DIR divers: Deviations?

[lamont]

My contention is that you do have to pull the inflator out of the retaining bungie; why make it harder to dump on ascent with a sharp bend stricture at the bungie, versus a free & clear vertical extension of the inflator hose???

Sherwood taught us to dump out of the rear dump (of either your wing or the victim's wing). The hold with your right arm around the manifold and holding a reg in the victim's mouth and with the left hand on the rear left of the victim's baseplate also offers a very stable way to control the victim along either axis.

 

[Soggy]

Anyhow, I deviate from strict DIR in many ways.

First is in shallow gases. I just don't use 30/30. I've used it before, but 30% helium just is ridiculous for 100' dives. I use 30% nitrox for most of my dives since, if I get on a recreational boat, we could be diving from 80' to 120'. 32% just won't cut it, and, I'm, sorry, but I refuse to pay .85cents a cubic foot for helium on a dive that shallow. Call me a stroke. I know and accept that it is not ideal to dive nitrox at 100-120', but I sometimes do it anyhow.

Obviously, we match gases within the team.

I also, due to where I dive, don't plan on mid-water bag shoots. If I need to shoot a bag and drift, it's coming from the BOTTOM. If I can possibly avoid it, it's also getting tied off to something. North East dive boats are tied in securely with divers decompressing below them. They can not expeditiously leave and chase that bag drifting into a gillnet, oil tanker, or dredge. If I want to dive in the north east, that's the way I have to do it.

I also have a tendency to overcomplexify blow out dives to shallow sites by bringing a nitrox stage bottle with me and carrying my helium-filled backgas. I'm not breathing 21/35 at 80'. So, me and my three tanks go down and dive where others would bring only one.

 

[Soggy]

Sherwood taught us to dump out of the rear dump (of either your wing or the victim's wing). The hold with your right arm around the manifold and holding a reg in the victim's mouth and with the left hand on the rear left of the victim's baseplate also offers a very stable way to control the victim along either axis.

I have tried that, too, but had trouble dealing with the victim's drysuit. It definitely is a skill that I need more practice on.

 

[rjack321]

I have tried that, too, but had trouble dealing with the victim's drysuit. It definitely is a skill that I need more practice on.

I could not deal that way. Only tried it once that way though. Joe T. emphasized the elbow hooking - although it was couple years ago and I'm rusting in the vertical dimension.

When hauling someone horizontally, Chris LM taught us to hook both our elbows on the manifold and use the left for bouyancy and the right on the purge cover (pushing it if needed). If you try and use the butt dump the victim tends to pivot out from under you. I was surprised how easy it was to haul someone 200ft over the nasty organic bottom at Cenote Carwash.

 

[TSandM]

I found that, no matter what I did, coping with the inertia of a six foot dive buddy AND his dual 130s was a recipe for looking stupid and doing nothing useful . . .

 

[PvilleStang]

Well, the one argument I heard earlier to the inflator was when ascending and dumping... I'm assuming you mean in that RARE case of toxing. In regular DIR situations, your body should be horizontal in the water column, and you'd EASILY be able to dump through the rear dump, and have no real reason to dump air from your inflator hose.

 

[Soggy]

In regular DIR situations, your body should be horizontal in the water column, and you'd EASILY be able to dump through the rear dump, and have no real reason to dump air from your inflator hose.

Yeah, well real life has a habit of changing the ideal though and you will find DIR divers all over breaking trim for two seconds to dump gas. When you get close to neutral and there's little air in that thing, it is a real serious PITA to roll around to get all that gas to the left rear dump in a horseshoe doubles wing. That, and it's an impossibility of physics to get gas out of your feet when you're horizontal, unless you have joints like a cat.

That, and, in the ocean, you often have to come up an anchor line with 30 lb weights bobbing up and down, so breaking trim to look what's coming is a good idea.

 

[grazie42]

*gasp* Someone bringing practicalities into a DIR-discussion? You really are heretics!

 

[JeffG]

Are you guys seriously caught up on the "bungie inside or outside the loop?"

Next thing.....rock boots.

and when we are done with that....Which hand does the light go in. LOL

 

[JeffG]

Well, the one argument I heard earlier to the inflator was when ascending and dumping... I'm assuming you mean in that RARE case of toxing. In regular DIR situations, your body should be horizontal in the water column, and you'd EASILY be able to dump through the rear dump, and have no real reason to dump air from your inflator hose.

Swell, for the warm water wimps (which is very typical for DIR coming out of florida)

But, I can hook my arm under the toxing divers left arm and control both the bcd and drysuit with one motion.

Just by...OMG...breaking trim for a brief second. OMG...I'm not being slick. LOL