AnubisDiver, please . . . take a deep breath and stop giving knee-jerk defensive responses.
What has become very clear to all of us is that you dive with or know SeaJay; he has told you Fundies is a wonderful class. You know very little about what the class is, or what DIR diving is. That's okay -- we all started there. But you have been given links to read, to learn more about the subject. It really isn't very nice to ask about Air2s in the DIR forum -- we more or less expect people to have done at least a little homework, before they come here and ask questions. And when they do, we would really like a little respect given to the people who take their time to write cogent, informative answers (and not all the answers in this thread merit that description).
No, Fundies is not DIR. Fundies is the entry-level class, if you did not do your original training with GUE, into the "no longer termed DIR" system of diving. Fundies introduces the gear configuration, the idea of standard gases, the strong in-water skills, the concept of operating as a team, the gas management concepts, and a lot of other things. It's "DIR 101", and it's a fabulous class. Can you walk away from Fundies without deciding to pursue the DIR approach to diving? Sure! If all you learn is a frog and a back kick, you are still better for having done the class. But I think most people who take it come away with more than that . . . and the glimpse you get of what diving as a unified team is and can be, is enough to hook a lot of folks.
You need to understand that standardized gear is only one part of "DIR" diving. It is a strong core concept, but far from the biggest new idea you will find in Fundies. Lots of folks can dive a Hog setup and not be remotely DIR. At its core, DIR is team diving -- diving with buddies who are equipped the same, trained the same, who think the same and communicate the same. There is tremendous strength in this, and that strength is diluted every time you make an independent decision to depart from the system.
As Dan Volker so articulately says, if all anybody ever did was 30 foot reef dives, there would be no DIR. That is not to say that the system doesn't make a 30 foot reef dive free of stress and more fun -- it DOES. It's just that it is possible to execute a 30 foot reef dive in many different ways, all of which will be successful and safe. The deeper, darker, and more challenging the dive, the more important it becomes to have a really solid, safe approach to doing it. The beauty of DIR is that it works fine at 30 feet on a quiet reef. It works equally well at 90 feet on a current swept pinnacle in the middle of freaking nowhere off the California coast, or a mile back in a cave in Mexico, or at nearly 400 feet on the Atlanta project.
it's a very good system. If you want to do Fundies, do it. Please do not draw conclusions about the system until you have, and you know more about what it actually is in practice. And after you have taken the class, you may want to revisit this thread, and write some apologies to people who know what they are talking about, and have actually been trying to be helpful.
