Hawaii Technical Diving Training

The courses completed

GUE Fundamentals
TDI Decompression Procedures
TDI Advanced Nitrox
TDI Helium Diver

In 2005 I did my initial technical dive training in Hawaii and I think I was one of the first members of HaTeD - Hawaii Technical Divers. I even created the logo and website at the time.

I had wanted to get into technical diving for quite a while, but the training was in its infancy in Hawaii at the time, and as a university student I couldn't afford it anyway. But when my colleague and friend became a technical instructor with TDI, I finally had the opportunity during my last year in Hawaii.

Joakim Hjelm, or Jo, was my friend and instructor for all courses except GUE Fundamentals.

Cool, calm and collected... and with a wicked set of dreads, would be a good description I think. Never a dull moment, above or below water.

The classes where done through Island Divers Hawaii, which had some fantastic facilities at Hickam Airforce Base, just outside of Honolulu. We spent a lot of time in the full-size pool perfecting our skills, especially the basics such as fin techniques and trim.

We used the shallow dive sites around Oahu's south shore for our skill dives

Sometimes we got a bit distracted

But we did manage to get some serious skills in as well. Here we're sharing gas with mask off.

We spent a lot of time practicing ascents, with really slow ascents from 6 meters to the surface.

We progressed to the deeper sites to practice with stage bottles and light deco.

Corsair is a popular wreck, resting at 110 feet.

As Joakim knew he wanted to become a GUE instructor we planned our dives using their methods, e.g. ratio deco and rock bottom calculations.

There weren't many trimix computers around at this time, and no smart phones or tablets, so it was very convenient calculating deco on the fly using simple bottom timers.‌