Hi
Overall I don't think there is much to scream and shout about, although I still dispute that there is a reason to clip off the light head whilst doing anything with it operating, especially whilst cave diving. You need the light head to identify the bottle, and placing the lighthead in the right hand avoids any unnecessary movement during switches. Both myself and Bob have done plenty of switches in caves without creating a star wars bar scene and we don't need to fanny about with a double ender. I'll have to play around with it perhaps, as no doubt I will have to tie one on to my lighthead for future courses. Bah humbug!
I also don't really like GUE EDGE (I pronounce it gweedge
) but this probably falls into the realm of primacy. I was taught SEEDS (Safety, Exercise, Equipment, Discipline, and Signals) by BSAC and this still runs through my mind when planning a dive. I guess its the same for PADI trained divers, and I think it will be the GUE Open Water students who may benefit from this the most.
Other than that, I am sure there will be criticism of the SDrill malarky but that might help (or demonstrate on the course) the students ability to stay close and hover together without swimming around each other as is so often the case on DIRF courses. As a diver gets to Tech1 level then it probably isn't necessary and the diver should be able to sort his sh*t out without holding hands
Oh, the pockets thing is banana's. Anyone who has the 'proper' DIR suit which has a bellows on the left and a flat pocket on the right, will not be able to seperate contents in that manner, and there is no need to. We have two bungie loops, one at the front for stuff you know you will need, and one at the back for emergency items. If you place emergency items in the pocket first and the other stuff on top then this works perfectly. The flat pocket stores wetnotes, spare wristseals, survey stuff if you want it etc. See
GI's pocket contents here You can see that on one loop he has a couple of double enders and a scooter/stage leash, whilst the other loop has emergency stuff, like spare mask, extra light, snips etc.
Andy