Cherry picking the best bits.....

[Fiona]

Originally Posted by neilh

Personally I don't find the discussions on which of the "good" bits of DIR people like and adopt all that useful

Why Not ?

You don't find them useful because you have embraced the system, those of us that don't want to can see some of the benefits without having to take on the whole thing.

I am struggling here to express what I am trying to say without sounding like I have closed my mind, I haven't but some people are easier to chat to than others.

Rick has joked many times about Lou and me taking a course but I am happy with my kit and don't want / afford to change it.

You probably had the benefit of coming in to contact with DIR types early on in your diving, I didn't and probably stuck in my ways. If I attended a course I would probably be laughed out of the car park

[NotDeadYet]

I began diving in a hogarthian style around 1994/95 which was a good few years before DIR even existed. DIR cherry picked the style of diving that I used

DIR has only really developed one new idea that didn't exist in hogarthian diving and that is stage marking. That is probably DIR's best idea to date.

The most useless idea they came up with is their sidemount system which really shows a lack of understanding of sidemount caving. It's there so they can say "we have a system" rather than actually developing something that works.

If I was still diving OC then I'd still be diving hogarthian. I don't know if I'd ever become fully DIR though.

[Steve S]

I have my stage bottle rigged in a DIR style although it is a steel 7 other than that I can't think of anything that DIR alone has influenced.

My bouyancy control has come from experience, I moved on to a hog loop after the 2nd time of having my main taken from my mouth by a buddy despite showing an AAS in our checks.

I have a one piece harness with a loop in the break, because I ocassionally dive from ribs and imagine a one piece without, could be very dangerous in all but the calmest of seas, I have boots on my cylinders because of ease of use, and despite having cylinders of various age have never had a problem with bottom rusting unlike some of the bootless twins I have seen, although the cross of duct tape helps

The DIR system is definitely an good one, although it is not the holy grail many think it is, from my study of it for the last 7 years, I see it as a trade off from things that work very well in one condition being less than ideal in others, and ultimately the best system in the world would eventually fall down due to it being utilized by a weak link, humans.

Safe diving,
Steve

[Woz]

Steve we appear to have identical kit.

Actually last year on a boat full of people, none of whom were DIR but all of whom were experienced divers, everyone had remarkably similar kit- it could have been an advert for OMS wings, Otter drysuits and Faber twinsets.

Apart from Bantam who insists on wearing a Poseidon drysuit modelled on a pair of Y fronts.

[frosty the snowman]

Originally Posted by Woz

Steve we appear to have identical kit.

Actually last year on a boat full of people, none of whom were DIR but all of whom were experienced divers, everyone had remarkably similar kit- it could have been an advert for OMS wings, Otter drysuits and Faber twinsets.

Apart from Bantam who insists on wearing a Poseidon drysuit modelled on a pair of Y fronts.

Funny. I have a pair of Y fronts modelled on a posiedon drysuit.

[Clare Gledhill]

Originally Posted by Lou

It'll take alot of your 2p's to make up the cost of the course

Try tech 2 The course itself is not that bad until you add in the price of flying the instuctor in and the gas. We thought that Deep Blue had written their phone number on the bottom of the bill (and they did us good rates)

Anyway - on topic.

I can't really claim to have cherry picked can I? Like Howard, bought the whole fruit salad and drunk to koolaid too. But I didn't actually start out intending too - I was going to cherry pick too.

Breathing regs down during shutdowns - you're joking right?
Harness how tight????? I'll never get out of that
Torch in the left hand - well that's just uncomfortable
Trimix below 30 metres - ha ha - yeah right

Originally Posted by Lou

I'm not really that bothered about where the bungee goes vs where the boltsnap is on my goodman handle for example.

This was a good one. I was well and turely sold on the system when this changed from bolt snap to bungee.

I heard about the recommended change to the standard and thought 'bollox - what can possibly be wrong with one tiny bloody boltsnap on the back of my torch when it is clipped off. It hangs below me by all of two inches maximum and I only have my torch stowed like that if I am ascending so what's the problem? Entanglement hazzard my arse!

I was right. Until I went into a cave and my light failed. Clipping it off, I swam out of the cave and clipped myself to the line three times in one day.

