The No-Decompression Limit Was Never a Wall. Here Is What Is Past It.
Decompression Diving is Step 2 of Tom’s Precision / XR pathway, built on the platform XR Foundations establishes. This is where you stop diving around your no-decompression limit and start planning dives that go past it on purpose: staged ascents, gas switches, and a dive computer in decompression mode instead of counting down to it.
This course is planning-intensive and dive-intensive. You will build and verify your own dive profiles, not just follow one handed to you. $249 per diver. Contact Tom’s to begin the assessment conversation.
What Readiness Looks Like for Decompression Diving
Decompression Diving is not a course you start cold. It assumes the technical platform XR Foundations builds is already solid, because this course adds planning complexity and real decompression obligation on top of it. Specifically:
The technical platform is already in place.
Trim, buoyancy, gas awareness, and team procedures need to be automatic before adding a stage cylinder, a gas switch, and a mandatory decompression obligation into the mix.
Multi-gas planning is not new territory.
This course plans and dives with a back gas and a separate decompression gas. You need to already be comfortable with nitrox concepts like oxygen exposure and MOD before adding a second gas mix to track.
New equipment, ideally not a new skill on day one.
You will assemble, carry, hand off, and switch to a stage cylinder underwater. Some of this is introduced in XR Foundations; the pool session here builds it further before it happens in open water.
Diver Stress & Rescue strongly recommended.
Decompression diving reduces your options if something goes wrong mid-dive: you cannot always go straight to the surface. Rescue skills and calm problem-solving under load matter more here, not less.
Academic sessionsWhat Decompression Diving Builds
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Decompression Diving runs four academic sessions before you ever plan a real dive. Each one exists because a gap in it becomes a real problem underwater, not an abstract one.
Why decompression rules exist
Inert gas absorption, fast and slow tissues, the saturation/desaturation model, oxygen toxicity, and decompression illness. The physics and physiology behind the numbers your computer shows you.
Stage cylinders and accessories
Equipment configuration for decompression diving, stage cylinder selection and rigging, regulator routing, reels and spools, and delayed surface marker buoy (DSMB) deployment.
Computers, algorithms, and planning software
How dive computer algorithms and gradient factors work, dive planning software configuration, level of conservatism, and how to read and understand a full dive profile before you get in the water.
Planning, gas, and procedures
SAC rate calculation, selecting the right gas mix, maximum operating depth, generating and verifying a dive profile, minimum gas calculations, time-to-surface, gas switching, and team communication.
Course structureHow Decompression Diving Runs
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Decompression Diving runs across academics, a pool session, and three open water training dives, each one adding real decompression obligation on top of the last.
Pool/confined water session: Conducted in Tom’s 90°F heated pool, to about 40 feet. This session is where you fine-tune stage cylinder fit and handling, practice the gas switching procedure, and rehearse hand signals and buddy positioning before any of it happens in open water.
Open Water Training Dive 1: To 99 feet, with a simulated decompression profile (a suggested pattern is 2 minutes at 40 feet, 3 minutes at 30 feet, and 10 minutes at 20 feet). No real decompression obligation yet: this dive is about following the profile, the gas switch, and the DSMB deployment cleanly.
Open Water Training Dive 2: To 132 feet, with a real decompression obligation this time, capped at 15 minutes of decompression time. You plan the dive, monitor your own time-to-surface and gas, and complete an actual mandatory decompression stop before surfacing.
Open Water Training Dive 3: Also to 132 feet, same 15-minute decompression cap, but conducted with less direct guidance: this is where you show you can do it, not just follow along.
Where Decompression Diving Fits
Decompression Diving is Step 2 in the Precision / XR pathway, building directly on the platform XR Foundations establishes.
XR Foundations
Technical buoyancy, trim, gas management, team procedures, and equipment configuration. The foundation this course builds on.
Decompression Diving
Decompression theory, staged decompression procedures, extended depth limits to 132ft, and multi-gas diving. Requires XR Foundations.
