Experience DIR/Fresh Water/Sea etc w: Exp DIR - Weekend 11/12 August 2007 - Vobster

[JasonP]

Moved to another thread because I was asked to.

Originally Posted by GLOC

Jason, this weekend is the only weekend I have spare between now and October! The rest I am either looking after my kids, diving (1 week scapa, 1 week surveying wreck in 52m, 2 weekends in July (5 days) diving 45m wrecks out of Weymouth, long weekend diving the Med to 45m) or shooting photos at 3 weddings.

My only 2 days this summer in a quarry are these 2 days! I have spent enough time in a quarry working upto Tech 1, I want to get in the sea too

So basically, you're too busy doing proper diving? Which is fair enough. It's one of the reasons I have no interest in teaching.

My point is that mentoring is what clubs, both official and unofficial have been doing for years. And they do this by taking people diving regularly, having people available to offer advice, lend kit etc. And people progress with their diving, or give up, or decide they're happy where they are.

And yeah, it can be a lot of work, though as I said, you can also fit it around your normal diving too. Do a normal first dive, then let people try stuff out on the second, shallow dive.

Yes, organising stuff in quarries is easier. That's why the vast majority of schools seem to do virtually all their training in them. However, it seems to be that they're churning out divers that don't have the confidence to go diving in the sea. Which is a crying shame.

Jason

[Fiona]

I am struggling to grasp the point of your post Jason

[tootricky]

Originally Posted by Fiona

I am struggling to grasp the point of your post Jason

There doesn't seem to be one

[GLOC]

Jason, that is one reason, logistics, but the main reason for providing the session we are doing on 11/12 August is from a safe point of view.

In a previous post on the other thread you mention that you don't mind trying out new kit on a shallower second dive, or lending kit out for other people to do the same. What is the difference between working on new skills/using new equipment on a shallow sea dive and working on new skills/new equipment in a quarry, technically this is.

What we want to do is have 2 people look after 6 people with potentially new equipment and definitely new skills. To do this in a quarry is a far safer environment that on a sea dive.

I understand you concerns about there being plenty of divers who haven't been near the sea, but I am hoping that the people who come along have some experience of the sea and that they can use these new skills in the sea.

Originally Posted by JasonP

My point is that mentoring is what clubs, both official and unofficial have been doing for years. And they do this by taking people diving regularly, having people available to offer advice, lend kit etc. And people progress with their diving, or give up, or decide they're happy where they are.

And this is also the point, there are no real DIR clubs because there isn't the population base for this to happen. The closest we get is DIRx and this sub-forum. Hence why I/we want to increase that user base. Does that make sense?

Regards

[gwilson]

I think what he is trying to say is more people seem to dive at inland sites than in the sea, then when it comes to diving in the salty stuff they might find themselves outside of their comfort zone...................

Regarding Gloc, Garf and Howards offer of an mentoring / insight into DIR diving I dont think this applies.

For example. Me, I live in Glasgow im interested in DIR / GUE which is why Im prepared to drive a pretty long way to gain an insight into how it works, to get a few pointers in ensuring my kit is set up correctly and to actually meet a group of people who dive this way as they are thin on the ground up here (and tie in a visit to my family), before i do fundies later on in the year.

Now if I drove the upto 10 hours or so down to the south coast to find out the weather was bad and there was no way of getting wet id be kinda pissed off. Therefore the idea of meeting at an inland site is ideal even though ive never dived an inland site im sure your not that likely to get blown out.

Just my thoughts behind the reasoning as to why its inland and not in the sea.

[MartyC]

Gareth, you and TFT will have to stop this, your altruistic attitude will spoil the whole ethos of DIR/GUE
No just kidding, well done for even thinging of taking the time to try and help people extend their diving skills and experience, and POO to all those who have critisied.
Before any one says it, no I am not DIR.

[neilh]

Originally Posted by JasonP

My point is that mentoring is what clubs, both official and unofficial have been doing for years. And they do this by taking people diving regularly, having people available to offer advice, lend kit etc. And people progress with their diving, or give up, or decide they're happy where they are.

Certainly no argument here, but unless you're lucky enough to be in/near a club that has a number of DIR divers this isn't really possible for many people at the moment.

What was proposed in the other thread is a bit more than just trying out some kit for a bit of a dive. There's more to DIR than just equipment, so the mentoring sessions need to have quite a bit of surface time where you can talk about the concepts, config, skills, etc. Sure you could do this on a boat, but it's more comfortable to be able to stand around with a cuppa talking it through and demonstrating.

I'm sure as time goes on there'll be opportunities for other events along these lines - some of which may even be sea dives

[Prometheus]

Plus quarries /lakes can be so boring that you have to concentrate on the skills more, rather than the wreck,reef, fish etc.

[wilbo]

Jason,

You have a point (a slim one imho) that there is lots of quarry diving going on out there. Yes there is..

..but..

You have to see though that these people are only using a site that logistically makes better sense for all those reasons stated above - Known weather, known tides, no issues around ropes off, shallow confined water, big car parks in which to kit fettle at leisure, etc).

Lets face it they are not really diving are they. They are having a practice bimble - kinda like in a large cold open air swimming pool.

I think everyone that attends these practice days goes diving. You know. Proper diving. In the sea and that. Otherwise they will fall into the same pigeon hole as you are trying to put them in - this "wannabe DIR/Tech divers only dive in a quarry - so whats the point of all the training and all that kit" type image..

Hey. Lets go diving. Proper diving. I'd go on one of your dive trips (new baby allowing.. ).. I very nearly did years ago when I used to contribute to uk.rec.scuba on usenet and track what used to happen with the UKRS dives..

[Janos]

Originally Posted by JasonP

My point is that mentoring is what clubs, both official and unofficial have been doing for years. And they do this by taking people diving regularly, having people available to offer advice, lend kit etc. And people progress with their diving, or give up, or decide they're happy where they are.

And yeah, it can be a lot of work, though as I said, you can also fit it around your normal diving too. Do a normal first dive, then let people try stuff out on the second, shallow dive.

I'm not sure that this is the case with my club. People's first dives tend to be in quarries, and then we progress them on to the sea.

However, when someone wants to (say) try out a twinset for the first time then it almost certainly will be a quarry. Why? Well part of it is that I'm loathe to give up a sea dive for training. I don't mind too much with brand new divers but I prefer to have pleasure dives in the sea.

The other, much bigger reason is that it's much, much easier to fiddle around with kit. A second dive is a drift dive for much of the South Coast, and so it's a bit impractical to do a proper weight check off the back of a boat. You also can't take your cylinders off the backplate, move them around a bit, and jump back in again. I couldn't imagine doing that off a charter boat.

So in Janos-world: Quarries = perfect for fiddling with kit and skills and drills
Sea = perfect for 'fun' dives.

Let's not upset the natural order of things...

Janos