A request to the "new" DIR advocates

[Diver0001]

MHK once bubbled...
This is a plea to the recent proliferation of DIR proponents that have joined this list as a result of the challenge on the Quest list. While I very much appreciate your enthusiasm and your desire to reach a wide audience about the benefits of DIR, I really want to emphasis that a select few of you are going about it in a completely, 100%, wrong way. <snip>

I'd like to add something to this. Rational thinking is not a commodity that can be monopolised by a select few and good, even excellent diving skills can not be learned on the internet or in a weekend course. Having a DIR-F stamp in your logbook doesn't mean you've undergone some kind of "Maxtrix" style instant-skill-acquisition any more than your first intro-dive makes you a divemaster. Maybe the Grand-poo-bah of DIR can afford to be a little snobish but he should also take the responsibility that comes with his leadership roll and set a much better example for people to emulate!!

So, Michael, if you want to tell someone to shut up, I think I know where *I* would start...... Do you dare to try killing this weed at the root?

I'll also place the comment that the scubaboard DIR advocates are generally much less pretentious sounding than you get elsewhere. Let's keep it that way.

I think I might be a good example of the kind of diver Micheal means. I'm quite open to DIR and I've learned what I can about it but at the same time I am so completely offended by the tone of DIR cyber-divers that I feel slightly embarassed to be reconfiguring along DIR lines. I'm doing it anyway because even a "dumb-farm-animal" like me can recognise a best-practice when he sees one but I would, in fact, be *mortified* if someone thought I was actually trying to be DIR because people will assume that you are arrogant and contemptuous of "strokes".

R..

 

[The Chairman]

and all of the other DIR divers who try and be informative and not confrontive. Mike is right... most of those asking REALLY want to know. Don't call them trolls if they ask a question that seems too simple or has any controversey to it! I hate that moniker far more than Stroke! Just answer the steenking question or remain silent.

For my money, there are lots of divers who do it right. I want to learn from all of them. Unfortunately, there are even more divers who only dream that they are doing it right. They post from the experience of others and are little more than cyber-divers. You can NOT easily seperate the two on this or any forum. So reader beware... you are responsible for your own diving as well as what you will believe when you read something.

There is nothing on here that you can substitute for training and experience. Please get as much of both of these that you can. Hook up with some of the various SB clubs (like the Conch Divers) and get out and dive with some of your cyber compadres. THEN you will know what type of diver they really are! You may also get to dive with some excellent divers and get to learn by following their example.

 

[Lawman]

_Kurt_ once bubbled...
That's a religion, right?

Founded by The Most Rev. Charles Warhammer, inventer of the Warhammer Maneuver. Standing for "doing it rectally" DIR first caught on in 1946 when Warhammer developed the Warhammer Rectal Regulator. A streamlined diving apparatus it was first marketed in the Mark I design to compete with early French SCUBA equiptment. After ironing out developmental bugs [ the Mark I had an alarming propensity to suddenly inflate the diver sending him shooting to the surface like a sub launched Atlas missle] Warhammer began marketing his Mark II model thru the Sears and Roebuck "wish book." The Korean War stopped development on the Mark III, an atomic powered Rectal SCUBA Backpack that had shown great promise in Navy tests. Rev Warhammer died in 1955 in a tragic accident while trying out the new Colon Blow DIR Connector. The SCUBA world mourned his loss. Several DIR churches carry out his work today.

 

[Uncle Pug]

...that some of the most distruptive *DIR* posters that troll through SB now and again are not really DIR at all.... they are anti-DIR trolls attempting to discredit DIR and disrupt SB.

 

[canuckdiver]

good point pug!

every organization has it's "gems"

dosen't mean you should discredit the ideals, just because of some people's attitudes.

 

[Jeblis]

MikeFerrara once bubbled...

Not only does DIR attract serious divers but I believe it also is very attractive to total nut cases. It gives them everything, a leader, a cause, a set of rules and a reason to believe they are better or somehow set apart.

Well put, but as with religion you don't need to be a total nut case to feel superior or in the right. Anytime a person feels they are enlightened and sees the truth they tend to feel superior...which is normal human nature. What really pisses people off though is when a person *acts* superior.

(NOTE that this is a general statement not pointed at any one person..or for that matter organization...take your pick DIR, Christianity, Branch Dividians, PETA....)

 

[MikeFerrara]

Uncle Pug once bubbled...
...that some of the most distruptive *DIR* posters that troll through SB now and again are not really DIR at all.... they are anti-DIR trolls attempting to discredit DIR and disrupt SB.

Really good point. I have to admit that I tend to assume these guys are renegade quest people. I guess that isn't really fair.

I checked out rec.scuba for the first time and it was a learning experience for sure.

 

[Epinephelus]

Braunbehrens once bubbled...
DIR is a perfectly logical and rational system.

HHHHhhhaaaarrrrrrr! Harrr dee harrr har har...
HA HA HA HA HA Hoooooooo....
That's the best one I've heard in a long, long time.
Chuckle...
Hoooo weeee....
E.

 

[Big-t-2538]

Jeblis once bubbled...



(NOTE that this is a general statement not pointed at any one person..or for that matter organization...take your pick DIR, Christianity, Branch Dividians, PETA....)

Dude...you forgot NAUI, PADI, IANTD, TDI, SSI, YMCA....etc...

 

[GearHead]

Braunbehrens once bubbled...

DIR is a perfectly logical and rational system. There is no need to be abusive in any way, if you have a genuine discussion, since the logic will win out in the end.

And Mike, just between you and me, I think this kind of thing is better done in private. Public washing of laundry is rarely beneficial.

Dude, maybe if you lost the condescending, patronizing attitude, then you wouldn't rub people the wrong way. Or perhaps if you stopped cross-posting bits and pieces of discussions from here to Quest, then you wouldn't piss everyone off. By the way, did George give you a nice pat on the head for your behavior this week?

If you take a moment to pay attention without being defensive, MHK is trying to help you. And maybe his decision to "air this dirty laundry" in public will help you understand that there IS a problem.