Please explain DIR to me...

[Soggy]

All the skills you have mentioned above I aready have mastered. I'm not attacking because I have several friends who along with me agree with the DIR approach to diving. I'm currently a DMC with PADI and as such believe that there are two things you need to do it improve as a diver. Experience and training.

Mastered, eh? Well, I haven't seen you in the water, so I'll take your word for it. But, after taking a DIR-F class, you might not be so sure that you have these skills so "mastered."

Here were the "rules" of DIR-F dive #1
60 ft to the bottom
self imposed 30 ft MOD...we are operating in mid water, with no bottom or surface visible
All skills are to be performed within 30 degrees of horizontal trim and within 3 ft of buoyancy.
Skills were to be performed at 27 ft

For the *first* dive, we practice basic kicks (frog, modified frog, flutter, helicopter turn), then proceeded to the "basic 5" (reg removal/replace, reg removal/replace w/ switch to backup, reg removal and full deployment, mask flooding, mask removal and replacement). We then proceeded to do S-drills (OOA drills) and valve drills within the 3 man team.

Remember, all of these skills are done without moving up or down 3 ft in the water column, without moving more than 30 degrees of horizontal trim, without losing track of our only reference point (which was a piece of #24 cave line that had been run across the quarry), without the team separating by more than a few feet, etc, etc.

If you can do all this then I'd say you have the basic skills under control. Then by dives 3 & 4, we added liftbag deployment and ascents while a team member was OOA. Basically, the failures keep getting piled on.

And best of all...every moment is captured on video for your enjoyment during the evening review!

 

[The Fresh Prince]

Mastered, eh? Well, I haven't seen you in the water, so I'll take your word for it. But, after taking a DIR-F class, you might not be so sure that you have these skills so "mastered."

Here were the "rules" of DIR-F dive #1
60 ft to the bottom
self imposed 30 ft MOD...we are operating in mid water, with no bottom or surface visible
All skills are to be performed within 30 degrees of horizontal trim and within 3 ft of buoyancy.
Skills were to be performed at 27 ft

For the *first* dive, we practice basic kicks (frog, modified frog, flutter, helicopter turn), then proceeded to the "basic 5" (reg removal/replace, reg removal/replace w/ switch to backup, reg removal and full deployment, mask flooding, mask removal and replacement). We then proceeded to do S-drills (OOA drills) and valve drills within the 3 man team.

Remember, all of these skills are done without moving up or down 3 ft in the water column, without moving more than 30 degrees of horizontal trim, without losing track of our only reference point (which was a piece of #24 cave line that had been run across the quarry), without the team separating by more than a few feet, etc, etc.

If you can do all this then I'd say you have the basic skills under control. Then by dives 3 & 4, we added liftbag deployment and ascents while a team member was OOA. Basically, the failures keep getting piled on.

And best of all...every moment is captured on video for your enjoyment during the evening review!

Soggy, would love to see the diver who thinks they have it all "squared away" do it on video during DIR-F. The camera never prevaricates.

 

[jbd]

Soggy, would love to see the diver who thinks they have it all "squared away" do it on video during DIR-F. The camera never prevaricates.

So true and that blue finger of death that creeps into view and points out every little mistake just to make sure nobody misses it. Brando was awesome with this skill

 

[boomx5]

I live in Toronto and is there a DIR instructor in the area that anyone knows about. I'd like to talk with one ... One-on-0ne.

Thanks
MB

Here's the only GUE instructor (to my knowledge) that is in Canada.Dan MacKay If you have a hard time getting ahold of him, you can PM me and I'll get you the name and number of a couple more.

Good luck,

 

[Matthew]

"If you were my buddy and I were trying to convince you to take the class, I'd ask you to watch me in the water. I'd do S-drills with you and share air. I'd get close to the bottom and show you how my finning and trim keep me from disturbing the bottom. I'd show you how I don't need to hold a line to ascend in open water (well, I'm still working on some of this stuff, but you get the idea

)"

These are the skills scubascudadoo referred to when he said he has mastered those skills. I wonder why you guys find it so hard to believe that somebody could master such BASIC skills before DIRF. Nobody here is claiming mastery of the actual exercises to be done in the DIRF class, for sure it will not be easy if its the first time someone tries to do them.

 

[jonnythan]

Obviously it's possible to master all these skills before DIRF. The hard part is knowing exactly what you're doing wrong, and that's where DIRF helps. It's not magic or anything, it's just very good instruction with high quality feedback. There's nothing like having someone who *really* sees what's going on point out everything on a video.

I was just answering his question. Keep in mind there's more to the class than buoyancy and finning.. that's the beginning.

The reason we find it hard to believe that anyone has all of these skills mastered is that it's very easy to feel you're doing everything perfectly.. but when you have these guys showing you the video of yourself later, pointing out the little things.. it doesn't feel that way anymore. Lots of people think they have everything squared away perfectly and are rudely awakened by the class.

 

[grazie42]

Jonnythan said:

Nothing wrong with getting more familiar with equipment you plan on using on more serious dives.. and no reason to switch to something unfamiliar (single tank) for a 100 foot dive.

This is what I thought was a "tenet" of DIR. I´m not saying its a bad thing (thats one of the things that make most sense)...having to keep 4 configurations "current" ie single/double with wet/drysuit is a lot more "work" than just diving doubles dry all the time...but I guess I was wrong about that? you can alter your entire config between dives (as long as the whole team does it I suppose) and still be DIR?

What WJL said about gas management makes sense too but as a lot of my diving is whith "buddies of circumstance" calculating RMV for my buddy is near impossible (most people haven´t heard of the term at all). On serious ie decompression dives this will be dealt with during planning but for me, on a charterboat, that´s just not going to happen...

 

[jonnythan]

You absolutely can be DIR while altering your gear for the dive. In fact it's practicalyy necessary.

 

[Matthew]

Obviously it's possible to master all these skills before DIRF. The hard part is knowing exactly what you're doing wrong, and that's where DIRF helps. It's not magic or anything, it's just very good instruction with high quality feedback. There's nothing like having someone who *really* sees what's going on point out everything on a video.

This is also my impression of DIRF, although I have not taken the class.

I was just answering his question. Keep in mind there's more to the class than buoyancy and finning.. that's the beginning.

The reason we find it hard to believe that anyone has all of these skills mastered is that it's very easy to feel you're doing everything perfectly.. but when you have these guys showing you the video of yourself later, pointing out the little things.. it doesn't feel that way anymore. Lots of people think they have everything squared away perfectly and are rudely awakened by the class.

Yeah, and I think you answered his question well. I was actually reacting to other posts. He said he has mastered the skills you listed - OOA procedures, finning, buoyancy, ascending without a line - and I think nobody should wait until DIRF to try to master these things. I myself will not believe somebody who says he has mastered all the DIRF skills without taking the class, but nobody said that.

 

[scubascudadoo]

Mastered, eh? Well, I haven't seen you in the water, so I'll take your word for it. But, after taking a DIR-F class, you might not be so sure that you have these skills so "mastered."

Mastering to the DIR level maybe not...LOL...

I dove on the weekend with two friends I haven't seen in a while who took the DIR-F and are doing there TECH 1 in a couple of weekends.

After talking with them and watching them in the water they have definately improve dramatically since taking the course earily this year.

On the drive home after talking with them I have definately decide to take the DIR-F course in Kingston.

Listening to what you al had to say over the course of the thread helped

thanks