Near-DIR diving: Are there DIR things you would probably never do?

[onfloat]

Yeah, I've found a small mask light to be the most convenient solution. IMO, it's not a risk, if it's small enough it won't bother your buddies and it's not a major entanglement hazard. DIR divers don't seem to use them, but I'm not sure that anyone would mind.
...

I dove with a guy that used a mask light once. As we were diving he turned to look at me and give me a hand signal, but all I could see was the dang light with a dark shadow behind it. But I'm sure he got a good look at me.

 

[Jason B]

Sorry

This one time, this guy wearing a FFM was rude to me. And another time, they were all arogant and excluded me from the club becuase I didnt have a FFM. Then they wouldnt let me dive with them because I didnt have a FFM with voice features. This was even though they were only diving on a reef 20' deep. They acted like they were all hot stuff and I was something they scraped off the back of their fins. So in my personal experience all FFM divers are arrogant jerks so I will never *ever* use or try a FFM. In fact I make it a point to go to any and all FFM forums just so I can tell them my point of view. Because if only I can save just *ONE* diver from their evil clutches, my life's mission will be complete.

Classic! I love it.

 

[Thalassamania]

Wrist mounted compass. Light spill over should be sufficient to read compass while still keeping it focused ahead on where you are going. Of course, if you are diving in visiblity that poor, or needing that much help from compass navigation, i.e. not following contour of a wreck or something, preferred method would be to lay/follow a line to return to your starting point.

I often dive in visibility that is poor enough that I need to constantly monitor my compass while moving from site to site. Returning to my starting point is irrelevant, but hitting my targets right on the money is critical and lines are impractical or prohibited.

I dove with a guy that used a mask light once. As we were diving he turned to look at me and give me a hand signal, but all I could see was the dang light with a dark shadow behind it. But I'm sure he got a good look at me.

The whole light question is an interesting one. Mask lights, even small ones, ruin night vision and, I think, should be avoided except in special cases. It makes one long for the days of the Farallon compass that had built in illumination,.

When I tried a Goodman Handle with my compass on my left wrist, is was, as Cave Diver suggested, illuminated just fine by the light backscatter, but with the lubber line parallel to my direction of travel, the light was pointing somewhere off to starboard rather than where I was headed. Is a handle that permits a 90^o counterclockwise rotation available? It would be easy enough to make one.

 

[Doc Intrepid]

I haven't seen one Thal, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. If you aren't on a scooter, what precludes you from just shifting your light to your right hand while you are navigating off the lubber line?

 

[Rainer]

Or just angle the compass so the lubber line points ahead even when your arm isn't orthogonal to your body. Seriously, I know a lot of us are reading our compass with our can light in the left hand and NAILING our navigation. Maybe you just need to practice?

 

[Thalassamania]

I haven't seen one Thal, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. If you aren't on a scooter, what precludes you from just shifting your light to your right hand while you are navigating off the lubber line?

Nothing, that's the only approach I can see, just thought a swivel might be an interesting idea and figured that some had already done it.

Or just angle the compass so the lubber line points ahead even when your arm isn't orthogonal to your body. Seriously, I know a lot of us are reading our compass with our can light in the left hand and NAILING our navigation. Maybe you just need to practice?

Um, ok...

Gee ... people actually wonder what gives DIR a bad name?

 

[PfcAJ]

Quantity doesn't always equal quality

 

[Thalassamania]

Quantity doesn't always equal quality

No it doesn't, and someday you too may get to a sufficient quantity that you will be able to know that for yourself, rather than just take someone else's word for it.

 

[PfcAJ]

Touche'

 

[nereas]

I would never ingrain "right post first" in my muscle-memory.

I agree as well. This is one item that I inadvertently left of my own list of things I would never do.

I was taught to isolate quickly, before you lose all of your gas. And that is the procedure I follow.