There are two main types of diving: recreational diving and tek or technical diving.
Recreational diving
The first, as its name indicates, is practiced for the purpose of exploration and pleasure. It consists of using traditional diving equipment including:
- – A diving mask
- – A pair of fins
- – A combination of wet, semi-tight or waterproof diving depending on the temperature of the water
- – A stabilizing jacket, also called a buoyancy control device BCD
- – A diving regulator with a pressure gauge and an emergency regulator
- – One diving bottle or block
- – A belt of lead or lead attached to the waistcoat
- – A dive computer or depth gauge
- – A landing parachute for autonomous divers
Most of the dive are done with the assistance of a professional of a diving guide with at least a dive master of a dive instructor training degree and are generally made without decompression stop. For leisure dives, the effort provided is therefore relatively reduced which makes this activity practicable to the greatest number. The breathing air is either compressed air or a slightly super-oxygenated mixture nitrox but does not exceed 40% oxygen. The depth limit never exceeds 60 meters in France for a level 3 and 40 meters for major international federations such as PADI or SSI.
Technical diving
Technical diving is a more engaged and complex form of under water diving, even if each dive is for personal pleasure. It requires special dive training, more planning, extensive diving experience, specific equipment and sometimes combinations of different gases from air or nitrox. Diving federations such as TDI, CMAS or IANTD offer quality training that was once considered as mad and suicidal.
Different approaches to tek diving
- – Deep diving: These immersions make rapid ascent absolutely impossible. It is therefore imperative to follow certain guidelines and have a slightly different diving equipment. The dives can be carried out with different blocks containing mixtures other than air such as helium or hydrogen. Thanks to this diving techniques, you would be able to dive deeper and longer but also to decrease the bearing times and to favor the elimination of the nitrogen, dissolved in the blood.
- – Cave Diving: This particular diving discipline is less common because it concerns fewer enthusiasts. Techniques, onerous and difficult to control, are, however, indispensable, considering the real danger of this discipline. Nevertheless, the evolution of mentalities and the improvement of equipment democratize every day a little more this type of diving.
- – Wreck Diving: Entering a ship lying at the bottom of the water is an extraordinary adventure and a dive into history. However, these excursions require caution, experience and appropriate equipment. Special training in wreck diving is available in all major diving organizations.
- – Ice diving: this type of activity requires equipment adapted to extreme cold conditions, including a combination of waterproof diving and a facial mask.
- – Diving with a closed or semi-closed rebreather: as with the activities mentioned above, diving with a recycler will require a suitable training program. This type of diving equipment remains very expensive and thus hardly accessible to a wide public.