Advanced Technical Certifications
Cave diving, rebreather, deeper technical diving, and other advanced pathways available to divers with strong decompression fundamentals.
See the Precision / XR pathway for the full picture of where this training leads.
Why Tom’s Dive & Swim for XR
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Decompression diving leaves less room for error than recreational diving, which means the shop teaching it needs to take it just as seriously. Tom’s has been part of the Austin diving community since 1982, and the Precision / XR program reflects the same philosophy that runs through everything we do: preparation over speed, capability over certification, and honest instruction over telling students what they want to hear.
Fine-tune equipment before it matters underwater.
Stage cylinder handling and gas switching get rehearsed in our 90°F pool first, where a fumble costs nothing, before either happens on an open water dive with a real decompression obligation attached.
We will tell you if you are not ready.
The assessment is not a formality. We genuinely evaluate readiness. Divers who are not ready get an honest roadmap rather than enrollment in a course they will struggle to complete.
Globally recognized technical certification.
SSI Extended Range certifications are recognized at technical dive sites and operations worldwide. Tom’s is Austin’s only SSI center, and the Precision / XR program is a full SSI Extended Range pathway.
Four decades of investment in diver development.
Tom’s opened in 1982. The Precision / XR program is not a new offering added to a course catalog: it is part of a shop with a 40-year commitment to building capable divers.
We follow DAN dive safety protocols.
Decompression diving leaves less room for error, which is exactly why Tom’s holds to DAN safety standards and recommends DAN dive accident insurance for every diver — non-negotiable since 1982.
Decompression Diving at a Glance
| Certification | SSI Decompression Diving |
| Price | $249 per diver |
| Format | 4 academic sessions, 1 pool/confined water session, and 3 open water training dives |
| Depths | Pool session and Dive 1 to 40–99ft with simulated decompression; Dives 2 and 3 to 132ft with real staged decompression stops, capped at 15 minutes of decompression time |
| Pool | Tom’s 90°F heated indoor pool · 5909 Burnet Rd, Austin TX |
| Prerequisites | XR Foundations required. Enriched Air Nitrox required (this course uses decompression gases and multi-gas dive planning). Diver Stress & Rescue strongly recommended. Readiness assessed by Tom’s instructor before enrollment. |
| Enrollment | By assessment only. Call or email to start the conversation. |
| Gated pathway | Enrollment requires an assessment conversation with a Tom’s Precision / XR instructor. This is not a test with a pass or fail: it is an honest conversation about readiness. |
Frequently Asked Questions
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Do I need XR Foundations before this course?
Yes. Decompression Diving builds directly on the equipment handling, trim, buoyancy, and team procedures that XR Foundations establishes. It is not a standalone course.
How deep does this course go?
The pool session and first open water dive stay in the 40–99ft range with simulated decompression. Dives 2 and 3 go to 132 feet with real staged decompression stops, capped at 15 minutes of decompression time.
Do I need Enriched Air Nitrox certification?
Yes, it is required. This course plans and dives with a back gas and a separate decompression gas, and assumes you are already comfortable with nitrox concepts like oxygen exposure limits and maximum operating depth. If you are not yet Nitrox certified, Tom’s offers the Enriched Air Nitrox course.
What equipment do I need?
A stage cylinder and rigging, a dive computer capable of multi-gas decompression planning, primary and backup dive lights, a delayed surface marker buoy (DSMB) with reel or spool, and a slate or wetnotes for recording your dive profile. Tom’s will confirm specifics during the assessment conversation.
How long does the course take?
Four academic sessions, one pool session, and three open water training dives, typically spread across multiple weeks. Tom’s instructors will outline a realistic schedule during the assessment conversation.
Is Diver Stress & Rescue required?
Strongly recommended, not strictly required. Decompression diving reduces your options if something goes wrong mid-dive, since a direct ascent to the surface is not always available. The skills in Diver Stress & Rescue are directly relevant.
Book online, call, or email, whichever is easiest for you.