Near-DIR diving: Are there DIR things you would probably never do?

[ucfdiver]

Whether or not hundreds of people do it everyday is neither here nor there. You assert that people who cannot donate a longhose routed over the right shoulder using the left hand probably do not belong in tech diving. I am merely stating that I have never heard of that specific requirement before. GUE for example, describes the proficiency in buoyancy, maintaining trim, propulsion techniques, experience, age, etc as a means to judge one's readiness for tech diving.

FWIW, IMO handing someone an object underwater using your left hand is trivial. Reaching across your face to grab the hose of your primary reg, uncoiling it from behind your neck and donating it to an out of gas diver is a little more difficult.

I've seen it done both ways to be honest, and it really wasn't an issue.

If procedure A is very similar (or equal) to procedure B, but procedure B "breaks" when using procedure C, but procedure A works.

Which procedure works best in all situations?

Is it better to know one procedure for a task? or should a new additional procedure be learned for a particular task every time a new procedure is added?

Personally, I'm using the left hand for the reason you're suggesting. I'd rather build the skills into muscle memory for when I get further along in diving. I stated I use the left hand earlier in this thread. I think "keeping the end in mind" is a much more valid reason than giving an example of it being impossible to not blind a buddy with the long hose donation.

 

[rjack321]

What was the point of this thread?

 

[JeffG]

What was the point of this thread?

Why does it need to have a point?

 

[rjack321]

Why does it need to have a point?

My HID is out of focus :mooner:

 

[Bismark]

It just has a middle, and from my perspective..........an end.

I am going to the Red Sea for two weeks. Hope you guys can get by without me. Just put my vote to whatever Rick and Jeff say.

Auf weidersein

 

[Thalassamania]

I had an interesting conversation with JJ a couple of weeks ago, regarding my impression that the DIR equipment configuration seemed very much optimized for a cave environment, and that perhaps there were things that could be or would be done differently if the focus was more the open water environment instead.

He objected emphatically to my impression, noting that the people on the training counsel were very much internationally oriented, and in fact the cavers were in the minority among those who developed the training procedures GUE uses. The vast majority of the international GUE instructors are NOT diving in caves, and yet still consider the gear configuration to be optimal.

Curious...

Not curious, horse pucky. They're a select chorus singing to the choir.

The snorkel issue has more, I fear, to do with a lack of knowledge concerning its use as well as the choice of snorkel and how it is worn than with tangling and deployment of the long hose problems.

I use a J tube snorkel with no do-dads. The snorkel keeper is just slightly off to the left of center on my mask strap. When the snorkel is in my mouth the top of the tube projects just up above the middle of my head (where the soft spot used to be), so the keeper is rather well up the barrel. This is in contrast to what most folks do, which is attach their snorkel up near the strap buckle so that it sticks forward and really only works well if they are vertical in the water.

I use a long hose in a fairly conventional way and deploy it with the typical, hand it straight off with the left and bob my head move. I have never had it tangle in my snorkel. I suspect that what we are seeing here is real problems experience by a group of people who dismissed snorkels as a forgone conclusion, and then never really spent the time fine tuning.

 

[Mauser]

holy **** that guy has a tube comming out the side of his head. Someone call a doctor.

 

[OneBrightGator]

Deco tanks go on the left...so maybe its based on the use of deco tanks??

Since the premise is wrong, the conclusion should be consider dubious at best.

But here's the thing. How much more "optimal" is running the reel in your right hand?

If you want to go that way, how many divers ever carry deco tanks? Again, small percentage.

Or, why are the tanks on the left and not the right? Why aren't they on both sides?

What about the reverse? How optimal is carrying the lighthead, running the reel and adjusting your buoyancy with only one hand? If you're not scootering with it, then what are you doing with it? Will it truly be there for you to "use" when you get a scooter or will have you developed other uses for it and still have to learn to do things differently?

 

[cavediver08]

I seem to be at a loss... Why do we need snorkels again?

 

[Thalassamania]

If all you do is cave dive, then you don't. If you do open water diving and you've made 50 to 100 dives and not learned yet, it's useless to discuss it with you, come back when you've 1000 dives and no longer know everything.