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

[3bucketts]

I do belive that Gary Gentile does not tell you in his books that you must dive his way or die! He simply stats over and over about saftey and that this is how he dives and you can adapt his experiance to meet your needs.
I do belive that in diving as in life you cannot be trained for every thing that can happen to you. You must take the best form everywhere and adpt this to your diving and not let only one way rule how you dive.

 

[WreckWriter]

Originally posted by 3bucketts
I do belive that Gary Gentile does not tell you in his books that you must dive his way or die! He simply stats over and over about saftey and that this is how he dives and you can adapt his experiance to meet your needs.

Yup, that's exactly how he expects his book to be used. That's really kinda refreshing in my eyes.

Tom

 

[wb416]

Originally posted by TRUETEXAN
I just got through reading Gary Gentile's Technical Diving Handbook, and I was wondering if any of you out there had read it and what you thought of it. It seems that he is definitly not DIR, but he does share some of their ideas, and I don't think you can argue his success and abilities as a tech diver, but according to what I have read about the DIR way of thinking, he should be dead by now...but he isn't is he?

His books were about the first "technical" books that I read (the other was 'Deep Diving') and having since read many other technical websites and manuals (including DIR), those earlier books like Gentiles and Giliam's seem dated. Good for historical perspective, but not for leading-edge practices.

I also heard Gentile speak at a seminar last fall. While he seemed very friendly and presented his information in a very non-threatening / non-confrontational manner, I left wondering if I could have put my seminar money to better use somewhere else.

Now, if we could just get other others to put a sense of humor and ability to share a story in their books the way Gentile can, we just might have good leading edge books that are enjoyable to read.

 

[WreckWriter]

"Leading edge" meaning strictly DIR I assume?

 

[Lost Yooper]

DING! DING! Round 127?

:boxing:



Mike

 

[WreckWriter]

Heh, nah

I'm gonna defend Gary all the way though, since he's not here to defend himself. Not that he needs defending, I'm sure he couldn't care less what folks on a message board think of his techniques.He'd probably be willing to compare logbooks though....

I'm personally liking the DIR style myself for the most part but I don't like the tendancy of some to imply that anyone who isn't COMPLETELY DIR is a complete dinosaur (or a complete idiot).

I bet ol' G3 could find something non-DIR about most of the folks here that preach it so fervently.

Tom

 

[Lost Yooper]

Originally posted by WreckWriter
I bet ol' G3 could find something non-DIR about most of the folks here that preach it so fervently.

Tom

I have NO doubt about that.

Take care,

Mike

 

[divedude]

Originally posted by TRUETEXAN but according to what I have read about the DIR way of thinking, he should be dead by now...but he isn't is he? [/B]

We use to dive with no buoyancy device, a single steel 72, no pressure gauge, home made weights and belt, and do wreck penetration.... so we should be dead but we're not.

First time I tried a horse collar BC I though it would kill me. It didn't do my "boys" any favor when I did a giant stride with it inflated and the crotch strap to tight

ps. Don't try this it at home, diving has come a long way and a lot of divers gave their life making this sport as safe as it is now

 

[Jonathan]

Finally arrived and I must say that it is quite a refreshing and easy read so far - but then I'm only on chapter 2!

The orginal may have been written in 1988 but judging by the first chapter it has been updated and he is pretty aware of what other people think and pulls very few punches as to what he thinks of other schools of thought without naming any.

I think I'm going to enjoy this one - I do like his sense of humour and I don't say that very often about American authors...

Jonathan

 

[gentlegiant]

I purchased Gary"s Technical Diving handbook and had finished reading it 2 days later. The humor and real stories made the book fly by. The book may be dated, but I think it is still a great reference and it does show where technical diving came from. Things have progressed since the book was written, new technologies, more research and different ways of thinking. The insights offered into the early days of trimix diving and wreck exploration diving were great reads. Books of this sort should be seen as a reference, not the bible for diving.