DIR- Generic Advice for new to DIR

[KevinNM]

Mer is great. But I’ve done courses with a half-dozen instructors and they are all very good.

Given that a dry suit costs a small fortune I’d strongly suggest you should get measured and fitted by someone who does a LOT of drysuits and hence has both experience and a relationship with the factory so when the send you a suit that doesn’t fit they will fix it instead of arguing.

I have no idea who that would be in Houston. I flew to florida and had Kyle at EE measure me after a class, but there are other options in cave country (Like Gamble if you want to go DUI) and some elsewhere around the country.

Just do’t be the only DS your LDS orders this year. That tends to not work out.

 

[Kevin Floyd]

Mer is great. But I’ve done courses with a half-dozen instructors and they are all very good.

Given that a dry suit costs a small fortune I’d strongly suggest you should get measured and fitted by someone who does a LOT of drysuits and hence has both experience and a relationship with the factory so when the send you a suit that doesn’t fit they will fix it instead of arguing.

I have no idea who that would be in Houston. I flew to florida and had Kyle at EE measure me after a class, but there are other options in cave country (Like Gamble if you want to go DUI) and some elsewhere around the country.

Just do’t be the only DS your LDS orders this year. That tends to not work out.

I’m not sure if I said this earlier but the shop I did my dry class with is a Fourth Element dealer, they are about the only shop in town that offers a dry class regularly ( and the only one that has a rental suit in a 3x). They recommend the Fourth Element Argonaut. Last year when everyone else was ordering theirs, was the first time the shop has done the FE BioMap. It was just for that reason that I waited to see how everyone else’s turned out. Any thoughts on that suit? Looks to be well reviewed and everyone else at the shop that got theirs really likes the fit.

 

[seeker242]

Any thoughts on that suit?

Gideon Liew was diving one when we happened to meet him on a boat when he was doing a Tech 1 class with Mer. I'm assuming they're good if he's wearing one.

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

I was told that Fourth Element had some leak issues with breathable kevlar. Has that issue been resolved? Deep6 Makara is a great suit for over a thousand USD less. I think they get made is in the same factory.

 

[rddvet]

I too have heard mixed things on leaky argonauts. Steve Gamble here in Florida isn’t a fan and he typically will recommend brands he doesn’t sell. All his opinions are based on all the suits he fixes.

 

[Kevin Floyd]

I was looking at Fourth Element because a) the shop sells it (isn’t that almost always the case) b) it’s some what “custom” with their biomap.

It’s hard for me to find good fitting gear. I’m 6’3” but built like a linebacker. 3x fits me in height and thighs, 4x fits my chest, 2x fits my waist. So out of all the suits I have tried on (don’t forget HOUTx is not a hot bed for dry suit diving or tech/DIR) i haven’t found one that fits.

Any recommends on brands that offer custom mix and match sizing or full custom that has DIR diver in mind?

 

[Kevin Floyd]

Annnddddd....just looked at the deep 6 site, kind of exactly what I’m looking for

 

[Degenerate]

A tip from someone who did fundies earlier this year, with about the same amount of dives under their belt that you have now...
Don't show up at the course dead set on earning a tech pass, or even on passing the course.
Just do your best and absorb as much as you can during it and your chance of passing it will most likely be better.
It is so easy to beat yourself down because you fail a skill or two, which will just make the following dives that much harder.
One of the other participants in my course said straight from the start that he didn't even care about passing the class, his only reason for being there was to become a better diver.
In the end he got a provisional, but he improved an insane amount from the first dive to the last.

 

[Kevin Floyd]

A tip from someone who did fundies earlier this year, with about the same amount of dives under their belt that you have now...
Don't show up at the course dead set on earning a tech pass, or even on passing the course.
Just do your best and absorb as much as you can during it and your chance of passing it will most likely be better.
It is so easy to beat yourself down because you fail a skill or two, which will just make the following dives that much harder.
One of the other participants in my course said straight from the start that he didn't even care about passing the class, his only reason for being there was to become a better diver.
In the end he got a provisional, but he improved an insane amount from the first dive to the last.

Thanks for that. That’s pretty much where I’m at. Really what I’m looking for out of my first go at it is the knowledge of how to be a better diver and the knowledge of how to train. Like I said I haven’t met anyone in my area that either a) has the skills I’m looking to learn or b) is looking to learn the same skills as me. I want to be taught how to learn these skills as much as I can be taught what to learn so that I can take every dive after that as an opportunity to improve and then go back later and try to pass the test again.

for example, buoyancy: I struggled with buoyancy and trim from day one. Every instructor I had just wanted me down so we could do the skills required by the course and sign me off. I read all about buoyancy and trim bought a BP/W (because no shop had one to rent) got in the pool the day after I got it and WOW all the sudden I was in way better trim. Next dive weekend was so much better and fun. But I know I have a lot to improve on with trim and buoyancy but no one to teach me or at least no one who knows what my goal is that can dive with me and help.

 

[Degenerate]

Thanks for that. That’s pretty much where I’m at. Really what I’m looking for out of my first go at it is the knowledge of how to be a better diver and the knowledge of how to train. Like I said I haven’t met anyone in my area that either a) has the skills I’m looking to learn or b) is looking to learn the same skills as me. I want to be taught how to learn these skills as much as I can be taught what to learn so that I can take every dive after that as an opportunity to improve and then go back later and try to pass the test again.

for example, buoyancy: I struggled with buoyancy and trim from day one. Every instructor I had just wanted me down so we could do the skills required by the course and sign me off. I read all about buoyancy and trim bought a BP/W (because no shop had one to rent) got in the pool the day after I got it and WOW all the sudden I was in way better trim. Next dive weekend was so much better and fun. But I know I have a lot to improve on with trim and buoyancy but no one to teach me or at least no one who knows what my goal is that can dive with me and help.

Buoyancy was something I really felt I struggled with and that it wasn't covered enough in my OW/AOW courses, one of the main reasons I wanted to do a fundies.
I spent a good 30ish dives before my fundies course in our local quarry just working on it, would spend 40-60 mins doing nothing but trying to hold my depth at 3m.
It helped me a lot when I got to my course because I didn't have to spend a lot of time on that, but could rather focus on the other skills instead.
The other participant on the course that I mentioned before had a much harder time with it, add on close to no experience with drysuit and bpw and you can probably imagine how our first dive looked like...
At the end of the course his buoyancy was so much better, could hold the stops (somewhat well) during ascents and didn't tear up the bottom at all.
I didn't think it was possible to improve so much in such little time, but fundies really is an amazing class.