The "other" end of the DIR question

[Spectre]

The issue, IMHO, is that too many people focus on the 'what' and not the 'why'. If you look beyond the what and listen to, or ask, the why for each recommendation, and aim to truly understand the reasoning, you will see that the claims of DIR as a marketing ploy for Halcyon are laughable.

 

[OneBrightGator]

Too many people with the cotton in their ears instead of their mouths? Never...

Ben

 

[gj62]

JJ says, "...GUE and Halcyon strive in very different ways to facilitate divers who wish to dive in a DIR manner. That has and always will be the case. Other groups now seeking to capitalize on our efforts are simply profit-seeking in a niche they poorly understand.

Michael, JJ has always been upfront about it. However,the statement above pointedly illustrates the idea that it is difficult for *anyone* to be truly non-biased where they are so closely involved.

Unless I misread the plain english, he is saying that other groups (than Halcyon) are the pofit-seeking bad guys and nobody else understands DIR... Let me know if I read this wrong...

 

[LioKai]

Question for the DIR:
The only way for the non-DIR to BEGIN to understand you, we need your help with some information.

Other than gear configurations, please give a few examples of techniques and or specific information, that makes DIR training worth the effort.

My point of view is not one of laziness in respect to training, rather of time management in reference to training. IE, I don't understand why to DIR, therefore I am not interested. Please help us to understand your point of view.

MHK, I like the level of professionalism in your posts, and I am hoping that you will be one of the DIR to respond.

Matthew

 

[H2Andy]

try this link for a good summary of DIR principles:

http://www.dirquest.com/about_dir.shtml

 

[MHK]

Michael, JJ has always been upfront about it. However,the statement above pointedly illustrates the idea that it is difficult for *anyone* to be truly non-biased where they are so closely involved.

Unless I misread the plain english, he is saying that other groups (than Halcyon) are the pofit-seeking bad guys and nobody else understands DIR... Let me know if I read this wrong...

I'm confident in saying that what JJ is referring to in that point is the fact that initially [ read that as prior to Halcyon's existence] JJ tried to work with several prominent gear manufacturer's to produce gear to the specifics of what Halcyon is now producing. Several, at the time, saw no marketplace and little profit incentive so they passed on many of the ideas. Accordingly, now that many of us have done the hard work to educate divers in the benefits associated with these design concepts many of those manufacturer's are jumping on the band-wagon. Obviously in a capitalistic marketplace that is to be expected, but I suspect his point is two-fold, they aren't doing it as well, and they lack the same appreciation and understanding for the marketplace so it's more of an after thought then a core belief.

Hope that helps.

 

[IndigoBlue]

IB - I think I'm going to call you Indigo Bunny from now on. As in the Energizer Bunny - you just keep going, and going, and going...

You remind me of one of those children's toys - the inflatable clown with the dorky grin. Even though you keep getting punched in the face, you still show up, look stupid, and get hit again. Eventually, if I were you, I'd stay down, but no... for whatever reason, you just have a pathological need to provoke people... on stuff you clearly know nothing about.

It's amusing, really. How much cave diving have you done lately? I would be willing to bet VERY good money that it's less than Chickdiver.

It is a total mystery to me that Uncle Pug allows you to post, with your attitude and your rude comments.

 

[MHK]

Question for the DIR:
The only way for the non-DIR to BEGIN to understand you, we need your help with some information.

Other than gear configurations, please give a few examples of techniques and or specific information, that makes DIR training worth the effort.

MHK, I like the level of professionalism in your posts, and I am hoping that you will be one of the DIR to respond.

Matthew

Let me provide a brief over view, and I suspect if you do a search or check the DIR forum you'll see that we've covered this over the years in great detail. In fact, we taught several classes in Kona, so I'm just looking for another reason to come back ;-)

Essentially DIR, and by extension GUE, was created to cater to a diver that isn't willing to accept mediocrity in training and is fed up with classes that don't challenge a diver inasmuch as they positively reinforce the status quo. Most divers that take OW or even AOW training for that matter, lack fundamental skills of bouyancy, balance, trim, propulsion techniques and so on, but yet these diver's are "passed" and "certified" only to be offered a continuing education class to supplement what we believe shoudl have been taught in the first place. Now that being said, I acknowledge that this is an over sweeping generality and that there are many quality instructors from a wide variety of agencies available, but I doubt many will challenege the idea that training has been dilluted over the last 5 or 10 years. Faster, shorter classes catering to the vacation diving market are commonplace, and you see now where students need never meet with an instructor for the academic portion of the class and can do it via telephone or internet. That is a direction that GUE was created to combat. We believe that more training and education is needed, not less. We recognize that many may well in fact appreciate a class where you can do the academics over the telephone, but we also realize that there are a class of diver's out there that want more challenging training, that want more stringent standards and that expect more from their instructors. In short there are many intangibles that we hope set us apart from the rest, and we fully appreciate that we will always be a small and elite organization that will never cater to the masses. If that trend did happen, which I'm confident in GUE leadership will never, but if it did I'm sure you'd see a mass exidous from the current instructor corps. But that's a hypothetical to far stretched to imagine. Jarrod resists compromise more strongly then anyone I've ever encountered, so I have great faith in his leadership abilities.

In any event check www.gue.com or e-mail me at mhk@gue.com or do a search and I suspect you'll have more info then you'll have time to digest. I'm heading out for the weekend so I won't be able to respond until Monday so have a good weekend everyone.

Regards

 

[LioKai]

Aloha H2Andy!
I liked what I read. I already do about 90% of what is written on that page. In fact, the only differences are that my 6 foot hose is attached to my octo instead of my primary and is flat wrapped and attached to the thorac strap on my harness. The REASON given for having the primary on the long hose was a good one, and that was the kind of answer from DIR that I was looking for. I don't think that reason is a good enough reason to willingly wrap a hose my neck, but it is a good reason just the same. (Do you really concider that hose configuration to be safer than NOT having it around your neck?) I realize that the linkpage is only the first page of what is likely a book of information. That being said, please give another example. And thank you for the quick reply.
Matthew

 

[H2Andy]

ah, well... i'm not DIR, and besides, i think MHK did a great job just now...

so i'll leave it at that