xiSkiGuy:
I just finished reading Jarrod Jablonski's Doing It Right: The Fundamentals of Better Diving. What is all the fuss about? If this is the basic textbook and blueprint to the DIR philosophy of diving, why are so many people upset with DIR?
I didn't come away from reading the book sensing any holier-than-thou attitude on the part of the author. Did I miss the chapter on str*kes? All I found was some well thought out reasoning for certain gear configurations and techniques. Hell, as I read it, JJ did even say computers were *that* bad, just that their introduction had prompted many people to stop teaching/questioning tables and deco theory. I took it that computers were more of a symptom of the "dumbing down" of scuba instruction in general than an evil unto themselves.
The discussion gear configuration wasn't even as "inflexible" is many had lead me to believe (although I didn't quite agree with the bondage wing" discussion).
I wish there had been a little more info about the team approach and DIR buddy system. I guess they have to leave some stuff for the class. Where is the closest place to NC to take a Fundies course?
Well....
Elitism and arrogance are as primary to human nature as greed and violence. Unfortunately for DIR, many of it's most fervent followers (and some of their leaders!) see (saw?) themselves as the inventors of diving as opposed to the obvious, which is that DIR was simply a long over-due summary of what we know works....
JJ (who I don't know personally other than a few exchanges on the internet) almost invariably comes across as a balanced reasonable person who respects others (that's not to say he's an angel, as we all know.......). But others were less gracious. Less socially adept, less accepting of dissension...... the backdrop of the discussion became overshadowed by the two grand masters of DIR....the Yin and Yang of diving world. The balanced and the unbalanced....
Unfortunately for all of us, what goes around comes around and elitism and arrogance is not limited to those who think of themselves as the torch bearers of diving wisdom, but is also the weakness of those who feel threatened, challenged and insulted by some of the changes suggested (mandated) by the DIR paradigm.
And so ensues the fight.....the war.....the pitting of change against resistance, paradigm against prejudice, principle against practice....
And the war was not pretty. There were no innocent victims; most of use chose a side, a loyalty.... and the throwing of the first stone began on many fronts.... brothers and sisters united in a unique and shared passion were divided by our standpoints. Discussions became heated, then overheated and melted down....Death threats were made, hatred was grown and aversion coddled until the camps stabilized and the enemy could be identified by the length of their hose, their choice of gear, and the colour of their mask skirt.... On two sides. Nobody innocent....nobody guilty....few willing to take responsibility.... and a precious few willing to make amends.... Some have never grown beyond this common shame.
10 years ago this was the state of the DIR discussion and that's the context in which a book that seems obvious when you read it today started to take shape. Things that seem like simple observations now would have been taken like hammer blows when Jablonski was putting his ideas to paper. A suggestion in 2006 would have been taken as proof of arrogance in 1996.
In 1996 a post like this would have gotten me lynched. Today it probably won't even be moderated.....
So that's your context.
R..
