Doing it Right

[EastEndDiver]

On a message board, you can be a smart ass and have no repercussions. Face to face and people become less of a smart ass. I don't take smart ass comments from my friends, family or kids...I sure as hell won't sit idly by and just bend over and take them here. Guess you could say I have a Northeast mindset with a Southern attitude when annoyed. (Trust me…trying to change is not easy!)

As for industries, I am fully aware my friend about the industry as a whole and that they piss on/beat down new divers to see if they can hack the pressures. I was 40 hours from completing my professional pilot degree (flying time) when I went to college (ran out of money to complete it) and my BEST performances were when my instructors pulled all kinds of crap to get myself in a bind. Guess what...the harder they pushed to make me fail...the better I excelled at every task. Landings for example...they were softer and better carried out when I was pushed to the limits of my experience as PIC (Pilot In Command) of the training plane.

Anyway...enough of my rambling on...bottom line it is easy for someone to be a smart ass on here...not as easy in person.

I respect those who respect me. Anyone whom "spat" on me with smart ass comments because of whom I like, dislike, know, dive with, follow after, my choices...THEY are the immature ones that need to grow up.

Also to answer another question of yours, I am OW Certified through NAUI. I dove to enjoy a great vacation when I was on one...which was rare. I was "re-introduced" back into the world and fell completely in love with the fact that I could make diving my living. So, I will snap back at anyone who says I can't, shouldn't, won't make it, etc.

Let me put it this way...I am NOT spending the money to just go "oh well...I tried"...

Sorry for the rant again....just annoyed overall and yes, you are right I shouldn't blame the whole forum for a couple of pricks here. (It's always the couple of bad apples which spoil the whole damn bunch these days.)

When I get tired and pissed off, I don't say the best things...I will completely admit that. Especially when I can't express them verbally and have to put my emotions in text.

If you were just 40 hours short of your Professional Pilot Degree and ran out of money why not use the money you now have and finish that? I would think that a Pilot career is easier than that of a commercial diver.

 

[Scott T C]

Sadly it took to long to earn enough money. I am 31 and it is really hard to start at that age as a pilot. :/

With pilots your logged hours mean everything, secondary to what you flew.

My old man has close to 20k hrs logged in the Captain’s seat, as a helicopter pilot...that's a lot.

I was going to enter the Army as a Warrant Officer to fly heli's for them, but my wife (fiancee then) wanted NOTHING to do with me joining. I do and don't regret joining...only had to sign the line to enter. That's how my old man started his flying career, as a Warrant Officer in Vietnam. So, I went to college for it...only to run out of money.

My father questions my sanity for doing Commercial Diving, but I am running out of options to make a good living for my family...I ain't getting any younger and have yet to figure out how to roll back time yet.

 

[shoredivr]

I have both an Alumbium BP and a Composite BP from 1996 from Dive Rite. One has a delux harness the other has a basic harness.

Good, I was hoping people had something from before the 2003 catalogue! When I look at photos from the Northeast wreck diving of the 1990s there's definitely BPWs around.

 

[danvolker]

Dive Rite was around long before Halcyon -- Made by cave divers for cave divers... Lamar built the company out of necessity to get good gear.

I was at that DEMA show, and funny, I don't remember the the scenario the way you write about it.

You must have been napping. The line at Halcyon was so long, they ran out of brochures and sale literature after a few hours, and had to continually copy brochures from then on....I am sure there were many photos of this....
As to dive rite, sure they were cave divers, but lamar was NOT making gear the way it needed to be made back then... it was not until Halcyon changed the game, and then DIR really began to take off, that Dive Rite decided they needed to alter their gear offerings in the direction Halcyon had initiated.

There are still probably threads somewhere from rec.scuba on how enormous the Halcyon response was...
And not to be redundant, but George and JJ DID ask DiveRite to make the DIR spec for them, way prior to Carmichael deciding to create the gear..So Lamar could easily have had the whole DIR gear business about function for cave and tech over marketing hype and the personal preference nonsense of the mid 90's. Lamar and Dive Rite did NOT want to do the DIR spec gear back then.

 

[Akimbo]

70's and early 80's were the really bad days of commercial diving. Especially in the North Sea. It kind of started getting better in the late 80's when I began. At least from a safety point of view.

For sure, I think it was 1973 or 74 when 13% of working divers in the North Sea oil patch were killed. I came in after the super gold rush, when sat divers were making $3000/Day in early 70s dollars — but it was really exciting. Most of my work was in the Norwegian sector on the first and second generation purpose-build diving vessels.

There were still a lot of bell and surface supported mixed gas bounce dives going on, which was the super dangerous stuff. I think it was around 77 or 78 when they outlawed all air diving below 50 Meters/165’ and required a bell for all mixed gas work. Everything went to sat after that and there were very few diving related fatalites. Most injuries were loss of digits and fatalities become mostly industrial accidents related to heavy loads.

 

[danvolker]

I know this isn't a streamlined aproach, but what are thoughts on a small pony bottle and secondary reg attached to it? If there is a system failure on your main rig...would having a completely self contained bailout be better?

Oh, and yes...I have asked questions outside my OP ideas...but it is my thread and things cross my mind.

Ok, now on a DIR related thread, you have to know this is essentially trolling.
I will answer anyway...
Your buddy is your redundant air/gas supply. If you are not able to stay in contact with your buddy at all times, then situational awareness and buddy skills are severely lacking in one of you, or both of you....this is the DIR handling of low on gas, or OOG.

