This is where narcosis stops being something you manage and starts being something you avoid. Helium in the mix, depth up to 60m, and Malta's genuinely serious wrecks within reach for the first time.
Let's be straight about it: trimix is a significant step up. Not because it's impossible — it isn't — but because the margin for error gets thinner the deeper you go, and the consequences of bad planning or poor execution are more serious. This isn't a course you do because it's the next box to tick. You do it because there are specific things you want to dive that are beyond your current depth range, and you want to do them safely.
For context: HMS Stubborn sits at around 56 metres. HMS Southwold is at 73m. Le Polynesien is at 65m. These are genuine Second World War wrecks in remarkable condition, and they're simply not diveable responsibly on air or standard nitrox. At 60 metres on air you're carrying somewhere between 4 and 6 atmospheres equivalent of narcosis — in some people that's a bit foggy, in others it's genuinely impaired. Helium sorts that problem. Trimix sorts that problem.
The course runs 5–7 days and we'll be diving to 60 metres. The first part is classroom-heavy — gas physics, decompression theory with multiple inert gases, ISOBARIC counterdiffusion (which is as interesting as it sounds and considerably more important), and dive planning at this level. Then we get in the water and apply it. Multiple dives, multiple gas switches, real decompression on real wrecks.
I've pushed myself to my absolute limit on deep trimix dives and I know exactly what it feels like when a plan starts to unravel at depth. That experience — not just the theory — is what I'm passing on. You'll finish this course knowing how to build a conservative, executable plan and how to execute it even when things get a bit interesting.
This is a skills-based course, not a time-based one. If the gas planning needs another look, we look at it again. If valve drills need more time at depth, that's what we do. The certification reflects what you can genuinely do — and my job is to help you get there.
HMS Stubborn at 56m is a genuinely extraordinary wreck in extraordinary condition. If diving a British submarine from 1942 is on your list — and it should be — this is the course that gets you there.
Trimix Diver opens up everything between 40m and 60m that you couldn't responsibly do on air — which in Malta is a significant list. More importantly, it's the prerequisite for Advanced Trimix, which removes the depth limit entirely. Le Polynesien, HMS Olympus, ORP Kujawiak — those are Advanced Trimix territory, and Trimix Diver is how you get there.