International Association of Nitrox and Technical Divers
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International Association of Nitrox and Technical Divers (IANTD) is a SCUBA diving organization concerned with certification and training in Enriched Air Nitrox diving, Technical Diving and Free Diving.
[edit] History
Dick Rutkowski, the former dive supervisor for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), formed the International Association of Nitrox Divers (IAND) in 1985 to teach nitrox to sport divers. This program was developed through NOAA during his tenure. In 1992 the name was changed to the International Association of Nitrox and Technical Divers (IANTD). The T was added when the European Association of Technical Divers merged with IAND. Prior to founding IAND, Dick Rutkowski worked for Dr Wells and was director of the diver training at NOAA. This was the first organisation to offer international training to recreational scuba divers.
As it was the first program to offer certification in Enriched Air Nitrox, the company was kept at a slow, yet steady pace from 1985 through February of 1992 with the support of Hyperbarics International. In 1991 Tom Mount joined Dick and IANTD became the first to offer training programs in all aspects of Technical diving (Advanced Nitrox, Deep Air, Technical Diver, Cave and Wreck Penetration, Normoxic Trimix, Trimix, Rebreathers, etc.) as well as Free diving.
