marcsig

Hi everyone,

Here's a short training report

I spent my Christmas doing Padi's Tec 40 course for the Evolution in Philippines

It was a new experience in more than one way. It was the first time I ever did a Padi course and my first "Tec-rebreather" (Type T(echnical)) course ( I dive the Poseidon Mk6, a type R(ecrational) unit).

I did my training with Paul Neilsen (PN) at Extreme Technical-Divers Asia (Technical Divers - Asia | Home) . I've previously done my IANTD Ad Nitrox with them before and PN has been around teaching rebreathers in APAC for decades... With both the Chinese and Vietnamese navy as well as quite a few of my buddies as past clients it was an obvious choice for me.

So what about the course?

I was impressed by the Padi course material. very well thought out and with written by CCR greats including Richard Pyle, Kevin Gurr and Jill Heinarth. I've trained with IANTD, BSAC, GUE and RAID and so far the Tec 40 CCR manual is the one the best (i haven't read any other Padi manuals though...). The manual was not unit specific and needs to be used together with the manufacturer manual.

The course contains four theory modules with exams as well as one major exam and 8 dives. Plenty of time was given for manual and "survival-operations".

Training was from 8:00-18:00 and was conducted in Paul's house/dive cente/hotel in Puerto Galera, Philippines. Well, its a bit hard to describe but imagine imagine your dream dive den full of gear, compressors, boosters, gas mixing facilities, etc. Then one house for divers and one where PN and his wife lives. Its a boutique style operation with max 6 divers at a time and a lot of time available for discussing CCR diving... It's located a 10-15min motorbike ride away from the nearest bar district so if bar life is a priority, not a great location. In water training was very convenient as their house is next to a small sheltered bay where PN has installed an underwater mirror ( great to practice buoyancy and trim...) and fixed lines installed on the bottom.
Part of my training was with Paul only and for two dives and a lot of discussions/theory Tomasz Sidanowski (Padi CD and Tec 40 CCR intructor who is based in Pattaya) joined.

Overall impressions:
- I really enjoyed the thoroughness and structure of the training.
- Training with a "T-type"-unit will definitely make me a better "R-type" unit diver...
- Extreme Technical Divers was top notch. Paul is a great instructor with tons of experience and the personal atmosphere makes it a different kind of experience.

So have I converted from Mk6 to Evolution? Nope, both the Evo and Mk6 are great units in their own way and will have important roles to fill in the type of diving I am doing now and intend to do in the future.

PS Yes, I'm not a native English speaker so please ignore grammatical mistakes etc.....
PS2 Thanks to Tomasz for the images

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marcsig

Opps spelling mistake. Should be Tomasz Sniadowski...

Dave1w

I'm heading back down there in March for a weeks training with Paul. My friend was across a couple of months ago to get his Inspiration training, and I did take the piss a bit when he came back with a PADI card ( he's a BSAC Diver through and through) but can imagine it must be a very good course if Paul were to choose that path.
Quick question, is there a crate of San Mig Lite in the fridge?

marcsig

He, he, being a BSAC diver myself I never really thought I'd be doing a Padi course.

Sorry mate, no SML's but plenty of the good ol' pilsen version ;)

Enjoy your training and send my best regards to Paul and Lorraine.