Courses in Tasmania
TDI Diver Propulsion Vehicle (DPV) Diver
Course code: TDI-04
Extend your technical range without allowing speed to outrun planning, awareness, or control.
The TDI Technical DPV Diver course develops the knowledge, planning discipline, equipment familiarity, and in-water control required to use diver propulsion vehicles during technical diving activities. Training covers DPV selection, rigging, burn-time planning, gas and decompression considerations, team positioning, controlled directional and depth changes, towing, gas sharing, disabled-DPV procedures, collision and entanglement avoidance, environmental judgment, and safe ascent management. The objective is not simply to operate a scooter, but to integrate a DPV into a disciplined technical dive plan while keeping the team, breathing gas, battery endurance, and exit strategy aligned.
Standards verification note: Standards verification note: This section has been checked against the current 2026 TDI Standards and Procedures, Part 2, Section 4 — Technical DPV Diver, and the official TDI course page. The standard requires two DPV dives with at least 60 minutes of accumulated bottom time, a minimum of four classroom and briefing hours, and a maximum training depth of 40 metres / 130 feet. Every planned dive must remain within the diver’s current certification. The maximum open-water ratio is 3 students per instructor, with further reduction at the instructor’s discretion. Minimum prerequisites are age 18, or 15 with parental consent, SDI Open Water Scuba Diver or equivalent, and proof of at least 25 logged dives. Certification requires safe and efficient completion of all dive requirements, sound judgment in planning and execution, appropriate awareness, and logged dives.
Quick Course Overview
• Certification scope
Plan and conduct technical DPV dives without direct supervision in conditions similar to training, while completing safety and decompression stops as appropriate.
• Required training
Two DPV dives with at least 60 minutes of accumulated bottom time, plus a minimum of four classroom and briefing hours.
• Depth and certification limits
Training does not exceed 40 metres / 130 feet, and every dive remains within the diver’s current certification.
• Core focus
DPV configuration, operation, burn time, dive and gas planning, team procedures, towing, failures, gas sharing, entanglement, collision avoidance, separation, and low-impact use.
• Maximum ratio
3 students per instructor in open water; our centre delivers this course privately for closer supervision and dedicated DPV support.
Certified divers who want to use a DPV to extend range, improve efficiency, manage current more effectively, and build the planning and problem-solving skills required for technical DPV dives.
Training Options
Premium one-on-one training only,
this is only offered as private training for safety and quality purposes. Private delivery provides focused configuration work, direct coaching, flexible pacing, deliberate site selection, and close management of DPV, battery, gas, team, and environmental considerations.
Private 1 on 1
$1,500 AUD
Note* This course is offered privately due to the equipment, supervision, site-selection, logistics, and safety-management requirements of technical DPV training.
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Prerequisites
• Minimum age 18, or 15 with parental consent.
• SDI Open Water Scuba Diver or equivalent.
• Proof of at least 25 logged dives.
• Current certification appropriate to every planned depth, breathing gas, decompression obligation, equipment configuration, and environment used during training.
• Suitable personal equipment, fitness, recent competence, buoyancy, trim, awareness, and readiness for technical DPV task loading.
Course Format
Knowledge development
Minimum four classroom and briefing hours covering motivations and advantages, DPV options and components, rated burn time, care, maintenance, rigging, environmental suitability, operational techniques, failures, and team procedures.
Planning
Turn time, turn distance, turn pressure, breathing-gas mix or mixes, no-decompression limits or decompression obligations, DPV endurance, team separation, towing capacity, and return or exit strategy.
Equipment preparation
DPV configuration and rigging, equipment matching, attachment and tow-cord setup, pre-dive checks, battery and burn-time verification, gas checks, bubble checks, and team-role confirmation.
Open-water training
Two DPV dives with at least 60 minutes accumulated bottom time in a suitable ocean, lake, quarry, spring, river, or estuary environment selected by the instructor.
Course limits
No dive deeper than 40 metres / 130 feet or beyond the student’s current certification; safety and decompression stops are completed as appropriate or necessary.
Assessment
All required planning, checks, DPV operation, failure-management, towing, gas-sharing, ascent, awareness, judgment, and logging requirements must be completed safely and efficiently.
What You Will Learn
Select, rig, inspect, operate, park, and manage a DPV appropriate to the planned environment and dive objective.
Plan range using turn time, distance, pressure, burn time, breathing gas, no-decompression limits or decompression obligations, and realistic failure contingencies.
Maintain buoyancy, horizontal trim, body posture, team position, communication, awareness, and stress control while under propulsion.
Make controlled directional and depth changes and use specialised propulsion techniques in varying flow without compromising the team or environment.
Respond to DPV malfunction or failure, complete an ascent with a disabled DPV, tow a teammate and disabled DPV, and conduct a gas-sharing ascent with DPVs clipped off.
Manage entanglement, collision risk, team separation, courtesy, site selection, and low-impact DPV operation.
What's Included
- Private professional instruction | One-on-one knowledge development, planning, equipment preparation, detailed briefings, debriefings, direct coaching, and performance evaluation.
- Academic and planning development | At least four classroom and briefing hours covering DPV systems, burn time, range, gas, decompression, environmental suitability, team procedures, hazards, and contingencies.
- Open-water training | Two technical DPV dives with at least 60 minutes of accumulated bottom time.
- DPV skills coaching | Configuration, checks, handling, buoyancy, trim, team positioning, directional and depth changes, towing, disabled-DPV procedures, gas sharing, ascent management, and low-impact use.
- Training DPV | Use of a DPV suitably configured for the planned environment, as confirmed at booking.
- Core dive support | Use of tanks, air fills, weights, and other specifically confirmed training equipment where required and available.
- Certification | TDI Technical DPV Diver certification processing after successful completion.
What's Not Included
- Personal dive equipment, including mask, fins, exposure protection, regulators, buoyancy system, computer or bottom timer, depth gauge, compass, cutting devices, slate or wet notes, DSMB or lift bag, reel or spool, and preferred accessories unless confirmed at booking.
- A personal DPV if you prefer to train on your own unit; suitability, service condition, rigging, battery condition, and compatibility must be approved before training.
- Nitrox, oxygen, trimix, decompression gases, specialised gas-analysis charges, additional cylinders, or non-standard fills unless specifically included.
- Boat fees (only if you want to explore of shore, training is shore based in Bicheno) , site fees, permits, travel, accommodation, and meals unless specifically included.
- DPV servicing, repairs, replacement parts, damaged or lost equipment, battery replacement, or charging outside planned course use.
- Hard-copy materials and anything not specifically listed in the final booking confirmation.
Why Train With Us
Technical DPV training grounded in substantial real-world technical diving—not simply the minimum experience needed to teach the course. • Thousands of technical dives behind our coaching | Our team brings extensive practical technical-diving experience to range planning, gas management, equipment integration, team discipline, and contingency decisions. • DPV procedures taught as part of the whole dive | We integrate the scooter with breathing gas, decompression, battery endurance, team positioning, navigation, towing, and exit strategy rather than teaching isolated button operation. • Private one-on-one delivery | Receive dedicated feedback on configuration, trim, handling, awareness, speed control, failures, towing, gas sharing, and ascent management. • Real Tasmanian conditions | Develop judgment for cold water, current, visibility, thermal load, site access, and the practical limits that affect technical DPV range. • Equipment and gas support under one roof | Access DPV guidance, technical configuration support, cylinders, gases, analysis equipment, and a clear pathway into more advanced technical objectives. • Competence before range | We prioritise stable, repeatable control and honest readiness feedback before encouraging longer, faster, or more complex DPV dives.
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