Drift diving, deep diving, surfacing in an area of boating traffic, or navigation-gone-wrong ascents - all perfectly sound and solid reasons to make your imminent presence known by sending up a highly visible marker buoy to alert others of your ascent. This class is just the ticket to learning how to select a DSMB and Finger Spool, store them on your kit, deploy them in a safe manner, and utilize them for your ascent. You'll be amazed how often you decide to employ your DSMB on your dives once you've been properly trained!

Ready to venture off the beaten path of shallow reef diving? The ocean, as well as the lakes and rivers we visit, is teeming with fine examples of maritime construction that for one reason or the other, is not afloat today. The Wreck Diver program is your entryway into safely exploring these manmade treasures lurking beneath the waves. The course is designed to familiarize divers with the skills and knowledge to explore wrecks safely in a variety of conditions with an emphasis on fun and safety.

The Cavern Diver course offers the certified diver a introductory glimpse into the truly amazing and beautiful world of underwater caves. This course allows the diver to explore that portion of the cave system within the daylight zone. You have the opportunity to experience the overhead environment in a controlled setting to determine if cave diving is of interest to you.

The Cavern Diver course offers the certified diver a introductory glimpse into the truly amazing and beautiful world of underwater caves. This course allows the diver to explore that portion of the cave system within the daylight zone. You have the opportunity to experience the overhead environment in a controlled setting to determine if cave diving is of interest to you.

If the spirit of adventure and unusual, challenging diving appeals to you, try diving under the ice. During the course, you dive with a PADI Professional in one of the most extreme adventure specialties recreational diving offers. Explore the unique aquascape found only under the frozen surface of a lake or river. You can be one of the few that have ever dived under a solid ceiling of ice. Plus, imagine the look on your Divemaster’s face on your next Caribbean trip when you flash your PADI Ice Diver certification. You might even get a chance to play with your exhaled air bubbles on the bottom of the ice or an opportunity to try the unique sport of upside down, bottom of the ice, skiing. For safety, all open water dives require the use of a tether line to surface support personnel.

So now you're a recreational scuba diver, and have gained enough experience and knowledge to earn your Advanced Open Water certification. But you know there's a whole lot more to learn, and experience, in your diving. Have you ever wondered what it’s like to dive in double tanks or a sidemount configuration? How about that reassurance of a redundant air source, such as a pony bottle? Or being comfortable enough to think it's high time to be less attached to your dive buddy, and more confident in your ability to take care of yourself? If you want to find out but aren’t quite ready to take the plunge into technical dive training, IVS's Technical Diving Fundamentals program will let you try technical dive equipment in a controlled environment to see if you like it. These experience programs are conducted under the direct supervision of a technical dive instructor who will not only get you comfortable in the gear but will also available to answer your questions about your future as a self-reliant and possibly even a technical diver. Includes Tec Basics (PADI) and Intro to Tec (TDI).

So now you're a recreational scuba diver, and have gained enough experience and knowledge to earn your Advanced Open Water certification. But you know there's a whole lot more to learn, and experience, in your diving. Have you ever wondered what it’s like to dive in double tanks or a sidemount configuration? How about that reassurance of a redundant air source, such as a pony bottle? Or being comfortable enough to think it's high time to be less attached to your dive buddy, and more confident in your ability to take care of yourself? If you want to find out but aren’t quite ready to take the plunge into technical dive training, IVS's Technical Diving Fundamentals program will let you try technical dive equipment in a controlled environment to see if you like it. These experience programs are conducted under the direct supervision of a technical dive instructor who will not only get you comfortable in the gear but will also available to answer your questions about your future as a self-reliant and possibly even a technical diver. Includes Tec Basics (PADI) and Intro to Tec (TDI).

The Intro to Tech course is the perfect course for divers who have heard about technical diving and want to find out more about this exciting branch of diving, while staying inside of recreational diving limits. This course walks students through the special techniques, planning procedures and skills that set technical diving apart from traditional sport diving. It will show them how to improve their dive planning methods, buoyancy control, in-water skills and proper gear configurations, in a non-threatening and fun learning environment. The skills learned during this course will increase the student’s self-confidence and notably decrease anxiety as divers move forward through the technical diving courses. Includes PADI Tec 40 and TDI Advanced Nitrox, along with SDI Solo Diver and PADI Self-Reliant Diver, if qualified.

As recreational divers planned decompression diving is not something that we practice or for that matter have been taught. The Tec 45 course prepares you for planned staged decompression diving. With a maximum operating depth of 45m/150 feet, this course is the first step that takes you beyond the diving limits of recreational diving. Includes PADI Tec 45 and TDI Deco Procedures.

