detroit diver once bubbled...
SeaJay,
Geez, I was just looking at some of your old posts. Wow, what a change! Glad to see that you're heading in the right direction.
Please give us a class report when you are finished.
I'll be thrilled to add another report to these already-awesome reports. I'll tell you everything.
I haven't gone back and read my previous posts recently, but I remember them... In fact, I remember that one of my earliest posts was very critical of the DIR "Nazis" as I called them... To say that the implication was insulting is an understatement. Thankfully, the regulators here on this board saw to it more appropriate to edit the "N" word than to kick me off the board completely.
I can't say that I completely regret my feelings at the time. The DIR message seemed like a harsh one, delivered very bluntly at the time, and seemed very counter to the PADI instruction that I'd already received. However, there were many who wrote me and told me to consider the message, and forget the delivery, and look further into the DIR methods. In the words of DIR guru George Irvine himself, DIR so much COINCIDES with PADI that his recommendation was for "Every diver to go back and simply reread the first chapter of the PADI Open Water I manual." I also got warm fuzzies when I heard him say that "People tend to think that they somehow need to achieve this 'higher order' of diving... Which there's not." In other words, the message was that DIR isn't about diving differently than what I've been taught so far... It's about taking what I've already been taught and reinforcing it and
fine tuning it.
A real change in me, though, began to happen the day that I opened the PADI Advanced Open Water manual and began to read about the AOW certification. Within the first few pages of the manual, I was introduced to an "Advanced Open Water diver's rig," which included a long primary, a surgical-tube secondary, and a canister light. Suddenly, I was seeing that PADI and DIR were beginning to meld... If only in some of the gear configuration.
Then I did a little research about backplates and wings. I found them to be complicated to adjust and get "right," but once "tuned" properly, were the best available for most dive situations. To me, in the beginning, I found this adjustment problem overly-complicated, but the more I used my favorite alternative... The ScubaPro Classic Plus... The more I liked the clean, totally customizable backplate and wing. Things like pull dumps, flow-thru air cells, and Air II's, which had seemed so terrific at reducing task loading and simplifying gear, suddenly began to be less important, while proper BC fitment, modular reliability, and complete customizablity began to take precedence. What seemed so attractive before in "manufactured" gear began to give way to low-maintenance, low-trouble, reliable, "bulletproof" gear. Simply put, a new value had surfaced, with all of the diving that I was doing... The rig's ability to resist wear and stay dependable. This new value began to take precedent, I suspect, because of the sheer amount of diving I was doing. To put it bluntly, I was seeing so much dive time, that I was wearing a lot of recreational stuff out quickly... And so there was a new consideration that wasn't part of a newbie's consideration when purchasing dive gear.
But I think that my biggest realization came from doing a lot of diving... In all circumstances, and with lots and lots of other divers. The more I hung out and dove with other divers, the more I began to see some real problems not normally addressed to the degree that they need to be by the large certifying agencies. I watched divers stay up all night, drinking, before a 7am dive. I watched terrible buoyancy control be the "norm." I had many of my dives "called" because of rough water, windy conditions, waters colder than 75 degrees, or low vis conditions. And nine times out of ten, the Divemaster wasn't "calling" the dive because the conditions were undivable... He was "calling" the dive because the other divers' skills were so poor that they were unsafe to dive in anything but perfect conditions. I can't fault the Divemaster's decision to "call" the dives... The problem didn't fall in the Divemaster's realm. The problem fell in the realm of the lack of skill and planning of the other divers. I saw people terribly out of shape, with high body fat, low muscle mass, or in poor health due to high fat diets, drinking and smoking all night, lack of sleep, or other preventable problems. I saw divers who think that because they hold a c-card, they're safe to dive, even though they hadn't dived in over six years. I've had them ask me, "When the [Divemaster] does that sign, what's that mean?" (He was referring to the "okay" sign.) Simply put, I've done enough dives to see that this sport... Which I am taking so seriously... Is being treated like a toy by 90% of divers. In most shops, what most of us think of as "life support" was being sold on the same walls with the beach balls and children's swim wings. It just seemed that most people "just didn't get it."
In many instances, I've been made fun of by other divers for wearing a wetsuit, for example, when waters are above 70 degrees. They look at me and laugh and say, "The water's warm... What's your deal? You just wanna look like a Power Ranger?" Of course, their scuba dive, to a whopping 30 feet of fresh water, lasts about 20 minutes before they're cold and want to lay in the sun with a beer. I, on the other hand, spend two tanks at better depths exploring a cavern and the fossils, and maybe feeding the fish in complete comfort. They go home with bloody knees that they hit on the rocks in the shallows, and I go home having been protected from that and the jellyfish and all of the other waterborne things to be protected from.
I volunteer for the Aquarium in Charleston... And it's a blast. I am a certified Rescue Diver for the local fire company's Dive Rescue Team. I love what I do, and I love to dive. But while it's great fun, I don't think of it any more as a "toy" as would be driving a car on a racetrack, skydiving, or motorcycle racing. Sure, it's great fun, and that may be the point. But it's not to be taken lightly, and it's definitely not a toy. It's something to be serious about, to enjoy, and to live a lifestyle to, that will agree with the potentially dangerous sport of scuba diving. It's a whole way of life that I'm seeing people take entirely too lightly... And enjoy it much less than I do.
