Quote Originally Posted by Slüdge View Post
Chicken, this is in no way directed at you, but looking at these two pages:

http://www.iantd.com/iantd3.html
http://www.iantd.com/IANTD_Course_Breakdown_2009.pdf

... IANTD seems to be the PADI of technical diving.
You can't judge IANTD based on those charts. While they do have a variety of courses, the prerequisites vary. For example, you don't have to take the Recreational Trimix Diver course to take the Advanced Recreational Trimix course. In fact, you don't even have to take Advanced Nitrox to take Advanced Recreational Trimix. You also don't have a be a full Cave Diver to do the Technical Cave Diver. The prerequisite for Technical Cave Diver is to already be certified in Advanced Nitrox or Advanced Recreational Trimix or have sufficient experience or training as determined by the instructor.

So, while the charts make it look like there are all sorts of prerequisites for the different levels, that's not the case. There are just a variety of courses someone can take, but once you take certain courses, then you no longer have to take many of the others because they are inclusive.

It took me a while to learn the standards, and several re-reads!