DIR: God's gift to diving or Hell spawn?

[joshmotdiver]

Too bad life got in the way of this weekends trip. I was looking forward to hearing the details upon your return.

 

[boomx5]

In fact I was joking with AG last week about testing his new scooter on a 200 mile test run in the system this weekend.

Hi Steve,

Did you get a chance to ride an X-Scooter? If not, you should take one for a spin...they are really a nice ride.

 

[taopitek]

Hi Steve,

Did you get a chance to ride an X-Scooter? If not, you should take one for a spin...they are really a nice ride.

No not yet. I hope to soon they look really cool

 

[boomx5]

No not yet. I hope to soon they look really cool

They are a blast! They Standard version is great for diving off of boats, and the Long Body is great for when we want to travel a bit further or do longer dives.

 

[taopitek]

I think this is a good spot to interject on the DIRF or DIR thing. Its good stuff. Dirf was meant to be a intermin to tech diving not a tek course. I bet your cave course went a lot easier haveing done the fundamentals course. I know when I get a student who has done the DIRF it goes a lot easier. No I'm not a DIR diver this argument is older than GUE. It started on the east coast between deep wreck divers & cave divers. GUE came from cave mostly.

Any continueing education that makes you a better diver is good. If you like GUE go with it its good stuff. If you like PADI go with it DSAT is great stuff. If you like TDI go with it its great stuff. Which I'm a instructor for both. I would recomend any student wanting to go into tek to take a DIRF course or any other one that will perpare you for whats in store for you in your tek courses. Form a instructor point view. It sure make my job easier when a student has done some prep work and has a clue on whats a head of them when they want to move into tek. The hardest part of teaching some one who hasn't taken extra classes is haveing to break recreational diving habits and thats very hard some times.

OK, here's my $0.02 so just take it FWIW. I took DIRF with Boomx5 and I agree I learned alot, much more than many of the typical SCUBA courses I took.

However, after returning from my Cavern course with Chickdiver (who is on this board, was a WKPP diver, and is a FANTASTIC instructor) I realized that I could have skipped DIRF and just done cavern with her. So again, as many have stated, it really boils down to who the instructor is... not the agency. It seemed like many of the same things were covered in both courses, although DIRF talked a little more about gas and dive planning while cavern covered the use of a reel, which wasn't covered at all in DIRF. If I knew then what I know now, I would have skipped DIRF and just did the Cavern course with Chickdiver. Also, I'm from California so I figured if I got a cheap flight from Cal. to Orlando, Fl. on Southwest Airlines, rented a car for $15 per day, stayed in the Cadillac Motel in High Springs, ate at Floyds (buy the hot wings), and took the course from Chickdiver, I may still be ahead.

Of course if you are going to continue with the GUE courses I think DIRF is a prerequisite for everything so that is another consideration.

Tony

 

[blueeyes_austin]

Well this has been an entertaining and instructive thread to browse on a lazy Friday afternoon.

My two cents:
What strikes me is that there is no notion of economy on the part of DIR advocates. We exist in a world of limited resources, both economic and temporal. Within these resource constraints, we all have to make choices that select a finite amount of good out of an infinite range of possibilities.

The time and money put into diving is one example of this. First, we all, I think, can accept that there are certain requirements that come before diving--provision of food and shelter certainly, and the time investment that is made to acquire these things. All divers, DIR or not, have already made choices that involve the substitution of increasing training/experience/gear for these higher requirements.

Within the subset of time and money I (or anyone else) is willing to spend in pursuing diving, the same calculation has to be made. Money spent on Atomics regs, high-end GUE training, etc. is money that is not available for dive trips, photographic equipment, or non-technical training. Time spent in learning gas management and deep diving techniques is time not spent learning photographic techniques and underwater naturalism.

Put this way, it is clear to me that DIR as a philosophy is inextricable from its origins in deep diving, wreck penetration, and caving. Divers whose interests lie in those areas clearly need the high level of skill and finesse the training provides.

The same is NOT true of divers with other interests. It is...rather odd..to argue that a person interested in, say, compiling an extensive collection of nudibranch photographs is better served by spending their limited money and time on a DIR course compared to an underwater photography course and a good strobe. It is...rather odd...to argue that a person interested in observing and learning about reef ecology is better served by spending their money on a dual set of Atomic regulators rather than a two week stint in PNG.

Not all of us aspire to a china plate from the Andrea Doria. Some of us have quite different goals that we want to accomplish with our limited time and money. This does not make us "underwater tourists," it merely means that we have a different set of preferences that we are fulfilling in a perfectly logical, but different, set of choices about resource distribution.

