-=> Quoting Joe Dzurinda to All <=-
 JD> Just wanted to see if Tech Diving is catching on in other areas as
 JD> well as  Ohio.  The dive shop that I Divemaster for seems to be the
There are a few people around our area (Sacramento, CA) that are Nitrox
certified, and try to get others involved in that, but it is not catching
on very well because of high cost. Most diving around here is in the
Pacific Ocean, and there is little reason to dive deeper than 60'.
The average turbidity of coastal waters around here means that it
is often so dark below 70' to 80' that a noon dive can seem like a
night dive!
We don't have much in the way of deep wrecks like the East Coast.
Occasionally, underwater hunting enthusiasts will need to dive deep
after ling cod or Pacific spiny lobster (in the Channel Islands). 
I don't know of any quarry diving sites like you describe in your
message, but we do have quite a few lakes, both natural and man-made.
Lake Tahoe is pretty spectacular, and would qualify as a "technical"
dive, I guess. It is located at 6200' (altitude dive conversion tables
required, of course) and the water is very cold-40 degrees F. below
the thermocline at 40' depth. The extraordinary thing about Tahoe is
the vis, which can exceed 100' at times. It is certainly the clearest
water to be found, either fresh or salt, anywhere in California.
The high altitude makes this a relatively risky dive site for
less experienced divers. There have been at least 2 embolism
fatalities (Memorial Day weekend 1993? or 1994?), and one other
fatality the year before that in which the diver's body was never
recovered, but embolism was suspected.
Did you read about that exploration of the cave system in Mexico
last year in National Geographic? The team leader developed a new
computer-regulated heliox rebreather system, with up to 10 hours
maximum endurance, for that expedition. My Instructor wants to get
into Rebreather diving, if and when a recreational model of that
equipment ever becomes available. He logged several hundred
military rebreather dives while in the Army (Special Forces), and
mentions that there are many advantages to closed circuit gear,
especially for u/w photography and marine biology research. Now,
that would be about as "technical" as diving could get!
sport model of the pack that was used to explore those caves in Mexico
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