Corso Tech 1 Diver

The UTD Tech 1 Diver course runs over five full days and is the first course in UTD's technical certification track that puts divers on trimix. Students work with gas mixes at 25/25, 21/35 or 18/45 (oxygen/helium), carry a single deco cylinder with a choice between Nitrox 50 and 100% oxygen, and learn to plan and execute two technical dives in a single day.

At Argentario Divers this course runs on actual technical dive sites — the wrecks Marsala, Pramnos, and Mister X, and the seamounts Secca di Mezzo Canale and Secca di Zi Costante are all part of the technical dive programme from Porto Ercole. These sites give the course real operational context: students aren't practising theoretical deep dives in shallow water.

The centre's fill station blends all required gases on site. Trimix is available with 24 hours' notice, and the multigas analyser reads helium, oxygen, CO, CO2, humidity and temperature simultaneously — students analyse their own gas before every dive as part of the UTD protocol.

Tech 1 requires completion of Essential of Tech or an equivalent technical entry course. From here, Tech 2 (60 metres, extended deco, €1,300) and Tech 3 (multiple deco cylinders and stage bottles, €1,300) continue the progression within the same centre.