With continuing advancement, its important to keep current and its TBI’s philosophy that those participating in technical diving should have a comprehensive grasp of each, ensuring the safety and enjoyment of everybody.
TBI are operators of Dahab Divers Technical in the coastal town of Dahab, Egypt. With a state of the art centre located on the beach and fully geared and capability to accommodate the education and logistics for all aspects of technical diving. The centre is proud to work very closely as representatives for Hollis Gear (www.hollisgear.com) and the official worldwide training centre for Ocean Reef full face masks (www.oceanreefgroup.com).
Dahab
Dahab is a Mecca for technical diving, with 200 meters walls located only steps off the beach and world famous dive sites like The Arch/Blue Hole, Canyons, and Abu Helal only a short taxi ride away. The warm water, often 40m+ visibility, and minimal currents make it the perfect technical training ground. Beach front access to perfect confined water conditions make it ideal for education, and the lack of necessity for boats make logistics stress free. The fore mentioned unmatched depth is the reason that some of the best divers in the world frequent the waters of Dahab, with some of the deepest recorded O/C and CC dives occurring locally.
Who are We?
Jonas Samuelsson is a TDI Adv. Tmx instructor and multi award winning PADI/TecRec Course Director and Instructor Trainer. He has taught over 2000 instructors (while managing the largest dive centre in the world located in Thailand) and official ambassador for Hollis Gear, Fourth Element, and Ocean Reef. Jonas teaches all the instructor level courses and focuses on TBI’s deep master class courses, with a maximum depth of 190m.
Aron Arngrimsson is a TDI/TecRec Adv. Tmx instructor and highly skilled underwater videographer. With years of underwater filming experience, Aron is the primary videographer on many of Team Blue Immersion Fx’s promotional videos and instructor for our technical videographer courses. Aron is responsible for all the gas blending training and has a maximum depth of 175m here in Dahab.
Erik Brown is a TDI/TecRec Adv. Tmx instructor and primary sidemount (rec and tech) instructor for TBI. He is also a Hollis Prism II Rebreather instructor and assists on TBI promotional works with a history is underwater film . Erik has a Max depth of 165m, 135m on technical sidemount, and 120m on the Hollis PRISM II rebreather.
Philosophy
Technical diving must be approached with a particular attitude. This applies to both components that take place above and below the water. Crucial aspects of this ‘attitude’ start with teamwork and the ability to work with others, especially the ability to learn and continue to progress in a continually evolving sport. There are so many different avenues and discipline in technical diving that it makes it hard for one single person to excel in everything. The team’s philosophy is for each to specialize in their area of expertise, allowing them to gain experience that can then be shared with the team and others allowing for a well round center where all facets of technical diving are covered. It’s important for all member to continue to expand their own education/experience in order to stay on the cutting edge of an always evolving sport – whether it is decompression science and procedures, progressing configuration ideas, equipment, or dive medicine.
The team has put is best efforts and focus into 3 main aspects of technical diving – education, expeditions, and documentation through video and photo productions.
Education is the backbone to any successful technical diving team. The ability to share knowledge with others and increase the awareness and safety of the sport is crucial. Mastery learning is the key to any self sufficient technical diver and often teaches students/instructor candidates over the course of weeks or months through an internship style program. This allows each to participate is all areas of technical diving under different instructors and allows for the experience required to further pass on their knowledge and experience with others, both in the water on the daily skills needed to operate a technical diving center.
TBI closely follows a DIR style of diving, again stressing team diving and important aspects of a standardized technical configuration. It is the muscle memory and familiarization of a person’s equipment and diving style that prevents confusion and drastically decreases problems in emergency procedures. Hours are spent in the shallows ensuring confidence before proceeding into depth and decompression diving.
Expeditions are the highlight and goal for any technical diver. The ability to go places rarely seen by others while conducting dives in locations that require mass amour of preparation, skills, and logistic is rewarded by an unmatched sense of accomplishment. TBI is proud to bring you “Expedition Alexander Hamilton/Ocean Reef” where the team will documenting and apply a plaque to a newly found WWII US Coast Guard Ship at 100m off the coast of Iceland in memory of the fallen soldiers (Please stay tuned for updates in Blog #2 specifically dedicated to this expedition)
Film/video productions allow the team not only to capture moments uncommon for some divers, but to share the experiences and story with everyone. We are lucky to witness some of the most amazing dive sites in the world, with only the hope of sharing these experiences with others. Through our contacts with many great companies, we provide many of the video used for promotional purposes.
Together with Scuba Diver Life Team Blue Immersion is hoping to share their knowledge with not only technical divers, but divers of all levels. Future blogs to follow will be written based on the experiences of TBI and also the input and questions from you – the readers.
Team Blue Immersion
