Is Diver Alert (Whistle on LP inflator) DIR?

[kidsdream]

From hunting Jupiter,FL to diving the Galapagos your comments don't hold water.

Just want I want, 8 or 10 hunters packed closely together. And as other have stated, in some areas the current is so variable that incremental positions in the water can result in drifts and safety stops that can separated teams by miles.

Last summer off of Darwin Island I was less than 50' from the main group (for entire bottlom time portion of the dive you hang on to the bottom structure), but my accent took me a couple of miles from the other divers at the surface. My dive alert and flag on tall pole and a 6' safety sausage (which I deployed on my drifting accent) were all key factors in being found in big seas.

The air horn thingy isn't DIR because it is a crutch for proper skills and dive planning. Leaving out some really crazy unrealistic scenarios, you are going to get seperated from a boat for generally two reasons. Your navigation sucks or it is a drift dive and you haven't properly planned to stay in contact with the boat. For option 1, stay closer to the boat until you can make it back to the anchor. For issue 2, there are several great DIR ways for dealing with this and it doesn't take a fully compliant DIR boat to do it. Both of these issues are fixable before you leave the doc and therefore don't require an unnecessary whistle.

While you don't need a DIR boat, a complete stroke mess of a boat is a no-no for drift diving. In most cases the whole boat basically has to dive together and you use a float ball or shoot a bag for deco, depending on the conditions, type of dive, etc.

 

[vbcoachchris]

Dave Hancock of Dive Alert, has actually made a "DIR" version of this for some of the PNW DIR crowd. It is sealed with a port plug in one side, and has a LP nipple on the other. It even has a place to attach a bolt snap via cave line. It just clips in the "right pocket" (safety).

Scott

 

[Cave Diver]

From hunting Jupiter,FL to diving the Galapagos your comments don't hold water.

Just want I want, 8 or 10 hunters packed closely together. And as other have stated, in some areas the current is so variable that incremental positions in the water can result in drifts and safety stops that can separated teams by miles.

Is hunting DIR?

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Is hunting DIR?

Depends on what you're hunting, I suppose. My buddies and I have developed dungeness crab hunting into a team sport (you can even do it from a scooter) ... we call it "crab herding".

For some other types of hunting, I don't see DIR being the way to go due in part to the fact that it's most effectively done solo ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Cave Diver]

Depends on what you're hunting, I suppose. My buddies and I have developed dungeness crab hunting into a team sport (you can even do it from a scooter) ... we call it "crab herding".

I seem to recall reading a report by TSandM about something along those lines.

 

[lamont]

Dave Hancock of Dive Alert, has actually made a "DIR" version of this for some of the PNW DIR crowd. It is sealed with a port plug in one side, and has a LP nipple on the other. It even has a place to attach a bolt snap via cave line. It just clips in the "right pocket" (safety).

Scott

FWIW: SCRET explicitly has an SOP for 2 dive-alerts per team:

Submerged Cultural Resources Exploration Team - Team Resources

" 2 dive-alert type air whistles which are carried in a drysuit pocket"

There is at least that one group of T2/C2 certified divers who have added that bit of equipment due to experience diving wrecks like the Governor and Admiral Sampson, and it hasn't been done to work around "non-DIR" captains. Those trips are done on 6-packs with trusted boat captains and safety divers.

And I've talked with them about SMB visibility under actual circumstances, and the experience of the boat captain is that SMB visibility really sucks once you get some distance and you've got some chop, even with the huge 6' one.

And the dive alert standard is based on years of experience diving in these conditions and actual dives that were more exciting than they should have been, and after-action analysis with the boat captain.

 

[Blackwood]

seems the DIR guys can't agree on it either

I don't think the "DIR guys" are disagreeing. The implication of what some people said is: if you end up needing it, you may have made a poor decision.

However, provided it doesn't interfere with the dive in any way (i.e. it's stowed out of the way), it in no way affects the "DIR-ness" of a dive. Neither does the car key clipped off in my pocket during shore dives.

You seem to be operating under the assumption that each and every "DIR dive" involves exactly the same equipment. That's demonstrably untrue. Not all dives require doubles, or deco bottles, or stages, or scooters, or reels, or blah blah blah.

For each dive, you bring all of what you definitely need, and some of what you may need. If you feel safer with a dive alert, stick it somewhere out of the way.

The purist's answer is always going to be "don't do the dive if you can't do it perfectly DIR", but a lot of people don't have that option very often.

Setting the military aside, in what circumstances would someone not have the option to not dive?

 

[Cave Diver]

Setting the military aside, in what circumstances would someone not have the option to not dive?

The way I read it was she meant they dont have the option of it being "perfectly DIR" every time. There may be some small detail that keeps the dive from being DIR and at that point the diver has the option of diving with the small detail or sitting the dive out.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Setting the military aside, in what circumstances would someone not have the option to not dive?

The way I read it was she meant they dont have the option of it being "perfectly DIR" every time. There may be some small detail that keeps the dive from being DIR and at that point the diver has the option of diving with the small detail or sitting the dive out.

Exactly ... you ALWAYS have the option to sit out a dive ... but at what point does that become a practical alternative?

In most of the world, perfect DIR-ness simply isn't an option. At that point (and given that it's probably cost you several thousand dollars to take this trip) are you going to sit out because the boat operator isn't DIR-certified?

Not me ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[JeffG]

Exactly ... you ALWAYS have the option to sit out a dive ... but at what point does that become a practical alternative?

In most of the world, perfect DIR-ness simply isn't an option. At that point (and given that it's probably cost you several thousand dollars to take this trip) are you going to sit out because the boat operator isn't DIR-certified?

Not me ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

I just call it "Embracing my inner-Stroke"