Our aircraft carriers still work and can seen here behind the Northwest’s newest PADI technical divers (from left to right) Chuck Neudorf, Alex Schumer and Sergey Derkachev. These students, along with Rich Pleiss, recently completed their Tec 40 certifications and have moved on to Tec 45 training with Northwest Diving Institute Tec Deep instructor Al Schumer.

The Tec 45 certification qualifies you to make limited decompression dives using air, enriched air and oxygen to a depth of 45 metres/145 feet or less. Certification as a Tec 45 diver qualifies you to use a single decompression gas of up to 100 percent oxygen to make your decompression more conservative or to accelerate your decompression.

(Seriously, we’re planning the technical diving trip of a lifetime on the Oriskany next month!)