Hardest part of DIR-F

[BCS]

Getting back into the 39 degree water while our gear froze between dives. Remeber those days Brando?

How could I forget??
I remember that this was pre-p-valve and I was frozen in my drysuit....(the drysuit zipper froze shut)...I had to go pretty bad.....ohh the agony!
Of course....that was the hardest part...we all breezed through the class.....they haven't had one like that in a while!

b.
(ps....I'm kidding...I had all of the same problems everyone else had.)

 

[FreeFloat]

For me, it was discovering that while diving a 'normal', light, fun, recreational (non-skills/drills) dive, I have reasonably good buoyancy and trim........... until I get task loaded. Then I seem to gently sink into the sunset. My DIR-F instructor was seriously concerned that perhaps I didn't have good vision underwater as he'd only ever seen "bottom-crawling" tendencies in divers who weren't wearing vision correction (I was)............. I could maintain perfect buoyancy and hovers......... six inches off the nearest surface, be it horizontal or vertical, and it's like I was locked into that position - I'd follow any contours anywhere never straying further than 6" off them.

That made the ascent drills just loads of fun.

Turns out it wasn't vision-related at all - it was a comfort issue with me being 'terrified' of an out of control ascent due to not being able to see the surface 'behind' me when properly trimmed out.

Okay, I've done a fair bit of work on that issue and can now confidentaly hold mid-water stops.... without being 6" from the nearest surface. I was pleased to report this to my instructor recently and he sounded pleased as well.

That's been my biggest hurdle.

And yes, my bottom crawling tendencies only enhanced the humor factor of the post-dive video review........... man I thought the lot of us were gonna pee outselves from laughing so hard!!! The instructor could've made money on admission!

 

[WJL]

....
Actually, I was pretty envious of the people in the class that had less bottom time than me. They had fewer bad habits to unlearn and they were being tough the correct way to do these propulsion techniques from the start. Trying to unlearn then relearn the Frog Kick wasn't as easy as I thought it would be

When I took a Fundamentals class in July '02 (it was really a workshop then) I had been certified for a month or so and had a total of 12 dives in my log - of which 4 were the certification dives. Everyone else in the class had more experience than me, most had way, way more experience, and some had been diving for decades. I had a lot of encouragement and advice from my new DIR dive buddies before the class, and I was given plenty of positive feedback during the class, but I was definitely "envious" then of the people in the class with more dive experience. Even though I learned an enormous amount, it took a lot of practice after the class to get close to performing the skills with any degree of facility. Now, looking back on it, I agree with Frank's point. It was an advantage to me to go through the class early on, rather than after learning a lot of bad habits and having to unlearn them.

 

[bcsean]

back-kick. Never had it before, and I'm by no means good at it now. Working on it still and figure I will be for awhile yet.

Oh, and sitting on the picnic table with back arched, head up, practising kick. Damn, my back was killing me after that.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

back-kick. Never had it before, and I'm by no means good at it now. Working on it still and figure I will be for awhile yet.

Yeah, that's a tough one. I've gotten to the point where I can go backwards consistently ... but I'm still doing the "shrimp dance" ... moving upwards as well as backwards on each kick cycle.

I've been coached ... I know what I need to do ... but doing it is another matter altogether ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[MHK]

I was given plenty of positive feedback during the class,

How the hell did that happen? I'll be sure not to make that same mistake in your Triox class in two weeks ;-)

See you in a few weeks..

Later

 

[FreeFloat]

back-kick. Never had it before, and I'm by no means good at it now. Working on it still and figure I will be for awhile yet.

Oh, and sitting on the picnic table with back arched, head up, practising kick. Damn, my back was killing me after that.

Oh yeah. Thanks for reminding me about backfinning. I still do the "rocking chair"... I'm toying with the idea of sitting in on another DIR-F class just to get video taken of me, so that I can figure out what the heck it is that I'm not doing................

This, of course, just means that I warn buddies before a dive that during stops I may well get a little close to them and they are welcome to push me off them if I wander/drift too close. :toilet:

 

[artw]

hardest part from my class was me climbing out from under the bus

 

[Dan Gibson]

That's never easy. The longer you dive, the number of people willing to chuck you under the bus continues to grow

hardest part from my class was me climbing out from under the bus

 

[d33ps1x]

hardest part from my class was me climbing out from under the bus

Couldn't imagine who would have thrown you there...