Gear dependancy and additional training

[Diver0001]

Hey you're back! wonderful. The tent was feeling empty without you.

I don't think the main issue has to do with the relative strengths and weaknesses of different configurations.... the issue Dave brought up (and I agree with him) is that saying "you MUST do THIS or you CANT dive" is a fallacy.

Just speaking for myself, I can safely say that I can dive (and look good doing it) in things that even *I* won't use anymore.... The basic message being that equipment cannot improve your skills..... I know as a DIR diver you'll want to disagree with that but it's really true.

Welcome back. I missed you.

R..

 

[FritzCat66]

Some might say if an animal can't oxidize their own blood from water but needs gear to do it, then they're dependent on that gear.

So, since we've established that we're all gear-dependent in that sense, I say run with it. Dive a completely ideosyncratic set of gear and happily depend on it, as long as you're a good diver in it and it's the gear you always dive. Who cares if someone else says your hose is too short or you need to run it on your right side vs. your left or around your neck or whatnot? Whatever cranks their tractor.

Focussing on the solo aspect of diving, all I care about is how it works for me. I want to dive a consistent set of gear every time to whatever extent that is possible, and be familiar with that setup and where everything is and how I use it.

It doesn't bother me in the least that I am dependent upon that particular gear configuration. What's important is that every piece of gear is well thought-out, it's reliable, that I take good care of it, that I know how to use it, and that it's intuitive to me and well-suited for my ideosyncratic diving style.

I'm not pish-poshing good dive practices, like good buoyancy control and not having a dozen tentacles dragging the reef. But those objectives can be accomplished with any number of gear configurations. All I'm saying is it shouldn't bother you if you're best in one particular gear configuration.

>*< Fritz

 

[Web Monkey]

It never ceases to amaze me that the mere mention of DIR/GUE ect raises the hackles of so many people. Many divers that post here (and other boards) are very passionate when comes to diving styles and their choices of gear. However, being a skilled diver is simply not gear dependant. Once you become a slave to your gear selection, will your overall skills begin to suffer?

• Buoyancy control is not gear dependant.
• Learning to navigate is not gear dependant.
• Staying off the bottom/reef is not gear dependant.
• Planning the dive and executing that plan is not gear dependant.
• Situational awareness and buddy practices are not gear dependant.
• Sharing air with a buddy anywhere but a confined space is not gear dependant

Gear is gear and skills are skills. Extra gear won't make the skills any better, and in fact generally makes them worse.

Are you talking about people doing a 60' reef dive outfitted to penetrate the titanic, or people who look like you sprayed them with adhesive and rolled them through a dive shop (or something else)?

FWIW the problems with DIR have much more to do with personalities and perception than equipment or procedures. If DIR wasn't called DIR and was offered as a PADI class, and they could boot people out for extremism, it would be as popular as Nitrox.

Terry

 

[Queen]

...or people who look like you sprayed them with adhesive and rolled them through a dive shop (or something else)?

 

[Peter Guy]

I agree that many skills are NOT "gear dependent" but it is also true that the gear can make good diving skills very difficult, or impossible, to accomplish if the gear is poorly rigged or poorly used.

A couple of cases in point:

Dragging Octos, Dragging Consoles -- We've all seen them dragging across the sand or dragging across the reef -- and yes, doing damage to the reef (can you damage sand?). Here the gear choice IS relevant and unfortunately, is too often the result of ignorance and/or poor gear choice(s).

45 degree (or higher) trim -- again, this is something we've all seen too many times on the reefs -- the "typical recreational diver" -- while some of this is technique, some of it is also poorly fitting, and poorly set up gear -- tanks too low, weights too low, etc. Does this lead to reef injury -- you bet -- both from the direct contact of the fins AND from the finning which is now pointed down AT the reef.

Example -- in the pool I dive a Balance BC and I was using shop HP72's -- no matter how I tried, I couldn't stay in trim, they just wouldn't let me -- after I switched to an LP 72 (much longer) trim was easy. The wrong gear has an effect and until, and unless, one is taught to know "better" you just won't know that things could be different (better).

Does this make sense?

 

[TSandM]

The basic message being that equipment cannot improve your skills.....

Oh, you're so right . . . I'm a DIR diver, and I'm going to disagree with this!

If your equipment is bad fitted, or badly out of balance (and remember, I dive in Puget Sound, where people may need well upwards of 30 lbs of lead ballast to be PROPERLY weighted), and you are put into a configuration that balances your body and your weights better, your "skills" will instantly improve. In other words, you'll get your feet up out of the silt, where it may simply have been all but impossible for you to accomplish that before.

I did a dive in Tahiti -- my first dive of the trip, and I wasn't sure how much weight I would need with a wetsuit I'd never dived in salt water, and with tanks I had never used before. I ended up estimating and then rounding up on weight (because I'd rather be heavy than light) and putting it in the wrong place (tank didn't make me as head-heavy as I thought it would). During that dive, I could not stop without my feet dropping. As long as I finned, I could stay horizontal, but hovering in a horizontal position without moving was not possible, no matter how I rearranged my body parts. It was extremely irritating. The next dive, I moved some weight around and everything was back to fine. Am I equipment-dependent? Maybe. But physics is pretty inexorable

 

[JeffG]

If your equipment is bad fitted, or badly out of balance (and remember, I dive in Puget Sound, where people may need well upwards of 30 lbs of lead ballast to be PROPERLY weighted), and you are put into a configuration that balances your body and your weights better, your "skills" will instantly improve.

It may be just me, but I don't think the intent was to say that idea of "Gear dependency" is the same as bad fitting gear.

A bad fitting BP/Wing will behave poorly and any good diver should be able to dive any style of BC with a level of competence.

There is nothing special about a BP/Wing. Its just a bladder that displaces water.

 

[Diver0001]

I agree that many skills are NOT "gear dependent" but it is also true that the gear can make good diving skills very difficult, or impossible, to accomplish if the gear is poorly rigged or poorly used.

yes but 2 things about this:

1) being able to correctly configure your gear is a skill

2) using gear to mask the effects of #1 is not a skill.

R..

p.s. nice to have you back too!

 

[Teamcasa]

It may be just me, but I don't think the intent was to say that idea of "Gear dependency" is the same as bad fitting gear.

A bad fitting BP/Wing will behave poorly and any good diver should be able to dive any style of BC with a level of competence.

There is nothing special about a BP/Wing. Its just a bladder that displaces water.

Exactly.
Dangling or poorly fitting gear is not a gear issue, it is a training issue.

 

[Diver0001]

Oh, you're so right . . . I'm a DIR diver, and I'm going to disagree with this!

If your equipment is bad fitted, or badly out of balance (and remember, I dive in Puget Sound, where people may need well upwards of 30 lbs of lead ballast to be PROPERLY weighted), and you are put into a configuration that balances your body and your weights better, your "skills" will instantly improve. In other words, you'll get your feet up out of the silt, where it may simply have been all but impossible for you to accomplish that before.

I don't want to get all agumentative about it but.... welll.... no....

What has happened here is

a) you've either used new gear to mask old problems or

b) you've learned a new skill (about proper weighting and distribution) that helped you solve the problem.

Because I know you well I'll say you meant (b) but what, in fact, happens most of the time is you hear people saying "I bought BP/wing and my diving has improved" , which is a load of ... you know what. What these people have done is bought new gear that, because of it's inherent "basket and blimp" way of hanging in the water, has helped them HIDE their problem....

See what I'm driving at here?

R..