Unified Team Diving
| Abbreviation | UTD |
|---|---|
| Headquarters |
San Diego, CA,  United States
|
|
Region served
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International |
| Website | http://www.unifiedteamdiving.com, http://www.utdequipment.com, http://www.zubadiving.com |
Unified Team Diving (UTD) is a underwater diving training organization and diving equipment manufacturer that was founded in 2009 to incorporate DIR/Hogarthian principles into SCUBA education and equipment manufacturing at all levels.
Unified Team Diving was formed in 2009 by Andrew Georgitsis and Jeff Seckendorf. Its roots lie in DIR/Hogarthian diving principles derived originally from the cave diving community. Prior to 2009, Georgitsis had been teaching many of the same concepts within other organizations, including NAUI and Global Underwater Explorers (GUE). UTD has the additional goals of solidifying team diving concepts and creating a "thinking diver". UTD currently has a presence worldwide including Europe, US, Mexico, Russia, South America, Africa, Australia and throughout Asia Pacific including China.
The roots of Unified Team Diving's philosophy and principles can be found in the Hogarthian/DIR equipment configuration and its covenants. Hogarthian was a minimalist approach to a gear configuration in the early 1990s but those that adhered to it, still kept an diving ideology of "each diver" should configure their own way. DIR built upon the Hogarthian configuration by adding an element of standardization (late 1990s till now) - mainly because of a large scale projects such as Wakulla.
In 2007, UTD decided to build upon its founders' roots for the previous 13 years in Hogarthian and DIR, and evolve the system to the next generation - unification. UTD wanted to keep its standardization and minimalist approach with the "tool" of open-circuit back-mount (DIR) but increase the "tool set", venturing into side-mount and closed circuit rebreathers. The goal was to unify these three configurations into one system while remaining consistent, scalable and interchangeable. The intention was to drive the industry forward, by being inclusive and not exclusive. UTD describes these as the core elements in the UTD 10 covenants.
Unified Team Diving (UTD International LLC) is a global company providing education, equipment and community to like-minded scuba divers. UTD is both a training agency and equipment manufacturer, based in California, USA, that focuses on providing UTD/DIR/Hogarthian divers with up-to-date teaching methodologies and high standards. UTD supports its philosophy of diving by producing signature series equipment that enables divers to implement the "mixed team" diving concept. A "mixed team" is a team of divers using more than one different Scuba configuration from the options:
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