DIR and NE Wreck Diving

[Lost Yooper]

I don't cave dive, just wrecks, ice, and recreational (non everhead stuff). Other than switching to a single tank once in a great while, I use the same configuration all the time.

Mike

 

[tombiowami]

I remember a post a while back from GI saying he put wreck diving tools in a canister similar to one they were using for soil samples. Then carried like a stage bottle clipped off. I would guess PVC pipe would work fine.

Tommy

 

[roakey]

One BIG problem I see with DIR in the NE wreck scene is that many of the boat captains and crew are OPENLY hostile to DIR.

Up to and including refusing to accept GUE certifications.

The Seeker comes to mind. Hostile to DIR and the highest body count around. Simply coincidence?

Roak

 

[thethumper]

Lost Yooper once bubbled...
I don't cave dive, just wrecks, ice, and recreational (non everhead stuff). Other than switching to a single tank once in a great while, I use the same configuration all the time.

Mike

Ummm....Isn't ice diving considered "overhead" ?

 

[Divesherpa]

I haven't met anyone who disliked DIR, they simply dislike the holier than thou attitude lots of DIR guys have. (They don't like some of the personal preference guys either)
GUE certs are a different story. That's why I have GUE and IANTD and TDI. Nobody can complain when you give them what they ask for.

 

[Lost Yooper]

I was referring to the recreational diving I do as being non overhead/non deco diving I do. You know, I don't like the whole "recreational diving" phrase. I view all my diving as being recreational, regardless of whether I'm in a wreck, under the ice, or diving a reef in the tropics. It's all recreational to me, it's just that sometimes I bring more stuff with me and stay longer underwater on some dives .



Mike

 

[Genesis]

so don't think it doesn't happen, 'cause it most certainly does.....

Probably more likely to happen if the boat is owned by a LDS that doesn't sell Hogarthian-style kit.

 

[King Kong Matt]

roakey once bubbled...
One BIG problem I see with DIR in the NE wreck scene is that many of the boat captains and crew are OPENLY hostile to DIR.

Is that really true? Would you really categorize it as many, or is it just a few isolated boats?

roakey once bubbled...
Up to and including refusing to accept GUE certifications.

Again, are we just talking about Crowell/Seeker, or are we talking about *lots* of boats in the NE.

roakey once bubbled...
The Seeker comes to mind. Hostile to DIR and the highest body count around. Simply coincidence?

I don't definitively know one way or the other so I've got no agenda...but looking at some of the fatalities aboard the Seeker...a lot of them seem like they could have occurred off any NE boat. The rash in 98 on the Doria...most of them experienced Doria divers.

I'm just interested...I've seen Seeker bashing before and I would just like to understand what the real scoop is behind all of it.

BTW, just to eliminate one source of confusion...when I (and I would assume most people who live near me) refer to the NE, we are referring everything north of Philly/South Jersey. In short, I'm really referring to the NY/NJ boats...

 

[padiscubapro]

I have seen the hostility on several boats, its not really the gear set up per se (Many do not like the long hose around the neck, but wouldn't necessarily stop someone from diving cause of it) , its more the attitude of many DIR divers (better than God attitude)..

The feeling I get is that the captains don't want GUE divers (or divers without the NE experience for the dive planned form any agency..) because many of them are too dependent on buddies. I am not implying that all GUE divers are either poor or great divers, just that the buddy system is so ingrained that I have personally seen problems when they got seperated from their buddies and had no confidence to be on their own. Obviously there are many DIR divers that don't have this problem, but the absolute buddy methodology (which even padi pushes) can cause some panic when an unprepared person is now alone.

I have been on boats were divers with instructor cards were NOT ALLOWED to dive because they couldn't produce a log book showing local experience. In one case I had to take responsibility for this instructor and be his buddy so he could dive..

The buddy system is all well and good but in our waters you WILL get seperated (not on every dive).. All you need on many sites is an errant fin kick and there goes the viz, or more likely 1 diver PAUSES to look in a hole and the other diver doesn't realize it for less than a minute max.. with 5-10 ft of viz common (we are estatic when we get 20ft).. They are now buddyless..

The only boat I can think of that is totally open to DIR (and some of the crew promote it) is the Wahoo and since he has done so this has turned off many other divers and he has lost business.

 

[NJ Wreck Finder]

There are plenty of DIR divers in the Northeast. And even more of use that are DIB (better than we used to). The boat captains, Danny included, have no problem with DIR, people who will only dive with a buddy, long hoses, etc. I have been diving off Danny's boat many times, and never once has he ever made a comment about my Hogarthain rig. I have been on his boat when a fully DIR couple were diving, right down to the pre dive drills. He only observed, and let them do as they pleased. I think most of the NE captains, myself included, have no problem with people diving DIR. The problems arise when that DIR person starts knocking other peoples gear on the boat, or their diving styles. I don't care what gear you dive, the last thing you want is a doubt in the the back of your mind when you are more than 100' down and deep inside a shipwreck during a silt out. (not from kicking it up do to poor bouyancy either, but from a current change). One of the good things about DIR is that it gives the user a certain confidence, sometime too much confidence, but that is another topic.

dive safe,

d