Honestly, I don't know why there isn't a "DIR" navigation class . . . except that there is absolutely nothing at all different about navigating as part of a DIR team or in any other setting. I don't know how navigation is covered in the GUE recreational curriculum, because I never took any of it except Rec Triox.
Geoff, please don't get the idea that DIR divers spend all their time practicing buoyancy control in inches -- but I have to say that having developed that skill (which IS necessary in a cave) has made it so much easier to swim under things without disturbing them, and to, for example, keep a light on a subject for a photographer buddy, or handle a camera myself.
As my husband has said, on more than one occasion, about what GUE teaches . . . a lot of it is just good diving. Some skills really get put into high relief in certain kinds of dives -- buoyancy control is critical if you are doing staged decompression, and situational awareness is critical if you are not to become lost in caves -- but the qualities GUE stresses are, for the most part, both applicable and useful in any kind of diving. The BIG difference in GUE diving is the cohesion and coordination of diving as a part of a team -- a team where everyone has bought into doing the work to "dive to stay found" (as my friend Claudette would say), to stay in effective communication, and to bring the skills to the table that are needed for the dive at hand.
Come to one of the GUE demo days, or arrange to go out diving with some of the trained and active divers in SoCal that post here. Maybe you will see something that you end up wanting. I did.
Geoff, please don't get the idea that DIR divers spend all their time practicing buoyancy control in inches -- but I have to say that having developed that skill (which IS necessary in a cave) has made it so much easier to swim under things without disturbing them, and to, for example, keep a light on a subject for a photographer buddy, or handle a camera myself.
As my husband has said, on more than one occasion, about what GUE teaches . . . a lot of it is just good diving. Some skills really get put into high relief in certain kinds of dives -- buoyancy control is critical if you are doing staged decompression, and situational awareness is critical if you are not to become lost in caves -- but the qualities GUE stresses are, for the most part, both applicable and useful in any kind of diving. The BIG difference in GUE diving is the cohesion and coordination of diving as a part of a team -- a team where everyone has bought into doing the work to "dive to stay found" (as my friend Claudette would say), to stay in effective communication, and to bring the skills to the table that are needed for the dive at hand.
Come to one of the GUE demo days, or arrange to go out diving with some of the trained and active divers in SoCal that post here. Maybe you will see something that you end up wanting. I did.
