An Attempt at Understanding DIR

[TSandM]

I personally think that people should abandon the term DIR diver.

I agree, and GUE now calls them "GUE divers". I coined the term "Unified Team Divers" to try to describe what I saw as the core value and major differentiating factor, but somebody grabbed that term and used it for a new agency. Divers trained by GUE and UTD are far more similar than they are different, and both are different from almost all recreationally trained divers, and from many technically trained divers, and unfortunately, the "DIR" term is still useful to group both GUE and UTD under as an umbrella. I'm all out of coining inspiration to replace it.

 

[JeffG]

A rose by any other name....

 

[Gombessa]

I coined the term "Unified Team Divers" to try to describe what I saw as the core value and major differentiating factor, but somebody grabbed that term and used it for a new agency.

Everybody grab a pitchfork! We've got your back Lynne.

 

[lamont]

For what it is worth, I have never run into a jerk card-carrying GUE diver, and the very few GUE trained guys that I have met (I met a few at Ginnie with their instructor) where super nice guys. I personally think that people should abandon the term DIR diver. If you are not GUE trained, then who gives a crap what you call yourself. I could call myself an LMNOP diver, but if I have no training from anyone, then I am just a diver who gave myself a title. That DIR moniker is doing most people more harm than good. If I were a GUE executive, I would actively try to ditch the DIR moniker and all the apparent internet thread reading, non-GUE trained hangers-on that appear to be hurting the legitimacy of the real GUE trained divers.

The "DIRF" course has been renamed "GUEF". The actions of GUE seem to agree with you and that someone at GUE thinks that the DIR term produces more heat than light.

I still personally use the term DIR because I went through a 'stop using the term DIR' phase several years ago and eventually decided that if someone has an issue with that term that its their problem and not mine.

This argument comes up about once a month.

 

[Kingpatzer]

DIR becomes better understood if we look at the system from where the philosophy can place a dive team at the farthest reaches of the most extreme diving environment . . .

That's DIR.

That is an exceptionally eloquent post. Thank you for that!

I've met religious zealots, political zealots, and now there's something for diving zealots.

That's absolutely true. It's also true that zealotry is frequently something that is inculcated into a group, either intentionally or unintentionally. Rationally people generally do not start chanting en masse how those who don't agree with them are damned or should die or whatever other evil can be wished upon them. Those types of cults generally have a cult leader.

And from what I'm reading it sounds like this Gary guy may well have been that figure for at least some folks who claim membership in the DIR community.

What's interesting to me about Trace's explanation is that it does not appear to be focused at all on specific gear configurations but on agreed upon configurations deemed appropriate through experience for a particular environment.

Yet much of the talk about DIR, even from GUE's own web-site, stems around specific equipment configurations.

And it seems to be the basis for much of the 'zealotry' involved.

And look, if these people are arrogant losers, why do you care?

First, because I am interested in technical diving, and I am interested in doing it safely. I am interested in having superior diving skills, both for my own well being and to ensure that I can as on the ball as possible when diving with my wife and children, or who ever else may be my buddy.

Second, because much of the gear advice does make sense to me, as well as the team concepts behind it. Some of it appears to me to be more than over-kill for dives that lack the sort of exceptionally long deco stops and dangers of deep cave penetrations and the like. And it seems that what to me appear to be concessions to the realities and budgets of us lesser mortals are frowned upon rather than recognized that diving can be a sport for anyone to engage in.

I personally think that people should abandon the term DIR diver. If you are not GUE trained, then who gives a crap what you call yourself. . . . That DIR moniker is doing most people more harm than good.

I agree, and GUE now calls them "GUE divers"

I don't disagree with that point. Who else certifies people to be "DIR" trained besides GUE? If GUE is the more or less defacto training organization for the DIR diving style/method/philosophy/whatever, then why perpetuate the moniker if GUE is moving away from it?

 

[ScubaSam]

The "DIRF" course has been renamed "GUEF". The actions of GUE seem to agree with you and that someone at GUE thinks that the DIR term produces more heat than light.

That was the sense I got from GUE-F because it was not mentioned during the lectures nor the dives all week, or if it was then certainly not enough for me to recall it being mentioned.

 

[Kingpatzer]

I . . . decided that if someone has an issue with that term that its their problem and not mine.

Irrespective of subject, the power of word choice to frame a discussion should never be under-estimated. Communication is a two way street, the speaker is as responsible for how the message is heard as the person being spoken to.

 

[JeffG]

Some of it appears to me to be more than over-kill for dives that lack the sort of exceptionally long deco stops and dangers of deep cave penetrations and the like. And it seems that what to me appear to be concessions to the realities and budgets of us lesser mortals are frowned upon rather than recognized that diving can be a sport for anyone to engage in.

Then you have to understand where it came from.




http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/te...es/185325-dir-article-gear-configuration.html

 

[ScubaSam]

I don't disagree with that point. Who else certifies people to be "DIR" trained besides GUE? If GUE is the more or less defacto training organization for the DIR diving style/method/philosophy/whatever, then why perpetuate the moniker if GUE is moving away from it?

I was told that GUE does not own the term or the rights to DIR. While GUE may have been one of the first agencies to teach it, they are not the only agency to teach it now. There are DIR trained divers who did not take classes with GUE.

I'm sure someone will correct me if I was misinformed.

 

[JeffG]

I was told that GUE does not own the term or the rights to DIR. While GUE may have been one of the first agencies to teach it, they are not the only agency to teach it now. There are DIR trained divers who did not take classes with GUE.

I'm sure someone will correct me if I was misinformed.

Thats the politically correct way of saying "the the term DIR has been perverted by others so we (GUE) are abandoning it."