Attitudes Toward DIR Divers

[Wibble]

Fun dies class?

 

[happy-diver]

Hey mate you've shown your cards far too soon, so why don't you take it easy

Ten years ago on here the answer to every question was either fundies or bpw

Hello what sort of fins should I buy, fundies, hello what tank should I buy, bpw

in the general forum from new divers all the way to the famous pub at the end

 

[Wallowa]

Wow. Waded through the posts, bought the tech diving books, scoured the articles and still struggling to have a clear cut view of "why".

Not wanting to stir the pot, just my thoughts and ruminations based on decades of diving. And I could be wrong.

In my, what 69 years since I bought my DA reg and started exploring UW, there have been almost an infinite variety of diving experiences that to enjoy with even a modicum of safety required tailoring the dive profiles and gear to fit the environment. If for example you dive in overhead constraints [ice, wrecks, caves, structures, pipes, etc.] or with a "do or get dead or crippled" decompression obligation the redundancy and added regs, bottles, lights, computers, masks, knives, lines, 7 foot reg hoses, double bladder wings, dry suits, etc. may make sense....if needed...dive through the Northern CA 5 foot surf and heavy surge with side mounts or place you mask backwards on your forehead and not have a snorkel when you must surface swim through the white caps and you will have trouble. Compound the choices with what gas mixture you may or may not need and you end up during a dive juggling a lot of often at crossed purpose variables.

I dig detailed planning and then nailing the dives [they never go exactly as planned..] but I also benefit more from simply blowing bubbles [ non-CCR] and soaking up the privilege of being UW once again.

My perspective is that a few truths tend to now get overlooked. One, all dives are solo dives. All dives are decompress dives. Divers will be injured and divers will die. Another diver may literally be the death of you yet be unable to help you. Gear does not save divers from harm, diver judgement and skill does and sometimes that is insufficient. The fewer decisions necessary when stressed in harm's way will produce more chance of correct decisions. I can pee in my wetsuit and not feel guilty. There is not one way to accomplish anything; not my way , not your way.

Bottom time is a gift to be enjoyed, savored, never taken for granted and should not a topic for pontificating lectures. It should be your personal choice how you attain the magic of diving. Damn how fortunate we divers are! Revel in the experience.

DSO

 

[Lorenzoid]

If for example you dive in overhead constraints [ice, wrecks, caves, structures, pipes, etc.] or with a "do or get dead or crippled" decompression obligation the redundancy and added regs, bottles, lights, computers, masks, knives, lines, 7 foot reg hoses, double bladder wings, dry suits, etc. may make sense....if needed...dive through the Northern CA 5 foot surf and heavy surge with side mounts or place you mask backwards on your forehead and not have a snorkel when you must surface swim through the white caps and you will have trouble. Compound the choices with what gas mixture you may or may not need and you end up during a dive juggling a lot of often at crossed purpose variables.

To attempt to put it succinctly, there's an inherent tradeoff between standardization and flexibility, and DIR struggles to maintain a realistic balance over the entire tech-to-rec spectrum. Few divers these days deny that sidemount has some use cases. Currently, the thinking in the DIR community, as evidenced by GUE's standards, is that the uses are limited to tight caves. But could there be some other limited use case that is recognized by the DIR community someday?--doubtful, but who knows. A futurist might predict we'll all be diving rebreathers, and the whole sidemount versus backmount tension will be moot. DIR principles do recognize bringing the right gear to suit the dive at hand. If the dive requires a surface swim, I take a folding snorkel--they're a great invention--with me in my pocket for deployment while I'm doing the swim.

it should be beyond debate that there are safety benefits to standardization in a team--everyone knowing exactly what is going on with everyone else's gear, gas, techniques, etc. The tricky part is balancing the "burdens," if you will, of the principle of standardization with the principle of bringing the right gear to suit the dive. Even the hardcore advocates of DIR might do well to ponder whether the perfect balance has been struck for all time over the entire tech-to-rec spectrum. Standardization means that any changes to the system will be slow. Maybe that's a feature, not a bug.

It should be your personal choice how you attain the magic of diving.

