Has anyone ever? Reasons for DIR...

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I was completely dissapointed in my OW training (what little there was). Thank goodness I came across a good diver who enlightened me on other ways to dive (this was after dive 5 so I hadn't picked up too many bad habbits yet). After long discussions, we met up, and first off totally reconfigured my gear. Unfortuantely, I had already purchased everything, so we had to work with what I had brought. We cleaned alot of it up and got rid of alot of DANGLIES. The next day, we got in the water to see what a disaster I was, I had such a hard time, but it was good for him to see what needed fixed. We changed me out to a long hose/octo and he put me on his coffee table to get an understanding how I should feel when buoyant and trim. It was easier for me to understand how my body should feel above water, before adding the factors of being under the water. The next day we worked in the pool, fixing, tweeking, getting me to just relax, and lo an behold, I felt what neutral buoyancy was! Ever since, I have worked very hard on how I am in the water. I got a BP/W in April at the Salvo Demo (I tried it out and never gave it back!) and it has been wonderful not fighting my gear. I am almost completely reconfigured, I just need a SPG, but since my console was so small to begin with, I am buying other things that I need first. I read the book by Jarrod, and I have have watched the videos by George. I understand where these guys are coming from, and I am much more comfortable in the setup and the people I dive with that share the same thinking. It has been an amazing transition for me and I know that DIR and the education I have been receiving has made me a much better diver and team member.

What's funny and sad, is that I have been completely shunned by my first LDS who trained me in OW. As soon as they saw the long hose, it was like I was no longer part of the club. I was abandoned by them when I went on a trip to the Bahamas, underwater. They sent me to the ascent line by myself. That was my first ocean dive and only dive 10 for me. My mentor had been working with me, knowing that they would probably do this to me. So, I pretty much changed my gas management and stuck with the DM in order to be prepared to save my own butt. I was told that my frog kick was useless in OW diving and that I could not learn buoyancy in a pool. According to them, I could only learn that by diving OW at depth. I am so glad I didn't listen to them and that I saw first hand the possibilities of what I could achieve by working and educating myself. I have such a long way to go, but I have been given a taste of so many possibilities!

I got to try doubles for the first time, it was a good experience for me, especially getting out of the water and having a bunch of OW guys freak out and say "Dang, that chick's in doubles"! Lol yeah nothing like feeding the ego to get my butt in gear to ready myself for the next step...FUNDIES!

I am grateful to my mentor and to all the great divers I have had the pleasure of meeting. I have been inspired by so many people in such a short time! I do have to say, I am very lucky to be part of such a great community!

Happy diving!
Carolyn:sharks:
ps my fave flavor of Koolaid is grape! :D
 
Well, about 6 years ago, just before I got cave certified I was in a dive shop. One of my friends had recently been intro certified and being a college student didn't have a lot of money to spend on gear, in fact, the best light he could afford was a UK D8 (remember, 2001). He talked to one of the people who was working at the shop, who had helped him buy his gear and sign up for the class and was DIR, and asked if they would cave dive with him sometime. They said absolutely not, because he didn't have an HID cannister light, no offer to do cavern or an "easier" dive, just a flat out "No."

Sometime later a friend of mine was talking to a GUE instructor about cave diving, chatting for some time. The instructor asked who my friend's instructor was, upon hearing the name, he promptly turned on his heels and walked away without a word.

Because I can not act like either of these people did is why I do not believe DIR is the best nor will I ever strive to DIR. I guess your first experience has a big effect.

Sorry to pee in your coffee (std. issue black, no cream, no sugar) :D

Is it possible that the two examples you gave could have applied even if they weren't DIR? Correlation doesn't equal causation as they say.

I wonder how you treat new divers that mention an interest in DIR or that have had some DIR training.
 
