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| Originally Posted by StephM I'm sure I read somewhere that the head honcho at Halcyon is also one of the main honchos of the DIR 'you must do it this way' gang. I get VERY suspicious when specific brands are put forward as the DIR brand. Nothing wrong with the Apeks Wings or indeed the Dive Rite Classic, but hey what do I know my wing is probably the least DIR compliant wing on the planet and I'm proud of it, need more bungies on it though :-) |
Actually that's entirely correct - the man you're thinking of is Jarrod Jablonski who is, as you correctly state, the head of both organisations. This, of course, is entirely coincidental and I'm sure Jarrod has never used his position within GUE to increase Halcyon kit sales... never, ever... honestly!
Of course Halcyon justify this conflict of interest by stating that they work closely with GUE to develop kit that's appropriate for the sort of diving that GUE advocates which, in effect, is true. You've got to remember that there was a time when DIR compliant kit was very difficult to come by as much of the kit used by the WKPP was very much 'home made' in the early days. Halcyon rose out of this to service the needs of the increasing number of DIR divers who were disatisfied with the standard of kit available from other manufacturers.
These days, of course, Halcyon's monopoly on the market has been broken with several manufacturers vying for a slice of the DIR market share. Just look at brands like DIRZone, Salvo and AGIR Brokk - they're all taking full commercial advantage of the success of DIR globally which is no bad thing since it promotes healthy competition...
And for the record - you do not have to use Halcyon kit to be DIR. Anyone who tells you this is either a) closely associated with Halcyon or b) talking out of their arse (or both! lol)...