This is not an argument apologizing for sloppy diving. It is not an argument that divers should be lackadaisical. It IS an argument that the level of technical diving proficiency a person aspires to needs to be balanced with the goals a person has when they head under the waves.

 

[lamont]

What strikes me is that there is no notion of economy on the part of DIR advocates.

Not if economy compromises the system. OTOH, DIR can be more economically because the equipment lasts longer, and because you wind up buying fewer bits of gadgetry you don't need. Depends if your view of 'economical' is up-front cost, or TCO.

 

[blueeyes_austin]

Not if economy compromises the system. OTOH, DIR can be more economically because the equipment lasts longer, and because you wind up buying fewer bits of gadgetry you don't need. Depends if your view of 'economical' is up-front cost, or TCO.

Read the post, please. My point was not just about kit...it was about the entire balancing of time and money that DIRs don't seem to get.

But even on kit, I have to say I disagree with you. There are many sets of equipment that are perfectly adequate for the situation they are being used in. For instance, I dive a simple Oceanic alpha rig and Triple-L BC...the setup works very well for what I am interested in and I am able to direct other resources to the parts of diving that interest me.

 

[dlndavid]

I've been checking out the board for a few weeks and finally registered. I am wondering what exactly is DIR? I've seen it referred to in many posts but I'm not sure what it is.

Thanks in advance,

This thread has got to be printed out and published. Scuba11b with only 8 posts to date created this monster thread with over 18,000 views. Priceless

 

[taopitek]

Well this has been an entertaining and instructive thread to browse on a lazy Friday afternoon.

My two cents:
What strikes me is that there is no notion of economy on the part of DIR advocates. We exist in a world of limited resources, both economic and temporal. Within these resource constraints, we all have to make choices that select a finite amount of good out of an infinite range of possibilities.

The time and money put into diving is one example of this. First, we all, I think, can accept that there are certain requirements that come before diving--provision of food and shelter certainly, and the time investment that is made to acquire these things. All divers, DIR or not, have already made choices that involve the substitution of increasing training/experience/gear for these higher requirements.

Within the subset of time and money I (or anyone else) is willing to spend in pursuing diving, the same calculation has to be made. Money spent on Atomics regs, high-end GUE training, etc. is money that is not available for dive trips, photographic equipment, or non-technical training. Time spent in learning gas management and deep diving techniques is time not spent learning photographic techniques and underwater naturalism.

Put this way, it is clear to me that DIR as a philosophy is inextricable from its origins in deep diving, wreck penetration, and caving. Divers whose interests lie in those areas clearly need the high level of skill and finesse the training provides.

The same is NOT true of divers with other interests. It is...rather odd..to argue that a person interested in, say, compiling an extensive collection of nudibranch photographs is better served by spending their limited money and time on a DIR course compared to an underwater photography course and a good strobe. It is...rather odd...to argue that a person interested in observing and learning about reef ecology is better served by spending their money on a dual set of Atomic regulators rather than a two week stint in PNG.

Not all of us aspire to a china plate from the Andrea Doria. Some of us have quite different goals that we want to accomplish with our limited time and money. This does not make us "underwater tourists," it merely means that we have a different set of preferences that we are fulfilling in a perfectly logical, but different, set of choices about resource distribution.

This is not an argument apologizing for sloppy diving. It is not an argument that divers should be lackadaisical. It IS an argument that the level of technical diving proficiency a person aspires to needs to be balanced with the goals a person has when they head under the waves.

WOW
I'm diffantly not DIR **** I can't even spell and I'm the first to admite that I'm dum farm *** stupid. I have spent way to much $$$$$$$$ in diving. Just ask the people who know me what kind of trucks I drive. BUT I can say I'm the best. Why can I say that. Because I have trained my *** off and still do. Is DIR-F for everybody yes. Is PADI peak performace for everybody yes.

In your examples that you mention are both perfect reasons for those classes. How can you take a good picture of something if your scaring it off clouding the place up and can you enjoy a reef if you can't hold your postion in the water collum by backing up or turning while being suspended without a bottom.

YES I belive in con-ed. and practising I still study, take classes, go to semianers and practise my *** off and I teach every thing all the way threw mix gas diving to 330'. I'm still learning and willing to spend to become the best.

Have you ever wanted to be the best in something. If you have then you know it takes a lot of hard work investment of time and money. Some of are not satisfide with being medoker. Most of us strive to be the best.

I'll wave to you next time I'm hovering above you while your lost in your cloud of muck.

Yours Truly,
The King of Strokes, urgeing you to take DIR-F