As recreational divers planned decompression diving is not something that we practice, or for that matter have even been taught. The 130 ft depth limit is drilled into us as the 'hard bottom' for dive planning and execution, and rigidly enforced by nearly every recreational dive operator worldwide. But there's so much more to see, and so many more reasons, to venture a little further down, that it only makes sense that there is training and guidance available to allow you to safely do that.
Now that you've got your Tec 100, Intro to Technical Diving, in the bag, your kit is set up to technical standards, and you're ready to take you diving deeper, and longer, than ever before! IVS's exclusive Tec 200 program is designed to mentor our properly prepared divers as we experience new diving environments and considerations. This program focuses on the proper planning and execution of dives to 150 ft with accelerated decompression focusing on one deco gas mix, up to 100% O2.

If you want to explore the sunken shipwrecks of our past like never before, Advanced Wreck may be for you. Extend your range inside these watery tombs by learning Advanced Wreck Penetration while utilizing Decompression Techniques and bottle staging. The Advanced Wreck course is designed to teach divers to safely navigate inside and outside sunken wrecks. In this course, you will expanded your techniques in the use of guidelines, mapping, advanced dive planning, propulsion, and situation management skills.

Perceived by many as being only for technical divers the Recreational TriMix Diver course trains recreational divers and entry level technical divers on the use of TriMix gas blends to offset the effects of nitrogen narcosis resulting in a clearer head when performing deep dives. The Recreational Trimix Program covers the use of Recreational diving mixes in the range of 28 to 40% oxygen with Helium. The program is designed to provide recreational divers with a breathing medium for extending their dives to deeper depths by using an Equivalent Narcotic Depth between 40 to 80 fsw at depths up to 130 fsw.

Continue your Sidemount training by learning the skills and techniques to safely add a 3rd, 4th or more cylinders to your Sidemount setup. This allows the diver to safely plan and execute staged penetrations, or technical dives, utilizing additional cylinders and appropriate gases to achieve the goals and accomplish the planned mission. Note: This is NOT a technical diver training program; rather, it prepares a properly trained Technical Diver to plan and conduct dives in a Sidemount rig configuration.

For many technical divers nitrogen narcosis is just accepted as part of performing dives to depths beyond recreational diving limits, but it doesn’t have to be! The Advanced Recreational TriMix course trains divers on the use of TriMix to a depth of 160 fsw with a END of no more the 80 fsw. Through the use of TriMix gas blends divers will experience the same mental clarity at 160 fsw as they do at 80 fsw. With a clearer head response times to situations at depth are decreased resulting in a safer and more enjoyable dive experience. Imagine how much more you’ll see and remember on your dives without the mental “fog” of nitrogen narcosis.

Technical Diving introduces risk and hazards that are not found in recreational diving. This course is designed to expand on the rescue procedures you learned in recreational diving and introduce new rescue procedures used in technical diving. Topics Include: Accident avoidance, risk assessment, dive planning, emergency signaling protocols, team diving review, oxygen toxicity, decompression logistics, missed deco stops, in water recompression, DCS (Types 1 - 4), Neurological Exams, and the use / roles of support divers.

IVS's Tec 300 is the third step in technical diving and completes your training and preparation as a true entry level technical diver. The key here, as in all levels of diving, is that you have acquired the knowledge, rudimentary skills, and initial practical applications to allow you to safely plan and execute your next technical dives. Diving outside of the limits of recreational diving is an evolutionary process, and each dive should build on what has been learned in the dives already completed. Equipment configurations should evolve, switch slow, careful, calculated changes and updates, as you discover what works best for you, on a particular dive, or under a certain set of conditions. There is no "one size fits all" - and the ability to manage this decision-making process as part of your dive planning is a true testament to how seriously you have taken your training to date.
Technical diving allows divers to explore beyond the traditional limits of recreational diving. Technical divers learn how to use advanced equipment and techniques to extend their bottom time and depth limits. Since this type of diving is beyond the recreational limits, it can be unforgiving and requires additional training, equipment, and dedication. Tec 300 draws on the knowledge that you learned in previous technical training courses allowing you to further extending you maximum depth and decompression time. After certification you will be able to make planned decompression dives to 165 feet/50 meters using two gases, nitrox/EANx and 100 percent oxygen, to make your decompression more conservative and add increased safety to your overall dive planning. This program encompasses PADI Tec 50 and TDI Extended Range Diver, with the option of incorporating Helium in the bottom gas blends.

This course opens up the advantages of trimix to the experienced technical diver, and divers are qualified to make multi-stop decompression dives that employ EANx and oxygen for accelerated decompression, and any trimix with an oxygen content of 18% or more. The PADI Tec Trimix 65 course is intended to extend the depth range of technical divers already trained and qualified to use air, enriched air and oxygen for technical decompression dives beyond 50 meters /165 feet up to a maximum of 65 meters / 210 feet.