DIR Name Proliferation and its Meaning

[cascas]

Why couldn't any other agency create a course that teaches what they perceive to be DIR principles?

There it is ! You answered your own question. DIR is DIR, there is not much to percieve.

Anyone can start teach a course based on the DIR principles. But in the end all those courses would have to produce endresults that are comparebly in high standards. In practice I just do not see that happening. As long as agencies teach based on what they perceive to be DIR it is anything but DIR..


I really hate that term...

 

[cascas]

So what do I call it once it is designed?

"Proper diving for dummies" ?

No matter what you call it, I would stay away from the term DIR. In The Netherlands some early adapters managed to give the term DIR a really negative undertone. Not on purpose of course, but in their clumsy attempt to explain to non-DIR divers what it meant all that stuck was the idea that everyone else was doing it wrong.
Technical diving in NL still suffers from that unfortunate attempt to be clear about it.

 

[eponym]

It is a PADI shop with nothing but fairly beginning levels of recreational instruction right now, but they want me to take them to a more advanced level. I want to offer a class offering something similar to primer/fundamentals. (I haven't nailed it down yet.) It will have the same basic idea as that kind of instruction, the absence of which I feel forms a big hole in standard recreational scuba instruction. I am not sure about how it will be presented--it may possibly be submitted to PADI as a Distinctive Specialty.
So what do I call it once it is designed?

What is your target audience? What training & experience prerequisites would you stipulate?

If you're designing it for basic OWD divers it might in effect be the often-mentioned "OWD II" in threads that complain about training. Not that particular label, of course, but maybe something that conveys the idea of "the rest of the story" or "the missing pieces of the puzzle."

"The Complete Diver" occurred to me as I was typing, but the satirical t-shirts by the same name would be a problem.

I also thought back to JJ's GUE book. Chapter 1 is titled "What Am I Missing?"

Very intersting idea,
Bryan

 

[boulderjohn]

What is your target audience? What training & experience prerequisites would you stipulate?

Good question. I am working on that.

The GUE purpose indicates three target audiences, two of which I feel are appropriate to what I want to do. One is recreational divers who wish to improve their skills so that they are highly skilled recreational divers. (I actually used the word "complete" in that regard.) The other is divers wishing to prepare for technical training, the original purpose of fundies. I want to serve those two audiences as well, and that presents two problems.

Look at what it does for your choice of a name. In the first case, the word "fundamental" contradicts the purpose. In the second, anything that implies "completeness" is a contradiction to its purpose as well.

Now let's look at equipment. GUE has strict requirements for equipment, and the reason for that, as I understand it, is to start the student in equipment that will be used in later training. That makes total sense for the second target group, but it does not make as much sense for the first. I use such equipment myself and will teach in it, but is it wise for me to require that someone who is just looking to improve skills for recreational diving purchase a whole new set of equipment?

 

[eponym]

Now let's look at equipment. GUE has strict requirements for equipment, and the reason for that, as I understand it, is to start the student in equipment that will be used in later training. That makes total sense for the second target group, but it does not make as much sense for the first. I use such equipment myself and will teach in it, but is it wise for me to require that someone who is just looking to improve skills for recreational diving purchase a whole new set of equipment?

Agreed, the gear and configuration are big hurdles for such a course.

Demanding a whole new kit gets you back to the comparatively limited audience for full-on DIR/GUE/UTD. But even JJ wrote that it was okay to implement portions of his system, that you could improve your diving that way.*

-Bryan


* That's somewhere in Doing It Right: The Fundamentals of Better Diving but I don't remember where.

 

[ucfdiver]

This forum has gotten as exciting as the first day in Psyc class where the professor asks "What's the meaning of life?".

Anyone go diving recently?

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

No matter what you call it, I would stay away from the term DIR. In The Netherlands some early adapters managed to give the term DIR a really negative undertone. Not on purpose of course, but in their clumsy attempt to explain to non-DIR divers what it meant all that stuck was the idea that everyone else was doing it wrong.
Technical diving in NL still suffers from that unfortunate attempt to be clear about it.

Any time DIR comes up on conversation it eventually gets back to the choice of name. This always struck me as odd ... since it's clearly a marketing term.

A few years ago this little car hit the market ... it's called a "Smart Car". Does that name imply that everyone else is driving a Stupid Car?

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[ucfdiver]

Any time DIR comes up on conversation it eventually gets back to the choice of name. This always struck me as odd ... since it's clearly a marketing term.

A few years ago this little car hit the market ... it's called a "Smart Car". Does that name imply that everyone else is driving a Stupid Car?

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Or is anyone who doesn't use diveRITE gear, WRONG?

 

[rlynch]

Diving tonight in Raleigh, & hoping for no snow in seattle (i'm hoping for 2 or more there next week)
sorry other than that - i don't have much for this thread.

 

[TSandM]

John, it seems to me that you could do the gear counseling on an individual basis. Set the minimum requirements you want to allow a student in the class, and have a list of "recommended" items. (Fundies, for example, can be done in a single tank with no can light and no backup lights (I think) but you can't get a tech pass that way.) Require students to talk to you before being enrolled, so that you know which group they fall into, and can counsel them appropriately on their gear.