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

[shlomi]

from a DEEP TECH mag interview with Tony Maffatone :

DT: Did you ever hear about the “Hogartheian Way?”

TM: Yes I have read a few articles and much of the internet conversations authored by George Irvine. When I read that there is only one way to do something right, as far as equipment configuration is concerned, I knew immediately it’s flawed and would inhibit progress, leaving the whole tech community at a stand still. Either Mr. Irvine is expressing his own philosophy, which I disagree with or the Hogartheian way is a very stagnant discipline.

for the full go tonterview : http://sailfish.neworleans.gulf.net/deep-tech/articles/maffatone_9.html

for one more article , gp to: http://www.nitroxdiver.com/Library/maffatone.html

 

[WreckWriter]

Originally posted by shlomi
Tony Maffatone :

Now where have I heard that name?

Oh yea, now I remember. My prayers to his family.

Tom

 

[roakey]

Originally posted by shlomi
for one more article , gp to: http://www.nitroxdiver.com/Library/maffatone.html

Yup, yet another "personal preference" success story...

Roak

 

[JamesK]

Does anyone know what the official cause of death was?

 

[shlomi]

he was solo diving thre was no witness .

shlomi
DIR ISRAEL

 

[roakey]

Originally posted by JamesK
Does anyone know what the official cause of death was?

DCI/Embolism.

Conjecture on the net is that it appeared that he was breathing the bottom cylinders in his monster rig (http://www.nitroxdiver.com/images/MAFFETONE3.JPG) and the rig became so top heavy/bottom buoyant that he couldn’t manage his buoyancy so he ditched his rig and made a free ascent from depth.

His last name’s unique enough that a search, on AltaVista for example (http://www.altavista.com/) turns up a lot of good hits.

Roak

 

[JamesK]

Thanks roakey. I tried a search on Yahoo, but every site just talked about what a good diver he was, and not how he died.

 

[sheck33]

I have his book on tech diving and i must say i like his approach.
He does not tell you what to do but tells us what works for him, obviously it works or he wouldnt be around to tell us about it.
I am a DIR convertee but i cant stand some DIR folks that simply state anything non-DIR is stupid. That is simply not true. A lot of very competent divers have done a LOT of extreme dives for a long time in a non-DIR way and were very successful at it.
I have met some very 'fanatic' DIR divers that did everything by the DIR book only to light up a cigarette after the dive.
made me wonder, who is being the 'stroke' here?
DIR is just something that is not going to be embraced by everybody but that doesnt make them fools, it must be seen in the context of the type of diving they do.

 

[trheeltek]

Preach it brother.

Originally posted by sheck33
obviously it works or he wouldnt be around to tell us about it.
I am a DIR convertee but i cant stand some DIR folks that simply state anything non-DIR is stupid.

Exactly what drives me crazy about some DIR zealots, esp. ignorant, inexperienced DIR zealots. Just because someone is not DIR does not mean they're cheating death with every dive, any more than the WKPP cheat death with record-breaking cave penetrations. Diving, esp. exploratory diving, is a risk activity, no matter what system you use. Gary Gentile, Tom Mount, and George Irvine have all settled on systems that allow them to manage risk to an individual comfort level, and so far all have done so successfully. Respect what they've accomplished, for God's sake - all three are so much more skilled, and know so much more about the risks they're taking than we do that it's almost ridiculous for us to judge them; we're like armchair QBs screaming at the coach on TV. Trust me, guys, Gary Gentile is probably more likely to come back from the Doria at 240' on air than most of us are from 150' on mix to the sand. There are people who'd say George and JJ are insane; no matter how you're rigged and trained, 18,000' feet is a long way back. In 10 years or so, you may be defending your heroes against the zealots from the next greatest system down the pipe.

 

[GP]

Originally posted by sheck33
I have met some very 'fanatic' DIR divers that did everything by the DIR book only to light up a cigarette after the dive.

If I'm not mistaken I thought smoking was prohibited by DIR. The GUE website says to take the DIRF class you have to be a nonsmoker. If that's true then they weren't truly DIR. :boom: