DIR / DIR Curious Shore Dive Event - October 9th - Final Planning / Details

[Jeff_S]

Nicole,

What a great day you created! With divers starting to arrive at 6am and staying until being overrun by a wedding late in the afternoon, it was non-stop food and conversation about all things diving. I so enjoyed seeing old friends, diving with new buddies (thanks, Robert) and just hanging out.

Thank you!!

Jeff

 

[Leejnd]

Wow! You couldn't have scripted this day to go better. It definitely dispelled the "rep" that DIR divers are a cultish group who look with disdain at non-DIR divers. I learned so much, and got to try out a bp/w,and dive with Steve Millington - that was worth the price of admission right there!

And the dive itself - wow! It was funny...when we first descended I was rolling and flopping around like a cork in rapids...I could NOT hold myself still! It was really embarrassing, and I was starting to get discouraged that thios bp/w setup was just not gonna be somrthing I coul master. But then Steve came over and started yanking things and tightening it up, and BOOM - my trim was instantaneously rock-solid horizontal! I really liked the feel underwater, and was surprised at how easily I coul hold my trim throughout the dive, even in such shallow water.

I struggled some with the frog kick, and the positioning of my feet...I've got a lot to UNlearn before I can master any of this.

But the key thing is that I learned I want to do this, to improve my skills, be a safer diver, and enjoy diving more.

my husband got a lot out of it too. He was pretty sceptical, and really didn't want me to spend the money to replace my perfectly-working gear just to "join the club"so to speak. He gets it now, and is considering going bp/w himself.

I'm working out the details of when I will buy gear and take fundies, but it will be soon - definitely before we go to Costa Rica for a dive trip in Dec.

It was fantastic to meet everyone and put faces to the screennames. And we even had a DIR cake! ;-)

Awesome job Nicole!

 

[Leejnd]

I should add that I'm typing this from my Blackberry, as we're now out in Hemet staying wit the inlaws, so apologies for an unusually high number of typo's.

I also wanted to mention that the divewas fabulous just as a dive! Conditions could not have been better - ankle-slapper waves, warm water, best vis I've seen on a beach dive that I can remember.

After we practiced a few skills with Steveand poked around in the kelp for a while, he headed back and Eric and I went off to just enjoy the scenery. Awesome spot! Reefs everywhere! And they are gorgeous ones...tons of colorful life, gorgonian fans, soft coral, scallops, interesting structure. We saw a huge bat ray right under us, an octo in a hole, and lotsa smiling scallops. All in all a fantastic dive.

Afterwards Charlie and I headed over to Crescent Bay Point Park, where wegot married 26 years ago. It hasn't changed a bit. There was even a wedding getting set up, so it brought back some wonderful memories.

 

[ligersandtions]

So bummed I had to miss it (paper due on Monday and I just couldn't get away).

From the reports I've heard, sounds like it went extremely well. Happy to hear everyone had a great time and conditions cooperated.

Hope to get to dive with some of the DIR-curious divers in the near future.

Well done, Nicole!

Definitely missed having you around, Chris! Guess we'll have to do it again when you are all done with writing....this whole writing thing needs to end soon so you can come out and play

Great event Nicole! Wish my knee wasn't jacked and I could have gone in the water. However, I had a great time on the surface chatting with everyone.

Leslie, I'd call your day a pretty huge success, even without diving. You found a Fundies team and got the class all scheduled! Let's get out and dive before then

Wow! You couldn't have scripted this day to go better. It definitely dispelled the "rep" that DIR divers are a cultish group who look with disdain at non-DIR divers. I learned so much, and got to try out a bp/w,and dive with Steve Millington - that was worth the price of admission right there!

my husband got a lot out of it too. He was pretty sceptical, and really didn't want me to spend the money to replace my perfectly-working gear just to "join the club"so to speak. He gets it now, and is considering going bp/w himself.

I'm working out the details of when I will buy gear and take fundies, but it will be soon - definitely before we go to Costa Rica for a dive trip in Dec.

Uh-oh, you're telling me DIR isn't a cult??

Glad the poor reputation is slowly starting to disappear....at least around socal. I'd like to do events like this more often as I don't want for people to think we're unfriendly, judging, exclusive divers. We really do just like to dive and do it safely....and this philosophy of diving is what we've found to work best for us.

Glad you and your husband are both looking into the bp/w's. Personally, I think they make a lot of sense for diving in general....but for cold water where we wear a lot of exposure protection, they make more sense than a traditional bc, imo. Do take some time to compare the Halcyon (cinch and non-cinch systems) and DSS. Talk with Tobin (cool_hardware52) on SB. [I'm biased....I prefer the DSS bp/w for singles. But do take time to compare and see what works for you.]



Again, thank you all for coming out! I'm so pleased that this went as well as it did

 

[Peter Guy]

It definitely dispelled the "rep" that DIR divers are a cultish group who look with disdain at non-DIR divers.

Say it ain't so! You'll really ruin my morning if you now write they also showed you the secret handshake!

Sounds like a very good experience Nicole -- Congratulations.

 

[liuk3]

You're lucky, Leejnd, that you and your husband got to spend so much one on one time with Steve Millington. He is a great GUE Fundamentals instructor. Glad you had a very positive experience at the event. Looking forward to seeing you and your husband take Fundamentals. It will transform your diving!

 

[Blackwood]

Good times. Thanks Nicole.

This was one of the best shore dives I've ever done in socal. Awesome viz, tons of marine life, really pretty swaying plantlife in the shallows. Here's some video:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=10150271193055655

and some photos John Walker took:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=215574&id=1377107794

Hopefully both are viewable to all.

 

[leabre]

Yep, saDIRday was cool! It was nice to meet everyone and almost dive, I ended having to leave before diving, but it was great to see everyone in one place and many curious about DIR diving and the success of it all.

 

[formula1mb@aol.com]

First of all, thanks for organizing the event Nicole, had a great time and good to actually meet so many of the people in person!

Don't know if the DIR gods were smiling but have to say the dive itself was incredible too, visibility was awesome and one of the top 3 dives I've done this year. Plus haven't been to Heisler Park before and really cool site, tons of life and much bigger than other sites like crescent or shaw's. Guess being a preserve does have its benefits!


Also many thanks to both Jeff and Johnny for letting me dive with them. Both of you were so friendly and welcoming and pleasure to go diving with-----also very impressive how controlled and calm both you were, esp during the S-drill that looked like a well-oiled machine, good stuff! Plus it's funny what a small world it is sometimes, afterward talking with Johnny I found out one of his original instructors was my instructor too, Scott Raish from the local ROP diving program so that was pretty cool.

All in all a great event and sometime in the near future next year hopefully find the time to take some classes and keep improving.

Thanks everyone, looking forward to diving with more of you in the future, and hope everyone enjoyed the ribs!


Robert

 

[TSandM]

Shoot, looks like John's pictures aren't public . . .