An Attempt at Understanding DIR

[Anti-Hero]

GUE prefers can lights on the right side.

 

[Rainer]

GUE prefers can lights on the right side.

Nope, GUE prefers the CANISTER on the right, but the LIGHT is definitely in the left hand (most of the time). Sure, it's nice that when you start scootering nothing changes, but it's even nicer not to get a crap load of 21W in your face if you keep the light in the right hand when you donate.

 

[Anti-Hero]

D'oh!

How could I forget there are two parts to a can light. Yes, the light head is on the left. My bad, I was thinking the canister itself.

 

[pengwe]

My take on that book, as a DIR diver who happily dives with non-DIR divers (which I think many DIR divers do), is that it is telling you what the DIR configuration is. If you want to dive DIR, follow it. If not, well, there are a whole bunch of other ways you can dive, some of which are identified as unsafe, others of which aren't mentioned. Some people both (DIR and non-DIR) read it that if something isn't specifically recognised as 'safe', then it must be 'unsafe'. I don't interpret it that way. There are other safe ways to dive, but they aren't DIR, so the book doesn't talk about them. It is a DIR manual, not a how-to-dive-safely-in-any-configuration manual. Just because it's not in the book, doesn't mean it's not a safe way to dive under the right circumstances. It's just not the DIR way.

Your specific quotes:

Recently, some have tried to respond to the popularity of DIR by advocating
other “systems.” These configurations, however, are not really
systems; they are, rather, a collection of loose recommendations put
together from a variety of sources (often from the DIR system itself ). It
would be wise for divers to be wary of these, since such modifications
compromise the fundamental efficiency and safety of DIR.

'Other systems aren't DIR. Be wary of them, because they may or may not be safe. In particular, look out for systems where elements of DIR have been mixed and matched with random other stuff. They might look DIR-ish, but you can't just assume they will have the same systematic integrity'.

That's not the same as saying 'every other system besides DIR is inefficient and unsafe'.

Equipment that does not enrich the dive is considered a liability and therefore to be left at home.

This is a statement about DIR values and decision-making. If you want to be DIR, use it as a guide when choosing equipment. If you are diving with other people who don't follow that, then you are going to have to assess their safety for yourself. Having a quick-release in the harness doesn't make you a massive danger to yourself and others. But it could break, so it's a liability. DIR divers won't use one, but I wouldn't see it as a reason not to dive with someone who does.

However, if, in fact, a diver does need more than 65 pounds of lift for diving doubles, or more than 30 pounds for diving singles, then they do not have a balanced rig and are an accident waiting to happen.

Other people addressed this, so I hope you can see why this is phrased this way. It doesn't mean that any and every deviation from DIR standards will automatically be catastrophic, or that anyone who doesn't follow them is a terrible, unsafe diver. It's saying that an unbalanced rig can kill you if your buoyancy fails.


As DIR divers, we naturally think that our system is best. Otherwise we'd be diving some other way we thought was better. So if someone dives differently, then from my POV, it's not optimal. If I was in their shoes (fins) I wouldn't dive that way. But as long as what they doing works for them, and for the dive we are going to do together, then I will buddy with them. Maybe it's not optimal (from my perspective; it might be perfect from theirs), but it can still be safe.

 

[AndyNZ]

Chipping in my $0.02 worth in this emminately worthless discussion.

If you chip away all the minutae, the tennets of DIR are (IMHO) no more than a common sense set of rules that you find in the PADI OW manual.

Plan the dive, dive the plan.
Be familiar with your and your "buddies" dive equipment
Be fit and healthy for diving
Don't do the dive if conditions dictate otherwise..... and so on.

To the OP, yes the term "DIR" is contentious - but most of the angst is very much on the internet. Give you local GUE or UTD instructor a call and have a chat with them, you'll probably find them to be very open minded and liberal in their discussion. Every GUE instructor I know wants people to ask them these questions, they want the approach to be challenged... in the hope that maybe there will be a better way.

The thing I love about GUE is that as a GUE member, there is a link on the GUE website "Request a change to GUE standards". If I really think I've got a way to improve what is taught/dived then I have a voice - and if it truely better, then the change will be implemented.

A lot of the advantages of the DIR approach are about consistency - both in terms of how equipment is configured and what procedures are used. It is not the only way, but you should have consistency within your team on any challenging dive... if you want to invert your tanks, have a slob knob on your isolator, put a stage tank on either side.... then great, if you can justify it and everyone in the team is doing the same. Well, go for it. But if you're in a situation where you're at the back of a cave, or at 55m and trying to work out which tank valve has been shut down by tracing the hose around the back and seeing which valve it's connected to... well, you're just making it hard for yourself.

The nice thing with the DIR system is that every single aspect of it is entirely justifiable. Individual aspects don't always make sense until you are aware of how the whole works. So many people ask me why I only carry stage bottles on the left - "isn't it better to have two steel tanks, one on each side to balance you out?". The tanks are on the left primarily to ease deployment of the long hose in an OOG situation - pretty much everything in the DIR equipment configuration (and wider attitude) boils down to this same one thing.... can you donate gas to a team member who needs it.

It's is not the only way, but's a damn good way of doing things.

 

[Cave Diver]

Based on your posts in this forum, I have a pretty good idea of why you think DIR divers you interacted with in person were big mean jerks.

Typically, I chalk up the making fun of OW divers for not being DIR stupidity to freshly minted DIR-F students. They often confuse the deserved bashing we did decads ago of technical divers that were horrendous strokes with giving OW divers with no knowledge of or possibly no desire to follow the DIR system grief. Absent egregiously dangerous behaviour, pretty much anyone giving an OW diver a hard time about their diving and configuration doesn't have a clue.

Your trolling here though is frankly getting off light. JeffG needs to crank it up to 11 so you will go away.

RTodd -- I haven't followed King's other posts in this forum. However, I have had a few PM exchanges with him recently regarding DIR. Based on that, I believe this thread was posted as a sincere attempt to take a closer look at DIR from another perspective rather than to troll.

YMMV.

 

[Rainer]

I believe this thread was posted as a sincere attempt to take a closer look at DIR from another perspective rather than to troll.

As opposed to your contributions?

 

[HenrikBP]

The concept of a balanced rig, as I understand it, is that you need to be able to swim up a total wing failure, OR a total drysuit flood, but not both.

Thanks for the correction Lynne. I had been wondering how I'd be able to balance a rig with an SS backplate, steel HP100 and a drysuit undergarment combination that requires 22 lbs to sink.

Henrik

 

[Peter Guy]

Chipping in my $0.02 worth in this emminately worthless discussion.

If you chip away all the minutae, the tennets of DIR are (IMHO) no more than a common sense set of rules that you find in the PADI OW manual.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

 

[JeffG]

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

LOL

Even though most of the tenets have nothing to do with OW?