| Gareth,
Mal is pretty much right here. We keep things that we know we're going to use in the left hand pocket, and those occasional/emergency things on the right.
On the justificastion behind it, the one I think we're most comfortasble with is the scooter one. A scooter is held and driven with the right hand, so this leaves the left hand free to ferret in pockets for whatever you need. I think it would take some skill to pull out and deploy an SMB though ;-) In cave, a cookie or pin would be easy enough though.
The point about the stages I've not heard, but it does make some sense. It can be tricky to work around/through multiple stages to get to a pocket, so practicing the skill is useful, while leaving the easy pocket open in case of emergency makes some sense.
While these things only become important it quite an advanced level of diving, DIR aims to create a system that will work from a simple reef dive through to however far you want to take it. Consequently, we don't want to have to re-learn skills, equipment locations etc. halfway through our dive career.
Hope that helps,
Rich  |