I started scuba diving almost 5 years ago. Since then, I have become a dive and freediving instructor and love being underwater! I love the feeling of being in a new environment every day!

Working in the industry, learning and improving a bit every day, I still never thought about technical diving. It wasn’t my priority. I thought it was going to be a complicated theory and wasn’t for me!

After becoming more involved in the diving environment and talking to people who do lots of tec diving, I thought, they are so passionate about it, why not try it? Let’s go deeper and be at the bottom for more time than recreational divers!

But I knew that for me to do it, I would have some challenges!

My first challenge was: I am not sidemount certified, and I have no time to become certified before my tec 40 course, so I need to go in back mount!

Another challenge: it could be much cooler at 40m. I’m small, skinny and always cold! I’m new to dry suit diving, but I’m confident enough to go with it! And the last challenge: How to dive back mount with redundant stages? I have never done that before!

I spoke to my instructor Jamie, He is always super positive and helpful with all my questions.

In the beninging, I thought it would not work well because I’m a small person and it could be so heavy with back mount and two stages – but I was surprised at how easy it was.

We started our course from the shore. I could walk with my back tank and one of the stages. The other stage was waiting for me in the water. After I clipped on the third tank I was actually very comfortable.

In the water, you cannot feel the extra equipment and it’s very comfortable! The stages helped me to maintain the trim immediately! My drysuit also helped me with my buoyancy! I managed to complete all the skills in back mount and I thought it was a lot of fun!

We got to explore a deep wreck of the second day of training which was amazing. All through the visibility wasn’t great, the training made the dive really easy and we got to enjoy that little bit of extra time on the bottom that tec 40 diving allows. I can’t wait for my next tec 40 dive!!

Jamie is an excellent tec instructor who gave me all the support I needed to feel secure and safe! I definitely recommend the tec 40 course. It made me a better diver, a better buddy and now I understand the equipment and challenges of tec 40 diving, and that I can now make these dives safely while having lots of fun!