I must admit, I like most of what DIR says and I've been moving in that direction with my diving but there's a few things that I think will prevent me ever becoming a full DIR diver:
- Lamp in the same hand as the compass: Sorry, it's just too much of a pain - especially in dark and bad visibility you need to look at the compass every 20 seconds - constantly swapping the light around is too annoying.
- All stages on the left: It just seems like asking for trouble, sure if you follow procedures perfectly you should never breathe the wrong gas, but why not have the extra simplicity and safety of left-lean, right-rich?
- Single bladder wings: Again, there is extra safety in a double bladder. Even if I can happily swim my rig up I still don't want to keep finning to have to stay on the surface. I also don't want to be dumping $2,500 worth of stages and lights to get extra buoyancy (would any DIR diver really do this without a second thought?) Ok, I can hold a lift bag for extra buoyancy but a working wing is better and safer. So, balanced rigs: yes. Double bladders: also yes.
- No computers: Takes some of the fun out of diving. If I plan to look at a wreck at 10m but then decide to follow a big fish down to 20m I want the flexibility to do this without having to go and write a new dive plan first. Sometimes the dive plan can be "go and have a fun dive".
Are there any other DIR guidelines others will not adopt, or would anyone like to convince me I am wrong about any of these points?
- Lamp in the same hand as the compass: Sorry, it's just too much of a pain - especially in dark and bad visibility you need to look at the compass every 20 seconds - constantly swapping the light around is too annoying.
- All stages on the left: It just seems like asking for trouble, sure if you follow procedures perfectly you should never breathe the wrong gas, but why not have the extra simplicity and safety of left-lean, right-rich?
- Single bladder wings: Again, there is extra safety in a double bladder. Even if I can happily swim my rig up I still don't want to keep finning to have to stay on the surface. I also don't want to be dumping $2,500 worth of stages and lights to get extra buoyancy (would any DIR diver really do this without a second thought?) Ok, I can hold a lift bag for extra buoyancy but a working wing is better and safer. So, balanced rigs: yes. Double bladders: also yes.
- No computers: Takes some of the fun out of diving. If I plan to look at a wreck at 10m but then decide to follow a big fish down to 20m I want the flexibility to do this without having to go and write a new dive plan first. Sometimes the dive plan can be "go and have a fun dive".
Are there any other DIR guidelines others will not adopt, or would anyone like to convince me I am wrong about any of these points?