Technical Diving International (TDI) was formed in 1994 by some of diving's most experienced instructors to bring technical applications of the sport to a wider audience. TDI's library of training materials and texts have become known as the industry's best and most professional resources. Most importantly, TDI has the best safety record of all training agencies. With offices worldwide and over 10,000 instructors teaching our programs, TDI has become the largest international specialised dive agency.
 

TDI or PSA Nitrox Diver

This is a half day entry level course and is available to all divers who wish to explore the many advantages of Nitrox diving and begin to expand their horizons. The qualification allows the diver the use of Nitrox from 22% to 40%. The course covers the history of Nitrox, its advantages, and disadvantages, oxygen toxicity, equivalent air depths, maximum operating depths, nitrox computers and gas analysis. We provide all the manuals, tea, coffee etc., no dives are involved unless you request them as an extra and all that is required by you is a calculator and some common sense.

This is a very straight forward course and is not at all difficult, we have never had a diver fail it yet !

Includes: TDI Nitrox manual & certification.

Pre-requisites: Open water diver or equivalent, minimum 15 years of age.

Cost: £60 or Basic Nitrox with 1 supervised dive £120
 

TDI or PSA Advanced Nitrox Diver
This is one of our most popular courses, it requires two day’s of your time, and includes 4 nitrox dives, we want you to get 100 minutes bottom time in. We will try to put the course together so that it fits your needs i.e. a couple of evenings tuition, and two Sunday morning’s of diving, or a weekend course. 

This advanced course covers all the topics in the nitrox course in much greater detail, with in-depth coverage of CNS & whole body oxygen toxicity and tracking, common mixing methods, best mix computations, decompression gas, accelerated decompression, dive planning, gas consumption calculations and equipment considerations, all culminating in certification to use 22% - 100% (oxygen) as a breathing gas.

For this course we have a variety of side mounts and pony cylinders that we can loan you for your course before you spend your hard earned money on kit before you have used it. The diving on this course is not depth orientated, it’s skills based, what this means is that we teach you new tricks, but your depth limit is decided by your existing qualification.

Includes: TDI Advanced Nitrox manual & certification, and all gases collected from us, it excludes site entry etc. 

Pre-requisites: Nitrox diver or equivalent (unless on a combined course), 25 logged dives, minimum 15 years of age. A nitrox clean cylinder (we can help you with this) appropriate for the diving we will be doing.

Cost: £199
 

TDI or PSA Combined Basic & Advanced Nitrox Diver
This course includes both of the above courses in one go. It is more intensive, and more expensive ! but more efficient. It again includes 4 nitrox dives (100 minutes bottom time) and covers all the topics in Nitrox in great detail, all culminating in certification to use 22% - 100% (oxygen) as a breathing gas.

Includes: TDI Basic & Advanced Nitrox manual & certification and all gases collected from us, it excludes site entry etc.

Pre-requisites: As for the advanced course.

Cost: £230

TDI or PSA Decompression Procedures Diver
This two day course examines the theory, methods and procedures of planned and extended decompression diving, including 4 dives. The program is designed as a stand alone course or it may be taught in conjunction with such TDI courses as Advanced Nitrox Course, Advanced Wreck Course, or Extended Range Course. The objective of this course is to train divers how to plan and conduct a standard staged decompression dive not exceeding a maximum depth of 45 msw (unless taught in conjunction with the Extended Range Course) The most common equipment requirements, gear set-up, and, the all important decompression techniques are presented, using nitrox, or oxygen mixes within the divers existing qualification.

Includes: TDI Decompression Procedures manual & certification.

Pre-requisites: Nitrox diver or equivalent (unless on a combined course), 25 logged dives, minimum 18 years of age. A nitrox clean cylinder, again, we can help you with this, and we can loan deco cylinders, appropriate for the diving we will be doing.

Cost: £210

TDI or PSA Combined Advanced Nitrox & Decompression Procedures Diver
This three day course includes both the Advanced Nitrox and Decompression Procedures courses as above. It is more intensive, but more efficient. It includes 6 dives and covers all the topics required to use mixtures from 40% to 100% for decompression as well as the ability to perform accelerated decompression. We discuss and practice all the options for sidemounts and rigging, correct gas switching procedures, risk assessments, etc.etc.

Includes: TDI Advanced Nitrox & Decompression Procedures manual & certification, in addition, all gases collected from us, it excludes site entry etc.

Pre-requisites: Advanced open water diver or equivalent, TDI Basic Nitrox or equivalent, 50 logged dives, minimum 18 years of age.

Cost: £340

TDI or PSA Advanced Wreck Diver
This 3 day course provides training and experience to competently conduct advanced wreck dives. This program includes penetration skills and techniques. Depths shall not exceed the level in which the diver is trained and competent, but in no case shall the maximum depth in this program exceed fifty five (55) msw. The objective of this course is to train divers in the proper techniques, equipment requirements and hazards of wreck diving. We do not run this course in quarries or on the James Egan Layne, it will be from a hard boat on a proper wreck such as the Sallsette !

Includes: TDI Advanced Wreck manual & certification. It excludes gases and boat fee’s.

Pre-requisites: Advanced open water diver or equivalent, TDI Basic Nitrox or equivalent, 50 logged dives, minimum 18 years of age.

Cost: £300

TDI or PSA Extended Range Diver
Again a very comprehensive four day course, with 100 minutes bottom time as one of the requirements to qualify. The course concentrates on the proper techniques, equipment requirements, and hazards of deep air (55 metres maximum) utilising nitrox and oxygen for accelerated decompression. The course places a great deal of emphasis on personal and team limits, shut down procedures, gas switching, DSMB deployment and contingency planning etc. This is the ideal course for those who do not have access to helium, for everyone else…….miss this one out and go straight to trimix as it’s a much better tool.

