Amen to that.
Intro to Tech, to make a better Rec?
- Thread starter Birddog1911
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My wife and I are very much like you, however we are both qualified to 50m (164') While we are more than happy mooching around at sub 30m on reefs there is a certain freedom in being able to plan you dives to give you options to go deeper if you wish.
A case in point a couple on months back, we were on one of our favourite sites, where the usual route takes us to a point . As we looked down we saw a mola mola, so we could happily descend, spend time at depth, and then come up knowing we could take the Deco obligation as we had a rich mix slung for such eventualities, whilst adhering to the 1 hour dive time and rock bottom gas times.
Just because you can doesn't mean you have to. The additional knowledge you learn about gas planning and decompression theory etc is just as relevant to your rec diving as it is to Tec.
It's also helped when I've sat people down who are being "gung ho" and explained why they shouldn't make the dive they're considering in a polite and informative way - being able to communicate why they should consider getting further training before they attempt such a thing.
Amen again with this tone of voice and good attitude rather than being authoritarian and putting the other side down due to an attitude of pompousness and hubris.
That comment has been stuck in my mind, too. I haven't been diving as long as some of you, and maybe someday I will feel the same way. But at the point in my diving where I am now, and given my personality, "structure" appeals to me. Too much "freedom" and lack of structure had me wasting too much energy on the mechanics of diving rather than just enjoying "the beauty of the underwater world." I see structured diving with organizations such as GUE being more like communism than religion.
OP
Birddog1911
Contributor
I'm a Cold Warrior...I think you could deduce how I feel about communism. 
I'm a Cold Warrior...I think you could deduce how I feel about communism.
Where is the "Love" button?
If I gear up with GUE or UTD divers, I'm committing to a unified team approach for that dive. I'm committing to being a buddy. I'm going to wear the equipment where the organizations have standardized it. This is no different than a guy who might be a police officer, on his force's SWAT team, in the USMC Reserve, and likes to hunt. When he puts on his patrol officer's uniform, he wears his stuff where he has been trained and where he may have adjusted things for his own needs. If he gears up for SWAT, he will wear equipment in a way that benefits the team and the same would go for the marines. Same concept, but different equipment and organizational standards. Procedures are also different between entities. Neither the police department nor the marines are going to toss the guy out when he goes deer hunting on his own time for wearing the equipment he likes where he likes. While the police and the military are team oriented, hunting can be done either way. No one is telling him that he'll develop bad habits if he goes hunting alone. An individual should be able to decide whether or not he or she has the capability of being a team player on DIR dives without skill erosion.
GUE is an organization with SOP's the same as a public safety diving team - except with the training and skills needed to do the job of the organization's mission. Being able to maneuver like a helicopter is more advantageous to many underwater tasks than maneuvering like a fixed wing Cessna. Divers can dive extremely well and get a lot done effectively and can be excellent and safe divers in the open water recreational environment. For tech and cave divers, helicopter style mobility opens up overhead diving, keeps team together so that resources can be managed more easily, and because there is a greater risk to divers if gas is lost, the ability to maneuver, hover on station, and be a solid gas donation platform is critical when it comes to safety.
Unfortunately, I've spent decades listening to how divers who don't dive like helos, "suck," from certain groups within the DIR community rather than be given the respect they deserve when they can dive well in that style. A Blue Angel pilot is just as worthy of respect in the aviation community as the helo pilot who controlled the crash during the Bin Laden raid.
I do not like having my freedom stripped from all my diving activities by training agencies and organizations, when given my intellect, experience, maturity, and skill, I should be trusted to determine whether I'm an asset to a team and can safely and effectively dive with them.
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OP
Birddog1911
Contributor
Trace, love button, indeed. Excellent post. It also helps a forum newbie to understand some of the agency hate I've seen here.
Trace, all I can say is I hope things have changed since whatever it was you experienced. I'm a relative newcomer, but so far, I have had nothing but positive experiences.
AlexL
Contributor
depends on the context, sometimes whiskey brings out the worst in people
Having personally drank the GUE kool-aid recently, your past few posts in this thread have been quite refreshing. honestly, they aligned almost perfectly with our (self and wife) experiences going through fundies: Training hard to cement technical and team skills at a high level of standard results in more fun when diving in general.
when the 'lack of rigor' from other agencies came up in casual conversation after the class, it came down to as long as they are acting in a safe manner then its 'not my monkeys, not my circus'. we were repeatedly warned not to be 'DIR Warriors', to not disparage other teaching styles, and to just go out and dive more. if someone wants to learn more about your diving style, answer their questions truthfully and honestly, but please don’t go around proselytizing to anyone and everyone in ear shot.
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