DIR in Poland

[mania]

I think your fingers got off the home row on your keyboard.

Czesc Jacek
Hmmm, czyzby moja obecnosc na Scubaboard zjednoczyla Polakow i osoby polskiego pochodzenia, ktorych pewnie jest sporo????
Fajnie przeczytac cos po polsku....
Wiem, ze moglabym pojsc na DIR F ale jak mam to zrobic skoro sama nurkuje od roku, a na ten kurs ida sami instruktorzy i to baaardzo zaawansowani? Co ja bym tam robila???
Pozdrowionka
Mania

OK here goes the translation for those of you who unfortunately don't understand Polish:
Hi Jacek
Hmmm, it seems that my presence on the Scubaboard united Poles and Polish origins, whom probably there is quite a few?
It's nice to read something in Polish...
I know I could start DIR F but what am I supposed to do if I'm diving only for a year and this course would be attended by instructors, advanced ones? What would I do there?
Cheers
Mania

Mania

 

[cornfed]

OK here goes the translation for those of you who unfortunately don't understand Polish:
Hi Jacek
Hmmm, it seems that my presence on the Scubaboard united Poles and Polish origins, whom probably there is quite a few?
It's nice to read something in Polish...
I know I could start DIR F but what am I supposed to do if I'm diving only for a year and this course would be attended by instructors, advanced ones? What would I do there?
Cheers
Mania

Mania

See now I can answer that!

I've heard from several people (including GUE instructors) that it's often better to take DIR-F with little experience. That way you haven't had time to develope as many bad habits and you can get of on the right foot, so to speak. One of the guys in my class had (I think) 10 dives before class started. Sure, he had trouble with some of the skills but he learned early what he needed to work on.

 

[headhunter]

See now I can answer that!

I've heard from man people

Would what you heard from man people really apply to woman people?

Christian

 

[boomx5]

Me? No for me it's a long way to go before I'll be able to attend DIR F - still too much things to learn before. The instructor will be Andrew Georgitsis and it was orginzed by some crazy wreck divers - you can find some info here:
http://www.balticwrecks.com/en/edu.html

Mania

Mania,

If your are interested in the class I'd say jump in and do it. Don't worry about your experience level of diving and go have a lot of fun. So many people are caught up in worring about passing or failing the class that they either don't take it, or it detracts from the learning and experience of taking the class.

I also think you'll like AG. He's really a great guy, an incredible teacher and I could swear the guy has gills...he's just that good in the water. Hopefully you can make it to the class, and if you do, good luck.

 

[cornfed]

Would what you heard from man people really apply to woman people?

Clearly a typo.

 

[Snowbear]

I know I could start DIR F but what am I supposed to do if I'm diving only for a year and this course would be attended by instructors, advanced ones? What would I do there?

You can still gain much from the class. Whether or not you pass, you will have been taught the knowledge, shown the skills and how to practice them to become a safer and more comfortable diver.

 

[mania]

Would what you heard from man people really apply to woman people?

Christian

Well, hope it was a typo Otherwise I would have to say something but it's early Monday morning so my mind is not working yet........
Mania
PS. thanks guys for your advice. I will not take part in this course because all places are taken. But as I told Jacek - sooner or later I will do it. Meantime I finally started Rescue so I'm tired after all exercises I had to do. And my instructor is not a small slim guy...

 

[saturatedhonkey]

alrighty...

 

[db8us]

It's 2004 and this agency is just now getting over to Poland? Wow! Must be real popular.

There are other classes like CMAS, PADI, NAUI that have been around for decades and are obviously successful.

Saturatedhonkey,

seems like you have a BIIIIG agenda against DIR, since you have done only a few posts and most of them are against DIR.
Can you please give us some of your diving-background, like when have you done which DIR-experience that brought you negative feed-back?
What kind of diving do you do ?

I think DIR is not a bad thing, but it is not for everyone or every diving-application.

Michael

 

[mania]

So the first DIR F finally took place in Poland. In fact only 1 person passed, 10 are provisional and 1 failed. Here are some Andrew Georgitsis comments:

Just a quick update from Poland. Yes, GUE conducted the first ever DIR Fundamentals in Poland. We had a total of 12 students over two courses conducted at Hanza Lake on the North eastern side of Poland close to the border of Poland and Lithuania. Very very interesting country to be in. I landed in Warsaw and spent the day site seeing and watching my hosts eat some strange soup (see the pictures on www.5thd-x.com). (I wrote you once about this soup it's called "chlodnik" and it's served cold made of sour milk and beetroots - that was mine - Mania's comment).The following day I gave a Britannic/DIR presentation to 50 + people in Warsaw. ( I was there, the presentation was very good. Hmm I'm even on one of the pictures ) After which we drove for 7 hours North East to this lake district. I conducted two, three day fundamental courses back to back with a wide variety of experience in background from all the students. (TriMix
Instructor Trainers - IANTD the only one that passed - to Advanced Openwater) All did extremely well but needed to practice a lot. As this type of training is totally new to Poland and this was the first of the courses, many in the class have being trying to be DIR (as best as the could gather from the internet) but without the proper training and guidance they were a little misguided. These courses really helped them see where they were going wrong, where they were at and how they could get on the right path. The pictures are worth a thousand words.
After the classes I went north to Gdansk/Gdynia do some Baltic Wreck diving. The area I was in was full of wrecks, I mean like a few thousand. So we had tons to choose from. I did some shallow diving with the class students and had a great time. Friday night I did another Britannic presentation in the city hall of Gdynia. The vice president of the city is an avid diver and allowed us the venue and he and other noteworthy from the area attended. The presentation was very well attended at around 70+ people. Turned out to be an excellent trip to Poland and I will be back in May of 2005

And this is when maybe I'll do DIR F
Mania