The lesson I learned from this was not that we need to rig torches differently for cave or wreck diving. The lesson I took away with me is that sometimes we don't understand the finer points of the system purely because we haven;t come across them in our own diving yet

GUE is not perhaps as prescriptive at the higher training levels as people would imagine. I heard Jarrod and Richard say many times last week 'well we recommend this but others do it differently - try both ways and find what suits you' and there was great emphasis on 'the thinking diver'.

At DIR F there has to be an element of 'we do it this way' as the student has come to learn the fundamentals of DIR in a way that they can continue their development within the agency should they choose to do so. But behind every statement of 'this is the standard' there is a reasoned argument why it has been developed in that way.

It's funny how many misconceptions of DIR are rife on the internet - most of which I believed myself until i found that they were just that - misconceptions. Hand tight second stages head up this list (if you really need to take one off take a bloody spanner) but others include over tight harneses and "always shut down the right post first".

I would suggest that far from the unthinking sheep that the protaganists would have people see DIR divers as being, the agency and the training allows you to be more in control of your diving - if you want to be. the rejection of computers means that we have to monitor deco liability throughout every dive and run plans for various failure scenarios as we go. This does put you firmly in control - the wreck is much deeper or much shallower than planned - no problem just work it out.

I am confident that it is possible to dive safely in a way which encomasses few elements of DIR standard practice. If I were to be able to take only a few for my divign though it would be the emphasis on team, the ability to fin without kicking up the bottom, the use of light signals, spools and stage markings.

[Woz]

Ooooo yes light signals. Ace. And stage markings.

[NotDeadYet]

Originally Posted by Clare Gledhill

we have to monitor deco liability throughout every dive and run plans for various failure scenarios as we go. This does put you firmly in control - the wreck is much deeper or much shallower than planned - no problem just work it out

Ahhh... modern times... I remember when you did the same thing by having to use experience...

[Lou]

Originally Posted by Woz

Ooooo yes light signals. Ace. And stage markings.

See, now light signals are not something I use, apart from "attention" (which is preety instinctive" and "ok" whihc is nice and lazy. The rest of the time I am trying to be close enough to see hand signals, whilst using my torch to look at the fishes

Stage markings - look cool, but I use one stage for whatever mix, so any markings I use are removable and can't look as groovy as the reg plate numbers Even if Duck tape is silver..

I am guilty of extraneous use of bungee too - Mal told me off for the very handy bungee loop on my backplate that my torch cannister slots into to just keep it in place ....

[Woz]

Originally Posted by Lou

I am guilty of extraneous use of bungee too - Mal told me off for the very handy bungee loop on my backplate that my torch cannister slots into to just keep it in place ....

Hmmmmmmmmm sounds familiar....

As for stage markings I just run fiddy in my stage so it's marked up for that.

What is very scary about DIR, though, fine system that it is, is that people are turning up at my local tech service place with twin 12's asking them to detune their Apeks regs to 8 bar "cos I read it on the Internet". And you know how many dives this bloke had done?

10

Ridiculous. Now there will always be a section of society who go out and buy something cos "well the people who know what they're doing have this kit" without going through the thought processes or training that is needed to use the kit.

Mountain biking- there's another good example. Went for a ride round the woods near my sister in law's place in Godalming and I was on my old Saracen with some suspension forks I've stuck onto it. Steel frame, 1999 bike. Fine for the job. Now I look around the car park and everyone else was on full suspension, well trick £3000 Orange bikes with 8" travel forks- and the most they ever ride them is round the local woods. My bro in law was on a £200 knacker, and when he stopped for lunch he pulled out a pork pie and a bottle of stout. And he was wearing cords, trainers, a flat cap and a Barbour jacket. But he still rode up the hill the dayglo tossers on the £3000 Orange bikes had to push their bikes up.

It's the same with diving. The majority of the diving in the UK can be perfectly safely done in a single and stab. But when you are pushing the boundaries going deeper, or longer, or both, that's where kit and training (and more than that-experience) makes the difference. And if you want to go the DIR route then great- but people need to be aware that you don't become a DIR diver by reading about it on the internet then getting your credit card out and waving it at Nackers.