If you've made the commitment- then go for it. Leave onebrightgator behind and don't waste your time with a reply.
#1- don't dive with unsafe divers
#2- don't listen to unsafe divers
 
Great, my Nephew just called me from UGA and reminded me..."Gators Suck Snot"
 
So, let's hear your reasons for choosing DIR...
The first (and last!) time I performed an out-of-air sharing and ascent drill using an Airsource --an absolute Cluster Futz-up, and that was with an Instructor in a swimming pool . . .[Lord, there has got to be a better way:shakehead:]
 
MBH, I suspect OneBrightGator is not only not an unsafe diver, but probably a very safe and careful diver. DIR doesn't have the monopoly on good diving. A lot of what they teach comes out of cave country, where OBG habitually operates. Having a bad opinion of DIR, or DIR divers, does not automatically brand you as a stroke. And not all stories of bad behavior on the part of DIR divers are internet myth, either.

GUE brings cave skills and cave education to recreational divers, and creates a community of trained people who mesh well and dive smoothly together. Everybody knows I mainline KoolAid, but it doesn't mean I've lost all ability to see what goes on around me.
 
Let's see....I did a 3 day course in Guam, and then a couple of dives after the class there. I was not confident in what I knew, especially after I asked a question about tanks and was told that it should have been covered in my OW class. I then went to Hawaii on a vacation and did a cattle boat dive and the profiles left me feeling like crap. Soon after I got in touch with a friend that had been diving awhile and he sent me a 25 page paper on DIR and told me to go read anything I could on DIR and WKPP. Shortly there after he helped me get my dive gear. 1st purchase and I'm still diving with most of it today. The systematic approach appealed to me and made sense. I got in touch with the local DIRF instructor in San Diego (Marc Hall). He allowed me to come to the tweeks he gave weekly, without any prior training (and only 10 dives under my belt). I got more dive instruction in the next year than anyone deserves. Even after diving with him for 3 months, I only got a provisional from the fundies course. I credit him with the type of diver I am today (Sorry, Marc:wink:)

As for OneBrightGator, see my post in "Why DIR Sucks.":wink:
 
So here I was ascending on a 200' dive and reaching 70' to do my gas switch which I do without a problem. Um...where were my 2 other buddies, seems like they were here a minute ago.

Then my buddy does find me and shows me that he's got a free flowing 1st stage on his 50% bottle. Hm....never encountered this before, never been taught or drilled on what to do. The 3rd buddy does show up too. They give me a "deer in the headlights" look.

So I tell my buddy with the 80cu ft bottle to gas share with the buddy with no 50% deco functioning. Buddy says no way....O K....

I tell the buddy to take his O2 deco bottle reg and switch it to his 50%. He too says "no".

Crap! All this after I tweek his first stage (yoke) and find that it's not repairable.

So then I say to myself...****, OK, I'll switch the regs for him, which I did successfully.

All the while our depths changed from 70' up to 40' and when I realize that, we drop back to 70' only to find myself at 85'...with me on 50% 02. Holy Crap!!!

So after the reg switch, I quickly get back up to 70'.

In the meantime, the 3rd buddy is no where to be seen. He quickened his ascent and went up. He ended up getting slightly bent, went to the hospital and was released.

Could have been worse, but we survived it well.

What did that tell us? Even though I was trimix trained, I didn't know squat! And didn't have squat for skills. Environmental awareness? What's that? Buddy awareness? What's that? My buddy did find me, didn't he? :D

So I got my team together and said we better LEARN HOW TO DIVE! We took Fundies, cried uncle thru it, wanted to be put back to NAUI Open Water we were SO bad.

Anyway we got thru that, got a provisional, practiced a lot and got our recreational pass,practiced a whole lot and finally got our Fundies Tech Pass.

It's been a year since that time and my team have been practicing 4 dives a month. 2 ocean and 2 pool each month and at the end of the month we'll be doing Tech One with JJ. I'm confident we won't be a total disaster during the class and maybe, just maybe we'll get to do all 5 days.

Our ocean dives are usually 3 1/2 hour dives, but this last Sunday we did a 4 hour practice dive. The drills were fun and we worked on what we needed to work on. Wish us luck!

I do get in some fun dives though, here's a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSj7Zu-eWBs
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/
http://cavediveflorida.com/Rum_House.htm

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