount has several advantages including easy cylinder donning and removal, a lower profile (often useful in activities like cave diving) and less need to wear tanks out of the water. Although it appears awkward, it is one of the most streamlined and comfortable ways to dive.
Try Sidemount
Teach technical diving by becoming a TecRec Instructor
There are many instructor ratings you can apply for to teach TecRec courses. These ratings have/require different applications and experience, please contact your PADI Regional Headquarters for more information. Read more below on specific courses a Tec instructor can teach.
Learn More
More Information
Tec diving and rebreather questions, answered
Do I have to invest in all new equipment to start tec diving?
In most cases, recreational scuba masks, wet suits, dry suits and fins can often be used for tec diving. However, tec diving is its own activity with its own requirements, so for open circuit tec diving you'll usually need two new dive computers that can accommodate mixed gases and staged decompression, more regulators and a tec BCD. For closed circuit diving you'll need a rebreather, which usually has its own BCD and integrated computers. If you like scuba equipment, you’ll love tec diving!
Is technical and rebreather diving safe?
Going deeper and staying underwater longer does increase risk – the potential to be seriously injured is higher. Understandably, this is why technical diving isn’t for everyone. However, with proper training, you learn to manage and reduce these associated risks to a level most people consider reasonable. But, the risk is nonetheless higher than in mainstream recreational diving.
How do I find a dive shop that offers technical/rebreather diving?
Visit PADI’s dive shop locator and set the Filter to TecRec Centers, or simply click on this link to start your search.
What can Tec instructors teach?
Tec 40 Instructor
- Tec 40 instructors can teach Tec 40 Diver, Discover Tec,and Tec Basics
Tec 45 Instructor
- Tec 45 instructors can teach Tec Basics, Tec 40, Tec 45, and Discover Tec
Tec 50 Instructor
- Tec 50 Instructors can teachTec Basics, Tec 40, Tec 45, Tec 50 Diver, and Discover Tec
Tec Trimix Instructor
- Can teach Tec 65, and Tec Trimix Diver
Tec Sidemount Instructor
- Can teach Recreational and Technical Sidemount Diver.
Rebreather/Advanced Rebreather Instructor (unit dependent)
- Can teach Rebreather Diver and Advanced Rebreather Diver.
Tec CCR Instructor (unit dependent)
- Tec 40 CCR Instructor
- Can teach Tec 40 CCR Diver.
- Tec 60 CCR Instructor
- Can teach Tec 60 CCR Diver.
- Tec 100 CCR Instructor
- Can teach Tec 100 CCR Diver.
Keep Reading
Learn more about technical diving with tips and stories from our divers.
Technical Diving: The 10 Best Dive Sites in the World
Some of the best dive sites in the world are off-limits to recreational divers
Top 4 Reasons to Try Rebreather Diving
Rebreather divers enjoy longer dive times and closer animal encounters
Get Streamlined with PADI Sidemount Diver
Learn about the many benefits of sidemount diving
See all Tec articles
