Attitudes Toward DIR Divers
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I am one of the best DIR divers in the world. I promote 'Doing it Relaxed. 
Every diver, like in every sport or whatever is human. And humans like it in most cases to belong to a group. And this means people start stating themselves as different or better than others.
Padi is for everybody. SSI is now following more or less the same path, even SDI.
All recreational diving. Fast, for holiday divers, try to sell a course if people have just a few days.
But remember, even if you hate Padi, PADI is nowadays synonym for 'certificate for diving'. I am taking 'my padi' is used everywere in the world. And also if you do your open water course with ssi or sdi, a lot of people will still talk about 'doing their padi'. This means that padi did something really well. Is this also DIR?
CMAS is for club members. Here it starts in at least my country already with the prejudices: you learn better diving in a club because we take the time. Commercial agencies are there just for money and don't learn you diving well. Is the club way DIR?
GUE talks about 'community'. And there are really divers that are afraid of not finding buddies that are sensitive for this. If you have done a course, you can join the community. Also that the prices are higher than others attracks a group of people who can afford it. (I know that people will say this has nothing to do with the price, but at the end for sure it has. Not every diver wants to pay 750 for a fundies where you are not allowed to go deeper than you already did on other certs. Also not every diver wants to pay 750 for an open water course if it can be done for 450. Or they don't have more time than 3 days to do an open water course. So money for sure plays an important role in the career of a diver.
That GUE is synonym for DIR is from 12-14 years ago, then it was called 'DIR-diving'. Also Halcyon, the founder of gue is owner of Halcyon sold 'DIR diving equipment'. This is still printed on my halcyon wing. Because the term DIR did repel people, they changed it.
Others also use or used the name DIR like Swedtech (older than gue, also started with ratio deco and deco on the fly) and UTD did the same, but had a worser commercial part, they are less wellknown.
Here I show some prejudices about some agencies. But also from what I have seen around me.
CMAS clubs and GUE both have a form of a community, but attrack totally different people. But both say 'we are the best', but in a complete different way.
At the end, there are not statistics that show which agency is really the best.
Also the 'most commercial' agencies don't have worser statistics than others. And every agency needs to earn money. This is done by selling courses, and also by renewing cards or member fees. With cmas you also pay a member fee. With gue you have to renew your card every X year. And all agencies want to sell courses. So there is no big difference between all that agencies. The chimney must smoke everywhere.
Oh, and if you get other ideas than your agency you are now member of, you can always found a new one. This is how a lot or most of the agencies nowadays started or start.
Another example of the attitude of divers and that they are all human are: a part of the instructors. Yes, some people you talk with about diving and they say: I have done X dives, and am also INSTRUCTOR. Yes, the word INSTRUCTOR is a very magic word for a lot of divers. They know more than others they think. And this is of course also fed by agencies who tell already the open water diver that after 100 dives he can be instructor, so keep diving please. And don't forget to buy other specialties and courses, it will give you a higher ranking in the diving ladder.
Humans like to make a competition of everything. This means that even in a sport like diving you see the 'instructors', you see the 'DIR-divers', you see that card collectioners, you see the dinosaurs where everything has to stay the same as 40 years ago as this is the best, you see the 'solodiving must be banned' divers, etc. This means that DIR-divers compete indirectly to the instructors and to the solodivers. But the card collectioners also have a proof of good diving with 100's of cards. And the dinosaurs can count on a lot of years experience and this means a proof of safe diving.
But remember: DIVING MUST BE FUN. So DOING IT RELAXED. DIR. Then we don't need to have an attitude towards DIR or agencies or prejudices from others. Just Doing It Relaxed is the way to go.
And if you join this way of DIR-diving, it doesn't matter which color of cards you have and it doesn't matter if you have 100's of cards or just 1 as you just started. Stay relax, stay safe and enjoy.
Every diver, like in every sport or whatever is human. And humans like it in most cases to belong to a group. And this means people start stating themselves as different or better than others.
Padi is for everybody. SSI is now following more or less the same path, even SDI.
All recreational diving. Fast, for holiday divers, try to sell a course if people have just a few days.
But remember, even if you hate Padi, PADI is nowadays synonym for 'certificate for diving'. I am taking 'my padi' is used everywere in the world. And also if you do your open water course with ssi or sdi, a lot of people will still talk about 'doing their padi'. This means that padi did something really well. Is this also DIR?
CMAS is for club members. Here it starts in at least my country already with the prejudices: you learn better diving in a club because we take the time. Commercial agencies are there just for money and don't learn you diving well. Is the club way DIR?
GUE talks about 'community'. And there are really divers that are afraid of not finding buddies that are sensitive for this. If you have done a course, you can join the community. Also that the prices are higher than others attracks a group of people who can afford it. (I know that people will say this has nothing to do with the price, but at the end for sure it has. Not every diver wants to pay 750 for a fundies where you are not allowed to go deeper than you already did on other certs. Also not every diver wants to pay 750 for an open water course if it can be done for 450. Or they don't have more time than 3 days to do an open water course. So money for sure plays an important role in the career of a diver.
That GUE is synonym for DIR is from 12-14 years ago, then it was called 'DIR-diving'. Also Halcyon, the founder of gue is owner of Halcyon sold 'DIR diving equipment'. This is still printed on my halcyon wing. Because the term DIR did repel people, they changed it.