Absolutely.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Even a home improvement store is DIR!

 

[Wallowa]

Lorenzoid,

Very thoughtful comments. Concur about standardizing equipment orientation and what is carried, but would add this is primarily for the individual diver and not the "team". My opinion is that unless the dive plan specifies individual tasks designated to specific divers in support of a group [team] that the individual most benefits from knowing how to access critical gear and the correct use of that equipment. After training many, many divers the reality that diver safety always came down to the individual's competence and not support from other divers. That is why a 'thinking diver' for their safety should always view their dive as a solo dive. On research projects our team of divers would separate to conduct individual objectives with the understanding that when, not if, the untold occurred it was up to the individual to safely resolve the problem. "What if" is not just a catch phrase, but a safety mantra.

Just my opinions:

In all honesty I still fail to see how hanging extra side mounted tanks is considered "streamlining" a diver's profile as professed in so many texts. I see the need for staging bottles but believe limiting the equipment a diver carries seems to me to make more sense and will conserve energy and gas. Skill sets developed in training are of course mandatory but every diver can be pushed into panic and at that time the fewer gear manipulations required the higher the probability of survival. OK, I may be a diving relic but I see so many divers today wanting to be identified with other persons agendas and group think at the expense of personal choice.

Diving equipment and techniques will and should evolve, but the physics and physiology will remain. We leave the surface and must return to the surface and that is always up to the individual's choices. Diving is a gift granted to a few and should not be squandered. Mystical? Perhaps but UW is mystical.

Out Here,

DSO

 

[Nick_Radov]

A futurist might predict we'll all be diving rebreathers, and the whole sidemount versus backmount tension will be moot.

Barring some discovery of a huge new helium source somewhere, I think it's pretty clear that deep open circuit diving is becoming untenable. It doesn't take a crystal ball to predict that we'll all be diving rebreathers eventually for everything (other than training) much deeper than 100ft / 30m.

GUE and the Future of Open Circuit Tech Diving

Though they were late to the party, Global Underwater Explorers (GUE) is leaning forward on rebreathers, and members are following suit. So what’s to become of their open circuit-based TECH 2 course? InDepth’s Ashley Stewart has the deets.

indepthmag.com

There is still somewhat of an open question as to where to mount the tanks, counterlung, and scrubber. I'm not qualified to have an opinion on this one way or the other but some divers have been achieving good results with sidemount rebreathers.

When Sidemount Becomes the Solution

Global Underwater Explorers (GUE) standardized its training and dive operations on a specially configured, backmount JJ-CCR rebreather more than a decade ago. Though the configuration is popular among members, there are environments and uses where the unit is arguably suboptimal. As a result...

indepthmag.com

 

[SpeedyJ]

One, all dives are solo dives.

You may see this as the truth, but my experience diving with teams tells me otherwise. A true team is greater than the sum of its components.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Barring some discovery of a huge new helium source somewhere, I think it's pretty clear that deep open circuit diving is becoming untenable. It doesn't take a crystal ball to predict that we'll all be diving rebreathers eventually for everything (other than training) much deeper than 100ft / 30m.

The other agencies still teach basic air to 130’ (140’ in an emergency) and other tech agencies teach air to 150’ with deco (TDI AN/DP)
Many people have no problem taking air past 100’.
Just sayin’
32% to 100’ and mix beyond that seems a little over the top to me. That is still GUE’s stance is it not?
I can’t even get 32% where I live, does that mean I should stay out of the water?

 

[Lorenzoid]

Concur about standardizing equipment orientation and what is carried, but would add this is primarily for the individual diver and not the "team".

I agree that equipment standardization may sometimes be over-emphasized. An extra D-ring is probably not going to do any harm to the individual or the team. But keep in mind that standardization is not just equipment, it's also procedures and gases. It can feel kind of liberating to know in advance how certain things are going to go, without explicitly covering them in the dive briefing. Everyone is going to handle certain situations the same way. You know everyone is breathing the same gas and that they analyzed it, and the likelihood of something unexpected happening because of O2 percentage is extremely low. I find that that feeling of predictability makes my dives more relaxed and enjoyable.