If as a non-DIR diver, wanting to use some of our DIR ideas, you were looking for the best way to use a pony ( knowing this is one of our cardinal rules DIR divers dont break) then the method would be having a 20 or 30 cu ft pony slung stage style ( clipped from the chest D ring on left side on top, to waist d ring on bottom left. And it would have A REG ON IT with the 2nd stage held to the tank with tubing...this being the way you carry an O2 bottle or travel gas. In a nightmare, I could imagine you running your necklace reg to the 30 cu ft pong slung this way, as your back up, but this would not be DIR, and it would NOT be something I advocate at all. The only thing it would be better than, is the practice we see of a diver using a pony tamer to hold their pony on their main tank, and then stuffing the reg somewhere .... And again, this should not be considered...you should work on FINDING a good buddy... Think of this as the most important GEAR CHOICE you are making. It is more important than your choice of car model, or clothes as fashion statement, or for which reg or which mask....at least if you understand and like our DIR concepts, and have plans on diving deeper than 90 feet.
In fairness to totally non-DIR divers, some horrifically underskilled divers have done very well surviving on 60 foot and shallower dives, for the last 20 years, and they will continue to...our ideas are more significant as you get deep enough to reach what could be called a "virtual overhead", where an emergency swimming ascent to the surface is most likely going to either kill you, or put you in a chamber with life and health threatening DCS issues.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I know this isn't a streamlined aproach, but what are thoughts on a small pony bottle and secondary reg attached to it? If there is a system failure on your main rig...would having a completely self contained bailout be better?

Oh, and yes...I have asked questions outside my OP ideas...but it is my thread and things cross my mind.

If you are truly interested in DIR and aren't just trolling, I strongly suggest you read all of http://gue.com/files/Standards_and_Procedures/GUE_Standards_Version_51.pdf first. It will help you understand more about backup regs and why you don't need an inline reg or a pony.

 

[Scott T C]

It was just a question...I like to cover all avenues to see what is good or not.

Trolling? Not even close...one it is my thread, two I just asked a side note like a what if...

Ok, now on a DIR related thread, you have to know this is essentially trolling.
I will answer anyway...
Your buddy is your redundant air/gas supply. If you are not able to stay in contact with your buddy at all times, then situational awareness and buddy skills are severely lacking in one of you, or both of you....this is the DIR handling of low on gas, or OOG.

If as a non-DIR diver, wanting to use some of our DIR ideas, you were looking for the best way to use a pony ( knowing this is one of our cardinal rules DIR divers dont break) then the method would be having a 20 or 30 cu ft pony slung stage style ( clipped from the chest D ring on left side on top, to waist d ring on bottom left. And it would have A REG ON IT with the 2nd stage held to the tank with tubing...this being the way you carry an O2 bottle or travel gas. In a nightmare, I could imagine you running your necklace reg to the 30 cu ft pong slung this way, as your back up, but this would not be DIR, and it would NOT be something I advocate at all. The only thing it would be better than, is the practice we see of a diver using a pony tamer to hold their pony on their main tank, and then stuffing the reg somewhere .... And again, this should not be considered...you should work on FINDING a good buddy... Think of this as the most important GEAR CHOICE you are making. It is more important than your choice of car model, or clothes as fashion statement, or for which reg or which mask....at least if you understand and like our DIR concepts, and have plans on diving deeper than 90 feet.
In fairness to totally non-DIR divers, some horrifically underskilled divers have done very well surviving on 60 foot and shallower dives, for the last 20 years, and they will continue to...our ideas are more significant as you get deep enough to reach what could be called a "virtual overhead", where an emergency swimming ascent to the surface is most likely going to either kill you, or put you in a chamber with life and health threatening DCS issues.

 

[AfterDark]

Ok, now on a DIR related thread, you have to know this is essentially trolling.
I will answer anyway...
Your buddy is your redundant air/gas supply. If you are not able to stay in contact with your buddy at all times, then situational awareness and buddy skills are severely lacking in one of you, or both of you....this is the DIR handling of low on gas, or OOG.

If as a non-DIR diver, wanting to use some of our DIR ideas, you were looking for the best way to use a pony ( knowing this is one of our cardinal rules DIR divers dont break) then the method would be having a 20 or 30 cu ft pony slung stage style ( clipped from the chest D ring on left side on top, to waist d ring on bottom left. And it would have A REG ON IT with the 2nd stage held to the tank with tubing...this being the way you carry an O2 bottle or travel gas. In a nightmare, I could imagine you running your necklace reg to the 30 cu ft pong slung this way, as your back up, but this would not be DIR, and it would NOT be something I advocate at all. The only thing it would be better than, is the practice we see of a diver using a pony tamer to hold their pony on their main tank, and then stuffing the reg somewhere .... And again, this should not be considered...you should work on FINDING a good buddy... Think of this as the most important GEAR CHOICE you are making. It is more important than your choice of car model, or clothes as fashion statement, or for which reg or which mask....at least if you understand and like our DIR concepts, and have plans on diving deeper than 90 feet.
In fairness to totally non-DIR divers, some horrifically underskilled divers have done very well surviving on 60 foot and shallower dives, for the last 20 years, and they will continue to...our ideas are more significant as you get deep enough to reach what could be called a "virtual overhead", where an emergency swimming ascent to the surface is most likely going to either kill you, or put you in a chamber with life and health threatening DCS issues.

I gleen from this there is no DIR solo diving?

 

[danvolker]

It was just a question...I like to cover all avenues to see what is good or not.

Trolling? Not even close...one it is my thread, two I just asked a side note like a what if...

This was absolutely not a crack on my part, or an offensive comment....it is directly relevant to your question about a pony bottle-- I do not believe I could answer this question in good conscience, without discussing WHY no one should use a pony bottle as a backup....
And, I even went as far as answering what I know you were looking for....so why be pisswed at me