ChrisM
Contributor
Last weekend I took the DIR F class with GUE instructor John Walker... Was too exhausted Sunday nite to even turn on the computer and give a report, so here I am 24 hours later. Highlights to follow........
May I say at the beginning that DIR gets a certain, shall we say, reputation, as a result of certain postings on the internet and perceived attitudes. But, as most of you already know, DIR is simply a holistic approach to diving. Prety much everything that is done has a well thought-out reason behind it. The information just makes sense. So, borrowing a phrase from another organization, if you can put principles before personalities, there is a LOT to learn here.
The why: I am not a "DIR" diver, although I do use a BP wings and long hose. I have taken some of the elements that made sense to me and incorporated them into my rig, but never applied them or used them in "DIR" fashion. Prime example (and why the heck didn't my DIR diver friends tell me??) was the improper routing of the 7 foot hose. Having not done an S drill with these so-called "friends" (just kidding guys), they never noticed and/or pointed it out to me, and the hose just fit so well the way I had it.....
Plus, if I ever believe that I don't have anything left to learn (about anything), I may as well just lie down and die. As one participant eloquently stated it, I don't know what I don't know.
The who: Myself, MJG, and Eins, all of whom had DIR gear to one extent or another. All had backplates, 2 had the long hose....etc.
Friday night is devoted to basic philosophy and gear configuration. Since JW was preaching to the chior, there wasn't a whole lot of new information, although it was helpful. Not really much to report on Friday nite......
On Satruday morning we met in the pool. Skills included horizontal descents and ascents, bubble checks, S drills (safety drills, or air-share), valve shutoff and turn on drills, new kicks - modifed flutter, frog and modified frog (well, names to kicks or leg movements I had done in the past), and reverse kick (well, it's *supposed* to be reverse, but at times just not moving forward seemed to be a small victory - hell on the ankles by the way), lift bag shooting, and mask removal and replace. Oh, and all skills are to be completed while maintaining neutral buoyancy and correct trim a few feet of the bottom.
We practice these kicks doing laps around the pool and, amazingly, even though there was no kelp in the pool, clips, gauges, etc. mysteriously came unclipped. Sometimes these gauges actually migrate and clip themselves to other divers, weird stuff.......... OOA drills were included as well.
After lunch, we spent the remainder of the day discussing decompression theory and the various deco models. We also heard a number of "body recovery" stories, which always add to the merriment. Because conditions were so poor, we passed on the ocean dive.
Of course, a run thru the dive shop was also required, in order to make some modifications of my rig, some small (SS bolt snaps - makes a HUGE difference - move the knife from here to there), some bigger (stage rig the pony, 24" HP hose for my computer - which I thought would not work but really liked, wrist computer on right wrist, bungeed compass on left, adding lift bag and reel).
On Sunday, we went out on the Magician for our ocean dives. I am sure there were fish out there, but I don't remember anything "recreational" about the dives. We only got two dives in, and we didn't really do *that* much, but I was exhausted afterwards. Mostly involved task loading - multiple task loading. Major skills included many air sharing drills, following a 500 yard or so cave line course using different kicks, and while sharing air. Lift bag deployments. Sharing air, maintaining horizontal trim and buoyancy at 10 fsw, hovering face to face, using only minor kick adjustments to maintain position (well, theoretically). Following a 50 foot cave line course, with only backwards kicks.
I really liked the computer and SPG on the 24" hose. SImply unclip it and glance down. Very streamlined, nothing hanging below the plane of the body.
The coup de grace of the day was following the cave line course, while sharing air, both divers with their masks off. It was not as hard or as daunting as I thought , but it was work.
Well, that's it, still too tired to put together more than a few incoherent sentences. I would recommend this class to anyone thinking of taking it.
DSAO
Chris
Cleaned up the prose and language a bit --TM
May I say at the beginning that DIR gets a certain, shall we say, reputation, as a result of certain postings on the internet and perceived attitudes. But, as most of you already know, DIR is simply a holistic approach to diving. Prety much everything that is done has a well thought-out reason behind it. The information just makes sense. So, borrowing a phrase from another organization, if you can put principles before personalities, there is a LOT to learn here.
The why: I am not a "DIR" diver, although I do use a BP wings and long hose. I have taken some of the elements that made sense to me and incorporated them into my rig, but never applied them or used them in "DIR" fashion. Prime example (and why the heck didn't my DIR diver friends tell me??) was the improper routing of the 7 foot hose. Having not done an S drill with these so-called "friends" (just kidding guys), they never noticed and/or pointed it out to me, and the hose just fit so well the way I had it.....
Plus, if I ever believe that I don't have anything left to learn (about anything), I may as well just lie down and die. As one participant eloquently stated it, I don't know what I don't know.
The who: Myself, MJG, and Eins, all of whom had DIR gear to one extent or another. All had backplates, 2 had the long hose....etc.
Friday night is devoted to basic philosophy and gear configuration. Since JW was preaching to the chior, there wasn't a whole lot of new information, although it was helpful. Not really much to report on Friday nite......
On Satruday morning we met in the pool. Skills included horizontal descents and ascents, bubble checks, S drills (safety drills, or air-share), valve shutoff and turn on drills, new kicks - modifed flutter, frog and modified frog (well, names to kicks or leg movements I had done in the past), and reverse kick (well, it's *supposed* to be reverse, but at times just not moving forward seemed to be a small victory - hell on the ankles by the way), lift bag shooting, and mask removal and replace. Oh, and all skills are to be completed while maintaining neutral buoyancy and correct trim a few feet of the bottom.
We practice these kicks doing laps around the pool and, amazingly, even though there was no kelp in the pool, clips, gauges, etc. mysteriously came unclipped. Sometimes these gauges actually migrate and clip themselves to other divers, weird stuff.......... OOA drills were included as well.
After lunch, we spent the remainder of the day discussing decompression theory and the various deco models. We also heard a number of "body recovery" stories, which always add to the merriment. Because conditions were so poor, we passed on the ocean dive.
Of course, a run thru the dive shop was also required, in order to make some modifications of my rig, some small (SS bolt snaps - makes a HUGE difference - move the knife from here to there), some bigger (stage rig the pony, 24" HP hose for my computer - which I thought would not work but really liked, wrist computer on right wrist, bungeed compass on left, adding lift bag and reel).
On Sunday, we went out on the Magician for our ocean dives. I am sure there were fish out there, but I don't remember anything "recreational" about the dives. We only got two dives in, and we didn't really do *that* much, but I was exhausted afterwards. Mostly involved task loading - multiple task loading. Major skills included many air sharing drills, following a 500 yard or so cave line course using different kicks, and while sharing air. Lift bag deployments. Sharing air, maintaining horizontal trim and buoyancy at 10 fsw, hovering face to face, using only minor kick adjustments to maintain position (well, theoretically). Following a 50 foot cave line course, with only backwards kicks.
I really liked the computer and SPG on the 24" hose. SImply unclip it and glance down. Very streamlined, nothing hanging below the plane of the body.
The coup de grace of the day was following the cave line course, while sharing air, both divers with their masks off. It was not as hard or as daunting as I thought , but it was work.
Well, that's it, still too tired to put together more than a few incoherent sentences. I would recommend this class to anyone thinking of taking it.
DSAO
Chris
Cleaned up the prose and language a bit --TM
