Please explain DIR to me...

[bwerb]

Well...for the daily double...

If I'm OOA...is it a great idea to blind my rescuer so they turn away from me or just signal OOA so they can calmly hand me their reg...like we practice.

 

[Seabear70]

Well, as I've said before, if you can calmly follow you procedures when you suddenly find yourself out of air, then you are a pretty cool customer...

Most people wind up ripping a regulator out of the mouth of the nearest diver.

 

[bwerb]

Hence the need to practice.

What you are trying to do is to totally re-wire your muscle memory. You are trying to make your "automatic" response be one of calm as that is what you've trained for. When "reality" occurs, your response has been hired-wired from practice over and over. It's the same as military training where you try to recreate as exactly as possible what the situations will be like so that when "things go pear shaped" your "emergency" response is exactly the same as your training response.

My wife had her reg kicked out of her mouth...she calmly took her bungied alternate and started breathing again while she re-configured her primary. At the surface she commented how she didn't even realize what she'd done as it was totally automatic.

That's the response we are training for. None of this "screaming across the sea" ripping regulators out of peoples mouths panicked out of control responses which we hear about.

So...again...what does it matter what color your regulator is...since the panicked diver always goes for the one in the mouth with bubbles coming out of...the one we actually train to donate...

 

[Seabear70]

Ok, but that's not an OOA...

OOA is when you personally run out of air either due to a malfunction, or due to lack of air.

At the time that you do that, you are going to remember distinctly putting the octo in your mouth, because you will remember that it did not work. By this point you will go from drill to panic most likely.

 

[bwerb]

Dude...that was an example of how training leads to automatic responses...yes it wasn't an OOA but it was an event which has been know to cause people to panic nevertheless.

My point is that in DIR, we train for the unexpected so that when it occurs...it isn't cause for panic.

 

[Seabear70]

I understand that, it's the same process in martial arts...
but until someone actually runs out of air unexpectedly, neither you or they know what they are going to do.

There is a reason why it is your primary reg that is so long.

There is also a reason you keep your octo so handy, and I am adapting my own gear along the same philosophy.

But, I still say it is better to have a brightly colored reg.

 

[bwerb]

The reason my primary is so long is so that when you are OOA and we need to exit the cave/wreck...we can go single-file down the restrictions...

 

[Seabear70]

The reason my primary is so long is so that when you are OOA and we need to exit the cave/wreck...we can go single-file down the restrictions...

Ok, then why not your octopus?

Why your primary?

There was a lot of clear thought that went into it.

 

[bwerb]

Sorry...I don't follow your question...what are you asking...I don't have an "octopus"?

 

[Seabear70]

No, why a shorter hose on the octopus then on the primary?

And why dosn't everybody use bright colors on both of them?