DIR: Why We Need It (A Sign of the Times)

[Trace Malinowski]

I returned home today to find a message from my GUE instructor and friend (you'd never know that the way I *****, huh? But, it's true!), Bob Sherwood, telling me I probably need a beer to relax and to sit down among the blue gloves because some of them like me and would actually dive with me! Awww! Anyway, what's funny is that I may just sit down, shut up and swallow all the Kool-Aid (I believe it's "black" cherry flavored?) without question. Why? Because of the following incident which I related to Bob and sent the following email to one of my best friend's from college:

"I cruised by our alma mater (Marywood Univeristy) today because I felt like taking a walk, after a meeting at HQ (PDIC), rather than running at the tail end of having bronchitis. I saw the most comical display of social apathy. A woman was driving her car at slow speeds up the road past the Liberal Arts building and she had obviously and inadvertantly left her very large purse on the roof of her car. She passed several groups of students, not one of which tried to flag her down or step onto the road and just hold up a hand to signal "Stop!" I started rushing after her on foot hoping to catch her as she made the turn onto the road in front of the Post Office and McCarty Hall. Several girls were crossing the street. C'mon, girls! One of you stop her, I thought, with some glimmer of hope, but no dice. They didn't bother to alert her. I was nearly close to her car by 30 to 40 yards when she sped up to reach the stop sign. She paused for one car, a Marywood security car, to make the turn from her left and pass by her car, then she turned right and drove away. I flagged down the security car and asked, "Did you see that woman pulling out of campus with a purse on her roof?" He laughed, "Yeah, I thought I saw that!" I suggested he take off after her and maybe save the day!

The irony was that all the students were clad in colored T-shirts representing various forms of community activism and awaremess. Discover Multiculturalism! Discover Volunteering! Discover,"Hey, lady! Stop!"

Discover Scuba???​

Remember when we started college, we had the student catalog with the campus map in it? If you didn't know where a building was you consulted the map, figured out the best way to get there, and started walking. Today, they place colored tape on the sidewalk and you follow the green line to get to the Liberal Arts building, yellow line to reach the Mellow Center, and blue or something for the library, etc. I think "Freshman Orientation" should now be a graded class in rudimentary map reading. If you fail you have to declare a science major, wear thick glasses and study rodents. It's not like society would be asking them to read topographical maps and determine deviation, variation, lattitude, longitude, LORAN, GPS or figure out how to get a rodent into that photo nose capsule of an Estes model rocket and back down to earth to land in "The Commons" or anything.

Do I judge too harshly?"

Anyway, I surrender. It's this lack of ability to act instantly that and coreectly that will get you killed in a cave. The diving industry at large has taken standards from , "Here's your Freshman packet." You look inside on your own initiative. You check to see if there is a map. Ah! Good! You find your classes and there is no excuse for being late to class despite the fact that it's the first day to "Follow the yellow brick road" If people need this much help to function in society, SOMEONE needs to do the thinking for them. "Good job, GUE team members!" (Joke from AG's Tech 1 class, but sincerely meant.) I'd rather a world of GUE than a world of Discover Diving.

 

[TSandM]

Trace, people have previously made the snide observation that those of us who folllow GUE simply do so out of a sense of profound relief that they have finally found someplace where diving is taught as an adult endeavor, where the student bears responsibility for stepping up to the plate and making an effort to learn and to understand. And unfortunately, there may be a great deal of truth to the accusation.

DIR's not the only way to dive. But, if you're looking for diving taught as a serious endeavor, at an adult intellectual level, and with reasonable adult standards, where else are you going to go?

 

[John_B]

...telling me I probably need a beer to relax and to sit down among the blue gloves because some of them like me and would actually dive with me! ...

This isn't going to be one of those "goodfellas" kind of homecomings, is it?



j/k!

John

 

[Otter]

Trace,
I usually agree with most of what you say, however, I have to disagree with your assessment as to the cause....although it still may support your decision.

I don't believe its ".. lack of ability to act instantly that and coreectly[sic] ". Unfortunately, in this day and age I believe its apathy and perhaps even (at times) internal glee that some get from seeing something bad happen to someone else instead of them. The manners, concern, consideration that I was taught as a child seems woefully in short supply today.

