I'm mad at Dive-aholic

[Rainer]

I'm not convinced that she's entirely wrong.

About whether GUE will some day incorporate SM procedures? They might. About *why* GUE might do so, no, she's plain wrong. GUE has never really cared about how others do things, even if that means losing "customers".

 

[Rainer]

SM is just a tool ... and like any tool there are better and worse ways to use it. It isn't inherently "not" DIR ... it's just that none of the DIR proponents have as yet proposed a way that it could be appropriately used within the tenets of the DIR system. At some point, I think that will probably happen ...

SM is primarily a tool to get into nasty tight spots, where you often can't easily function as a good teammate. Those types of dives will forever be beyond "DIR".

I don't think GUE will ever embrace SM simply because old people have bad knees...

 

[Jax]

The "spirit" of DIR includes team, planning, process AND gear ... one cannot pick and choose and still be DIR. It's an "all or nothing" proposition ... kinda like being pregnant.


I've heard several GUE instructors posit that you choose gear appropriate to the dive you're planning to do. So what happens if the dive plan involves going someplace you can't get to in backmount?


I'm not convinced that she's entirely wrong. DIR has never appealed to the masses, nor has that ever been a goal ... but it has also never been as hide-bound as some people believe. Over the past decade I've seen several shifts in thinking with respect to gear and approach. No system can remain static in a dynamic world ... that's the path to extinction.

As SM broadens its appeal to the diving community, it needs to develop some standards and best-practices. The agencies promoting the DIR approach are particularly well-positioned to at least examine whether this technique could be used within the constraints of their system, and in so doing become an important factor in developing those standards.

Frankly, I'd trust them to do a much better job at it than the recreational agencies.

SM is just a tool ... and like any tool there are better and worse ways to use it. It isn't inherently "not" DIR ... it's just that none of the DIR proponents have as yet proposed a way that it could be appropriately used within the tenets of the DIR system. At some point, I think that will probably happen ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Wow! Exactly what I was thinking! I wish I was as eloquent as you! :daydreaming:

 

[Jax]

SM is primarily a tool to get into nasty tight spots, where you often can't easily function as a good teammate. Those types of dives will forever be beyond "DIR".

I don't think GUE will ever embrace SM simply because old people have bad knees...

Uhh . . . . That's a very poor premise, I'm afraid. At least in my research and *very* limited personal experience, the primary reason for the swelling ranks of sidemount is that people do not want to [continue to] carry the huge weight of backmount.

Isn't GUE's inflexibility a primary reason UTD formed? Help me out here . . .

 

[Rainer]

That's EXACTLY a sort of reason for which GUE will not embrace SM.

Uhh . . . . That's a very poor premise, I'm afraid. At least in my research and *very* limited personal experience, the primary reason for the swelling ranks of sidemount is that people do not want to [continue to] carry the huge weight of backmount.

 

[Jax]

That's EXACTLY a sort of reason for which GUE will not embrace SM.

Explain this, please? . . . It sounds like you are saying "GUE will not embrace sidemount because people who are handicapped are using it instead of backmount." Is that what you meant to portray?

 

[Mark Michaud SELAUSAR]

That's EXACTLY a sort of reason for which GUE will not embrace SM.

Darn! Now that's a real heartbreaker

 

[TSandM]

Jax, Chris is right. GUE will not change or expand their procedures or equipment configuration to accomodate physical disability. I know this from a personal conversation with Bob Sherwood, who told me he would not accept a student into his Fundies classes, if that student required a release in the harness because of shoulder problems. It wasn't that he wouldn't pass them; he wouldn't teach them. Physical capacity is part of the GUE diving paradigm -- which is fine, and I'm not complaining about it. But the GUE answer to, "I can't carry doubles up and down the stairs any more" is not to do the dives that require you to carry them, and for me, that's not an option.

I see a lot of problems with any sidemount system becoming "DIR", beginning with the fact that they won't adopt one unless they are facing dives that they cannot accomplish with the existing equipment -- and such dives are, at least if you believe what the people who do them say, inherently poorly suited to a team approach, which is central to DIR diving. GUE certainly won't adopt a system just because some of their members want it, or because "everybody is doing it".

 

[DiveNav]

Interesting thread (mainly in the first part).

Where do I find a SM Instructor here in SoCal? I would like to give it a try

Alberto (aka eDiver)

 

[Mark Michaud SELAUSAR]

Interesting thread (mainly in the first part).

Where do I find a SM Instructor here in SoCal? I would like to give it a try

Alberto (aka eDiver)

Maybe the subject of this topic (Rob) would like to make a trip since it is close to his home............................Rob?