Talking Tech with John Kean
a road less travelled...
image: Sinai Divers
‘And what seems to be the problem young man?’
So how can a tech instructor help with your recreational diving?
‘Well Doctor, every time I drink my tea I get a pain in my right eye. Should I Well, their mastery of equipment, knowledge, buoyancy control and
switch to coffee?’ dive planning has been achieved through the stages of recreational
and into technical decompression diving,where breaking ceilings
‘No, just try taking the spoon out of the cup first!’ or exceeding depth is not an option. Keeping to plan and knowing
breathing gas consumption at all times makes them very efficient
Advice is freely available in the dive industry too, but what do we say and relaxed divers. They look slow and graceful, even with extra tanks,
to our guests and students when they come to us with the problems because moving around exerting energy increases breathing rates
they experience in the water? Like a doctor, we have been trained and shortens a dive. A relaxed diver is not just more capable of solving
to diagnose and remedy in a wide variety of areas where a diver a problem but also of avoiding them in the first place. Learning
can benefit and improve. Here’s a typical wish list from some divers advanced buoyancy and weighting techniques on technical courses
looking to step up a notch or two: will give you this level of competence.
• Lower air consumption A beginner recreational diver certification requires a diver to hover
• Perfect buoyancy control for at least a minute on a qualifying dive. A technical dive requires
• Superior problem solving and risk management ability you to maintain good buoyancy for the entire dive. And that’s barely
• Better understanding of equipment scratching the surface. Tech courses, by their very nature, get you
• An increase in knowledge but in an interesting and exciting way closer to in-water perfection more than any other form of dive
• New things to see training.
• New things to do
• Longer underwater Afterwards, you can take your newly acquired skills back into single
• And maybe going deeper underwater tank recreational diving and hover like a Harrier jump-jet. The only
thing that will drop like a stone is likely to be your air consumption
Sometimes we offer specialty courses in these areas, which are often rate.
one or two day short courses. However, more recently many are
finding that a three-day entry-level technical diving course will also The Red Sea is home to many established technical diving instructors.
give them everything they need and more. The good thing about Tap them on the shoulder and ask a few questions. We’re more than
technical dive training is that all areas of your diving improves. It’s happy to chat about how we can help you grow.
not just about learning new skills. A technical diving instructor, for Safe and happy diving.
instance, is also a recreational diving instructor. That is a pre-requisite John Kean
for the rating.
A well-known name in technical diving in the Red
It’s not all about going deep and talking funny, as some may think. To
Sea, John Kean is a long-term resident of the Sinai
go deep, you have to learn shallow first. For pilot training you have to
and has worked in the diving industry for 11 years.
learn to fly low before you can fly high. To perform surgery, you have
Both a PADI Master Instructor and a TDI Trimix
to first be a doctor and at least dress a wound or two first.
Instructor, he still actively teaches and guides at all
Technical instructors have at least ten diver ratings under their belt,
levels of diving. John has more than 1,000 student certifications
including four at professional teaching levels, including recreational.
and over ,000 Red Sea dives to his name. He is the author of SS
In other words, they’ve done exactly what recreational professionals
Thistlegorm: The True Story of the Red Sea’s Greatest Shipwreck and
have done and much more.
also writes regularly for European-based diving magazines.
Issue 1 June 2009 www.cdws.travel 1
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