INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF NITROX AND TECHNICAL DIVERS
International Association of Nitrox Divers (IAND) was formed in 1985 in response to the needs of the diving public. Up until that time, mixed gas diving and the use of decompression gasses were limited, in a formal way, to military and commercial divers.
In 1985, Dick Ruthkowski, retired as the dive supervisor for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), together with other leaders in the diving community, formed IAND. Dick’s goal was to introduce the benefits of using Nitrox in many diving situations and to begin teaching safe decompression diving.
In 1991, under the leadership of Tom Mount, the organization grew into the leading technical training organization in the world, offering courses covering all aspects of sport diving. At the same time, the name was changed to the International Association of Nitrox and Technical Divers (IANTD) to better reflect the organization’s additional emphasis technical diving.
Today, IANTD has offices in over twenty five countries and instructors in more than 60 countries.
