BSAC’s Explorer Mixed Gas Diver (60m) course is a great way to extend your existing open-circuit mixed gas diving skills to 60m.
You will learn how to dive with a travel gas to optimise your breathing mix at all stages of the dive. The course complements the Sports Mixed Gas Diver (50m) course and students with suitable experience and skills can combine the two in one event.
I was looking for my next challenge, to dive 50-60m wrecks and be confident using trimix and travel gas to get to the sites I wanted to explore. This is a thorough course that equips you to do just that and has opened up some fantastic diving opportunities for me.
- Julian Dicker, Guildford SAC
Explorer Mixed Gas Diver introduces a Sport Mixed Gas Diver (50m) to the use of a travel gas to support diving with normoxic trimix, and qualifies them to dive such mixes to depths of up to 60m using a twin-set and two stage cylinders.
To enrol on the Explorer Mixed Gas Diver Course you must be at least 18 years old and have already successfully completed a Sport Mixed Gas Diver (50m) course (or have equivalent certification from another recognised training agency).
You should be proficient at deeper diving, with 30 or more logged dives in the 30m to 50m range and have dived to 30m or deeper in the 4 weeks leading up to this course.
You will extend the breathing gas mixes that you can use, learning to use normoxic gas mixes containing at least 18 per cent oxygen and a maximum of 35 per cent helium to minimise the narcosis you would otherwise suffer at depth. You will learn to plan and conduct dives to 60m, and extend your practical diving skills to manage two stage cylinders, one containing a travel gas and one a deco gas.
The Explorer Mixed Gas Diver (60m) course includes a dry practical session to review your kit set up, a sheltered-water lesson to practise managing two stage cylinders, a dive planning session and a minimum of 60 minutes open-water diving to 60m. If you attend a combined Sport Mixed Gas Diver (50m) and Explorer Mixed Gas Diver (60m) course, the kit review and sheltered-water lessons are optional refresher sessions, delivered depending on your level of deep-diving experience and familiarity with the dive kit appropriate for a 60m dive.
This is a continually assessed course during which students must reach the required performance standards.
An Explorer Mixed Gas Diver is a diver who is competent to plan and conduct open-circuit dives using gas mixes containing at least 18 per cent oxygen and a maximum of 35 per cent helium. This will extend your maximum dive depth to 60m.
You could do this course at a regional event, local club or a Technical centre.Not all clubs and technical centres run Explorer Mixed Gas Diver (60m) courses, so please check if you are interested.
Alternatively, book your place on a scheduled Explorer Mixed Gas Diver (60m) course online now.
Not a BSAC member? You can do this course by joining BSAC directly or joining via a local club. Find a club.
Students will be given a pack of supporting learning materials. You will need full open-water dive kit suitable for local conditions, including a twin set and two stage cylinders each with a minimum capacity of seven litres.
After completing Explorer Mixed Gas Diver (60m) and consolidating your skills, your options for deeper expedition diving significantly expands.
- You can develop your open-circuit deeper diving skills to 60m as an Advanced Mixed Gas Diver (80m).
- You can develop your diving skills further by learning how to be a Closed Circuit Rebreather Diver.
- You could develop specific skills to expand your diving interests further, including technical and logistical courses such as Compressor Operation and Mixed Gas Blender. Check out the Skill Development Courses (SDCs) you can get involved in.
- Already an Open Water Instructor, or above? You could hone your skills to become a Technical Instructor and join your regional team.
- Not done any instructing? You could sign up for BSAC’s Instructor Foundation Course (IFC) to start your instructing journey with BSAC.
