The International Association of Nitrox and Technical Divers (IANTD) is a
scuba diving
Scuba diving is a mode of underwater diving whereby divers use breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface air supply. The name "scuba", an acronym for " Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus", was coined by Chr ...
organization concerned with certification and training in
recreational diving
Recreational diving or sport diving is diving for the purpose of leisure and enjoyment, usually when using scuba equipment. The term "recreational diving" may also be used in contradistinction to "technical diving", a more demanding aspect of ...
,
technical diving
Technical diving (also referred to as tec diving or tech diving) is scuba diving that exceeds the agency-specified limits of recreational diving for non-professional purposes. Technical diving may expose the diver to hazards beyond those normally ...
wreck diving
Wreck diving is recreational diving where the wreckage of ships, aircraft and other artificial structures are explored. Although most wreck dive sites are at shipwrecks, there is an increasing trend to scuttle retired ships to create artificia ...
,
rebreather
A rebreather is a breathing apparatus that absorbs the carbon dioxide of a user's breathing, exhaled breath to permit the rebreathing (recycling) of the substantially unused oxygen content, and unused inert content when present, of each breath. ...
diving and diver leadership. Originally formed as the International Association of Nitrox Divers in 1985 by
Dick Rutkowski
Richard Rutkowski is a pioneer in the fields of hyperbaric medicine, diving medicine and diver training, especially in relation to the use of breathing gases.
Background
Rutkowski joined the US government service in 1950 and served during the ...
it pioneered the introduction of Enriched Air Nitrox diving to the recreational diving community, before its name change in 1992 to reflect the more "technical" diving courses it had begun to teach. The European Association of Technical Divers (EATD) became part of IANTD in 1993.
History
Dick Rutkowski
Richard Rutkowski is a pioneer in the fields of hyperbaric medicine, diving medicine and diver training, especially in relation to the use of breathing gases.
Background
Rutkowski joined the US government service in 1950 and served during the ...
, the former dive supervisor for the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...
(NOAA), formed the International Association of Nitrox Divers (IAND) in 1985 to teach
nitrox
Nitrox refers to any breathing gas, gas mixture composed (excepting trace gases) of nitrogen and oxygen. This includes atmospheric air, which is approximately 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 1% other gases, primarily argon. In the usual applicatio ...
to recreational divers. This program was developed through NOAA during his tenure. In 1992
Tom Mount
Tom Mount (March 1939 – January 2022) was an American pioneering cave diver and technical diving, technical diver.
Mount was born in March 1939. By 1967 he had made more cave dives than anyone else in the world, according to fellow caver Shec ...
became the President and CEO, and the name of the organization was changed to the International Association of Nitrox and Technical Divers (IANTD). Billy Deans has also served as a director of IANTD. Prior to founding IAND, Rutkowski worked for Dr Wells and was director of the diver training at NOAA.
As the first agency to offer recreational certification in nitrox, IANTD grew at a steady pace from 1985 through February 1992 with the support of Hyperbarics International. The European Association of Technical Divers (EATD) was formed by Kevin Gurr, Richard Bull, and Rob Palmer in the UK in 1992 and merged into IANTD the following year. In 1992 Tom Mount became President of IANTD, a position that he held until 2005. During this period of time IANTD saw rapid growth as the diving community began to accept the use of technology such as nitrox. In 1992 the
National Association of Underwater Instructors
The National Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI Worldwide) is a non-profit association of scuba instructors. It primarily serves as a recreational dive certification and membership organization established to provide international div ...
(NAUI) became the first mainstream US agency to accept IANTD qualifications, and the Sub-Aqua Association (SAA) became the first UK agency to recognise IANTD certifications in 1993.
In 2000, IANTD introduced a free-diver program prepared by Divetech Ltd of Grand Cayman.
On January 7, 2016 IANTD becomes the first agency in the scuba industry to acknowledge digitally validated logs as an official proof of diving experience, furthermore it declares
Diviac
Diviac is an online booking website for scuba holidays. Started as a digital logbook for divers, the company focus changed in 2015 to scuba holidays.
Timeline
Diviac was founded in December 2012 in Zumikon, Switzerland by Joel Perrenoud and Th ...
its official digital logbook.
In March 2018, IANTD joined the United States RSTC and renewed its
ISO certification
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ) is an international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Membership requirements are given in Ar ...
.
Qualifications
The IANTD qualification system was structured as follows as of January 2013.
Recreational programs
* Supervised Diver
*
Open Water Diver
Open Water Diver (OWD) is an entry-level autonomous diver certification for recreational scuba diving. Although different agencies use different names, similar entry-level courses are offered by all recreational diving agencies and consist of a co ...