...So I'm gravitating towards those who think like I do. And those people seem to be DIR divers. These seem to be guys who so much love the sport that they live a lifestyle condusive to the sport of diving. They wish to push the envelope and do things that other divers only dream of. They wish to be the best they can be. They want to hone their skills and be better today than they were yesterday. I'm attracted to that, and repulsed by the drunk diver who jumps in the water and then realizes that he forgot his fins... Or weights... Or even worse, forgot to turn on his air. ("Hey, can you get that for me? ('Cause I can't reach it myself)") That stuff's just a
little important. And I'm tired of waiting for them to fix themselves while I float around, wasting valuable dive time. I'm tired of spending all of my time watching them, because I don't trust their skills enough to do that 40' drift dive. I'm tired of having my dive cut short because their air consumption is horrible. What's worse, how safe is it for me to buddy with them and depend on THEIR skills to keep ME alive?
In retrospect, I can understand how I was previously so "put off" by Scubaboard's online DIR "Nazis." Their message seemed harsh and monotonous. I found myself offended at much of what seemed like arrogant sarcasm. But after a bunch of dives, I can completely understand why their attitudes seem that way. I can completely understand why they seem so curt and unfriendly. Frankly, I, too, am a little sick and tired of having the drunk idiot who's tank is hanging around their knees while they lay on the coral poke fun of me because he doesn't think that the water's cold enough to warrant a wetsuit. What's cold got to do with it? It's about protection, man, and I would never dive under any circumstances without some sort of protection. But that's my choice. I can understand someone else's choice to dive wearing anything they want... Full, shorty, dry, or just a bathing suit... My point is that I would never make fun of someone else's dive style... Especially if they seemed more prepared than I was, had less issues than I did, or had better skills than I did. I'd never make fun of them if it appeared that I might need to rely on them to live. And the really scary part is that their dive skills are so poor that they don't even see this... They don't even think about "life support" or "skills" or "issues." They're thinking about another beer. They're not thinking about buoyancy and trim, deco times, safety stops, or ascention rates... They're thinking about chasing the buoyant can of Cheese Whiz that they dropped. And I could be responsible for making sure they they live when they get bent or have an OOA.
I'm tired of being the most skillful diver on the boat. I know that seems arrogant, but I need to find some people with a little higher respect for the water... And a little more tolerance for those other divers (especially the ones with better skills than them.) I am tired of getting up at 4am so that I can gather my gear and show up (on time) at the dive site an hour and a half away, only to have the dive canceled because my dive buddy is too hungover or because their skills are such that they can't dive in the conditions that we have that morning. I'm tired of paying a price for THEM.
...And I can't change them. I can make suggestions and voice my concerns, but in the long run, if they don't take this seriously, I really don't want to depend on them to keep me alive.
And so I'm attracted to those who are reputed to "take diving a bit too seriously." I am attracted to those people who have been using the whole time, the ideals and rig configurations and thought processes that I have been developing on my own for the past couple of dozen dives. I am amazed at how "in sync" those methods that I've developed as "best" are to DIR methods. That's not to say that I think that I should, at this point, follow DIR blindly, but I do think that I need to get a little further into this... They could help me to develop what I would develop anyway, in a much shorter time frame, and with some guidance.
I can't wait to see what DIR-F has in store. I'm glad I made this decision.
And I thank you guys for being patient with me in the meantime. Forgive me for calling you guys "Nazis." That's how many newbies see DIR guys, because of the flat, blunt, hard message that they deliver. I am starting to see both sides now... And I understand why that message seems that way. And I can understand the frustrations felt by both sides of the DIR coin. Part of me thinks, "If you guys want to spread the word of DIR, then you really need to use kid gloves to deliver the message," while the other side of me thinks, "Just deliver the message. The smart ones will pick it up even if it's harsh, while the dummies will lose interest... And in that way the cream will rise to the top." Still another part of me says, "Who cares about delivering the message? I'm going diving... If others can see that DIR methods are better and safer and they want to dive under those circumstances with us, then great... But if they can't, then I don't want to dive with them anyway." I truly understand all of these points of views... Which is a pretty weird feeling... And very enlightening. My opinion of DIR has gone from that of "rediculous, arrogant, pointless, offensive, and silly" to "awe, enlightenment, understanding, desire to know more, and appreciation for the skills" based solely on my own personal experiences with NON-DIR divers, and their lack of "professionalism." I'm looking forward to some experiences with PRO-DIR divers, and I look forward to comparing those experiences.
I can't promise anything other than an open mind and a worthwhile try at what is taught to me. I can't promise that I'll go completely DIR... But I can promise that I'll listen. And I can promise that I'll keep an open mind. I can promise that I'll pursue what's right for me... Which remarkably, thus far, has been very DIR.
Going into this class, for me, feels very much like I'm getting to glimpse into my own personal future of diving. As my own learning curve and my own desire to take this sport as far as I can has progressed, I've found that my own developments become more and more synonymous with DIR methods. So taking the DIR-F class feels very much like getting to glimpse, today, where my own developments would take me years from now. Let's see what I can pick up from the class.
And you can bet your huevos that I'm gonna tell y'all every excrutiating detail.