Others also use or used the name DIR like Swedtech (older than gue, also started with ratio deco and deco on the fly) and UTD did the same, but had a worser commercial part, they are less wellknown.
Here I show some prejudices about some agencies. But also from what I have seen around me.
CMAS clubs and GUE both have a form of a community, but attrack totally different people. But both say 'we are the best', but in a complete different way.
At the end, there are not statistics that show which agency is really the best.
Also the 'most commercial' agencies don't have worser statistics than others. And every agency needs to earn money. This is done by selling courses, and also by renewing cards or member fees. With cmas you also pay a member fee. With gue you have to renew your card every X year. And all agencies want to sell courses. So there is no big difference between all that agencies. The chimney must smoke everywhere.
Oh, and if you get other ideas than your agency you are now member of, you can always found a new one. This is how a lot or most of the agencies nowadays started or start.
Another example of the attitude of divers and that they are all human are: a part of the instructors. Yes, some people you talk with about diving and they say: I have done X dives, and am also INSTRUCTOR. Yes, the word INSTRUCTOR is a very magic word for a lot of divers. They know more than others they think. And this is of course also fed by agencies who tell already the open water diver that after 100 dives he can be instructor, so keep diving please. And don't forget to buy other specialties and courses, it will give you a higher ranking in the diving ladder.
Humans like to make a competition of everything. This means that even in a sport like diving you see the 'instructors', you see the 'DIR-divers', you see that card collectioners, you see the dinosaurs where everything has to stay the same as 40 years ago as this is the best, you see the 'solodiving must be banned' divers, etc. This means that DIR-divers compete indirectly to the instructors and to the solodivers. But the card collectioners also have a proof of good diving with 100's of cards. And the dinosaurs can count on a lot of years experience and this means a proof of safe diving.
But remember: DIVING MUST BE FUN. So DOING IT RELAXED. DIR. Then we don't need to have an attitude towards DIR or agencies or prejudices from others. Just Doing It Relaxed is the way to go.
And if you join this way of DIR-diving, it doesn't matter which color of cards you have and it doesn't matter if you have 100's of cards or just 1 as you just started. Stay relax, stay safe and enjoy.
Barefoot_Lawyer
Contributor
I took my OW with PADI on a beach in USVI before I was actually old enough to be certified. The instructor didn’t realize until the course was over, so to this day PADI thinks I am a year older than I actually am. Needless to say, I haven’t found much worthwhile from my PADI OW, or later AOW that I was required to do to dive as deep as I had been for the prior decade.
I took AN/DP from an instructor that dove sidemount, and when he saw my BM doubles he just said “I don’t dive those, so you’ll have to figure that part out”. Although the dive theory was good in the class, there were essentially nonexistent standards for performance in the water.
I just got back from Fundies. Although I have wanted to take the class for the last 20 years, it just never worked out with the rest of my life. While I am sure you “can” get great instruction from other agencies, I never did. Fundies was an amazing (and humbling) class. The concept of team diving and being really, really good at the basic stuff including air sharing and deploying a DSMB makes a lot of sense to me, and I don’t think I’ll be taking any instruction from another agency ever again.
I make it a point not to talk to people about how/why I dive the way I do unless they ask, but it’s hard not to proselytize after you’ve seen how good a class can be and how fun a dive can be with two rock solid teammates to rely on.
I took AN/DP from an instructor that dove sidemount, and when he saw my BM doubles he just said “I don’t dive those, so you’ll have to figure that part out”. Although the dive theory was good in the class, there were essentially nonexistent standards for performance in the water.
I just got back from Fundies. Although I have wanted to take the class for the last 20 years, it just never worked out with the rest of my life. While I am sure you “can” get great instruction from other agencies, I never did. Fundies was an amazing (and humbling) class. The concept of team diving and being really, really good at the basic stuff including air sharing and deploying a DSMB makes a lot of sense to me, and I don’t think I’ll be taking any instruction from another agency ever again.
I make it a point not to talk to people about how/why I dive the way I do unless they ask, but it’s hard not to proselytize after you’ve seen how good a class can be and how fun a dive can be with two rock solid teammates to rely on.
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So, you were able to dive for a decade with a PADI OW card, to and above the certification limit of the card, but did not get anything worthwhile from it?
Barefoot_Lawyer
Contributor
I had to do a lot of self-study after my OW cert. I had no idea how to use tables and I was certified long before recreational computers were widespread. I had no idea how to set up my equipment. I had no idea how to do anything other than follow the instructions of a DM and try to keep up.
You did not qualify for that OW card. You failed the confined water work and the final exam with table questions on it.
Opinion: your instructor didn’t earn his pay.
Barefoot_Lawyer
Contributor
Barefoot_Lawyer
Contributor
You are correct. I literally did not pass the exam and my instructor told me what the correct answers were so we could go diving. I had absolutely no clue how to put together equipment because I did it one time with the instructor telling me step by step how to do it at the pool. After that, all my dives were from a boat and the boat hands assembled all equipment.
You just haven’t found the good instructor yet. Keep trying. Hopefully you don’t end up like Mills before the right one.
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