What Is Tech Diving?
It’s a moving target, as dive techniques and equipment have drifted from commercial and military fields to recreational diving. There is general agreement that within recreational diving there are two categories–sport and technical–and that a technical dive is one deeper than 130 feet, and/or using nitrox mixtures of more than 50 percent oxygen, and/or using trimix. In addition, tech dives often involve using gear like double tanks, stage tanks and penetration equipment like reels. Pedants will point out that this is a description, not a definition. True, and maybe the best we can do, because the inner and outer limits of technical diving are in constant movement. For example, all nitrox was once considered technical, but 32 percent and 36 percent nitrox are now considered sport gases. At the other end of the scale, trimix was once confined to commercial diving and has recently become more common in recreational tech diving. Perhaps what should distinguish technical from sport diving