Includes: TDI Extended Range manual & certification.

Pre-requisites: Advanced Nitrox Diver and Decompression Procedures Diver or equivalent, 100 logged dives, of which 25 must be deeper than 30 msw. Minimum 18 years of age.

Cost: £400

TDI or PSA Entry Level Trimix
Now your coming into the area we specialise in, open circuit trimix. This four day, four dive course provides the training required to competently and safely utilize breathing gases containing helium for dives that require staged decompression, utilizing nitrox and/or oxygen mixtures during decompression to a maximum depth of 67m.

There are a huge number of wrecks in the 60 – 70 metre range that have previously been dived on air, and had most of the “spidge” left behind because the divers were out of their heads with narcosis. These wrecks are now becoming much more accessible with boats such as “Skin Deep” out of Weymouth, if you visit their web site take a peek at the bells page ! Helium is not cheap, but compared to the cost of a rebreather it’s a cost efficient way of diving down to 80 or so metres.

Includes: TDI Entry Level Trimix manual & certification. It excludes gas, you should budget for about £100. It also excludes site fee’s.

Pre-requisites: Advanced Nitrox Diver and Decompression Procedures Diver or equivalent, 100 logged dives, of which 25 must be deeper than 30 msw. Minimum 18 years of age.

Cost: £400 plus your gas.

TDI or PSA Advanced Trimix
This four day course provides the training required to competently and safely utilize breathing gases containing helium for dives that require staged decompression, and in addition, travel gases based on helium, utilizing Nitrox and / or oxygen mixtures during decompression to a maximum depth of one hundred (100) metres. The objective of this course is to train divers in the benefits, hazards and proper procedures of utilizing custom oxygen / helium / nitrogen mixtures as breathing gases at an expedition level. We would not offer this course to someone just starting trimix diving and, as a rule of thumb, we would suggest you need a minimum of one seasons trimix diving on a regular basis to cope with the level of skills expected when in the water.

Includes: TDI Advanced Trimix manual & certification.

Pre-requisites: Extended Range Diver or Entry Level Trimix or equivalent, 100 logged dives, of which 25 must be deeper than 30 msw. Minimum 18 years of age, and, at the discretion of the instructor.

Cost: £400 plus your gas.

TDI or PSA Gas Blender
This one day course teaches students the knowledge necessary for nitrox gas blending, a basic requirement if you are looking to blend nitrox in a club environment or if your looking for work in the diving industry. We show you how you can blend gas on a budget in a safe and cost efficient manner. We put a lot of emphasis on the hands on blending so that you actually make a wide selection of gases using a simple blending whip, to boosting oxygen with one of our Haskel pumps.

Includes: TDI Gas Blender manual & certification.

Pre-requisites: Minimum 18 years of age.

Cost: £110
 

TDI or PSA Combined Advanced Gas Blender
This intensive one day course trains students both as a nitrox blender and an advanced gas blender which includes use of nitrox, trimix, Heliox, Heliair, helium analysers and Haskel pumps etc. This one day course teaches students the knowledge necessary for nitrox gas blending, a basic requirement if you are looking to blend nitrox in a club environment or if your looking for work in the diving industry. Blending your own trimix can save a fortune over purchasing the gas in some shops. We put a lot of emphasis on the hands on blending so that you actually make a wide selection of gases using a simple blending whip, to boosting gases with one of our Haskel pumps.


Includes: TDI Advanced Gas Blender manual & certification.

Pre-requisites: Minimum 18 years of age.

Cost: £160

TDI or PSA O2 Service Technician

The course is sanctioned by Technical Diving International, one of the largest advanced diver training agencies in the world.


It is a three day course, and we find it runs smoothly when it is run over three consecutive working days here in our workshop in Cardiff. It is aimed at those who wish to prepare their own equipment for use with nitrox, or, who just wish to have the ability to do so should the need arise, perhaps whilst on an expedition. It is also suitable for people who are in more remote location’s and may have no other cost effective method of preparing their equipment. It is ideal for persons who are in the dive industry or, who wish to move into this field.

The course was originally a one day course aimed solely at O2 cleaning, however, over the years we have learnt that the bulk of our customers need a better grounding in regulator dismantling, assembling, and trouble shooting before they strip their valves for cleaning, to this end, it is now a three day course. Also, whilst most brands require just some small specialist tools, some brands require a lot of expensive specialist tools to complete the job successfully, to the degree that doing your own servicing is not necessarily a cost effective option, but at least you know it’s been done properly.

The DoT rules on cylinder testing means the course does not include cylinder testing, just cleaning, however, you are given an overview of how the process works.

One day will be spent on suits, jackets / wings and theory, and then we will spend at least two days just stripping and rebuilding yours and our valves, because of this, we limit the number of brand “types” to just three, thus giving you plenty of opportunity to have hands on experience and not have your time watered down too much. You will strip, rebuild and clean at least 6 – 8 valves.

I am happy to run it on a “one to one” basis if run on weekdays, but I try to limit the course to two people maximum
 

Includes: TDI O2 Service Technician manual & certification.

Pre-requisites: Minimum 18 years of age. You also need a reasonable understanding of nitrox, tools in general, and a dash of common sense !

Cost: The cost of the course is £298.00 which includes all the TDI manuals, TDI certification, and as many manufacturer manuals as you can cram onto a memory stick (bring your own !). Tools are provided for the duration of the course. And, as your servicing your own valves, this alone would cost you over £200 at dive shop rates. It excludes any accommodation, food etc.