As I said, perhaps this is nothing for than a different reason to go with Unified Team Diving, where there is concern for the team. It always struck me as 'sad' to read how wreck divers prefer diving solo, because their buddy would get them killed.

Not that I am looking for a premature end to life, but if it were to occur, I sure would want it to be trying to help someone else than simply screwing up and dying by myself.

 

[Otter]

An addendum....

That being said, when I read the 'contempt' that some DIR divers seem to have for non-DIR divers, I wonder how easily the contempt could become 'concern' for a new 'team member'.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

Trace, people have previously made the snide observation that those of us who folllow GUE simply do so out of a sense of profound relief that they have finally found someplace where diving is taught as an adult endeavor, where the student bears responsibility for stepping up to the plate and making an effort to learn and to understand. And unfortunately, there may be a great deal of truth to the accusation.

DIR's not the only way to dive. But, if you're looking for diving taught as a serious endeavor, at an adult intellectual level, and with reasonable adult standards, where else are you going to go?

You should have taken my OW course then! When it comes to agencies PADI, SSI and SDI tend to believe that divers are quite incapable. I work at an HQ folks, don't shoot the messenger! NAUI, YMCA, IDEA and PDIC tend to want a diver to work a bit harder. But, it is really the instructor and not the agency. If you looked at all the GUE instructors and former instructors (well resumes are gone for the fmr) who are/were PDIC for example, it's not that PDIC was so amazing or anything, but because PDIC lets instructors like AG and BS teach recreational programs intelligently. So, I think good instructors are drawn to programs that let them teach thorough courses. For example, most instructors can't snorkel or freedive, at least not well. This is the "wax on/wax off" stuff of diving. There's much more to the art than breathing through a tube or holding your breath. I try to take two days of freediving & work on really achieving some grace and beauty with fluid kicks and relaxed surface dives and u/w movement. Then, we SCUBA which isn't a check box syste, but is about developing true proficiency and comfort. That's why I think DIR appeals so much to the beginner and old dogs can become quite frustrated because we've already been to combat. And, not every recreational diver is a poor one. I was on dive boats in Grand Bahama recently anhd the reef divers were graceful and flat in the water with fluid unhurried kicks but not bending knees like in anti-silt kicking and were actually diving and comunicating well. I did cave dives there with Cristina Zenato of UNEXSO (NSS-CDS Cave Instructor) and I highly recommend her if you want to learn how to take care of the caves. She gave my girlfriend at the time an amazing introduction to cavern diving. If you really want to be challenged during cave training, Chris Wright (NACD) will probably train you beyond what students get in Cave 1.

DEMA is trying to figure out what's wrong with the diving industry. Agencies like PADI think if they make it easier people will dive. Just like letters to congressman, maybe we need to write letters to dive magazines. If they get enough adults looking for valid training things might get better. If you only knew what 3 or 4 agencies want right now, you'd be shocked. It involves an "adult" program for kids. But, I can't say anything more about it. It also had something to do with my original post, but I left it out but my brain has been thinking you idiots are ruining diving. There should be a program for people to try it and see if they like it. After that it should be OW, AOW, Rescue (if not taught in OW & AOW like PDIC), real specialties and no fluff such as ice diving DM and instructor. Training is one thing, but specialties w/o training is bogus.

 

[John_B]

If you looked at all the GUE instructors and former instructors (well resumes are gone for the fmr) who are/were PDIC for example...

The Wayback Machine at archive.org is your friend.: http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://gue.com

John

 

[SparticleBrane]

Ever thought of teaching for a university, Trace?

 

[Footslogger]

Geeez ...what's a poor schlub like me to do ?? I have no intention of ever entering a wreck or a cave. I've been diving since 1971 without an incident. I have well over 1000 logged dives. I dive for pleasure and take pictures which I print and share with friends and family.

I have dove in the company of GUE divers and respect the methods they employ and equipment they use.

In my humble opinion I am already DOING IT RIGHT. I'm just not considered DIR by those who consider themselves to be DIR.