to have fun....or not?

[sheck33]

i was doing a skills dive yesterday, no mask, airshare, kicks, the usual. Nice 48 min dive and we even saw the big octo.

after the dive i end up talking briefly with a i-have-been-an-instructor-for-400-years-with-200-agency's kinda guy.
Dont get me wrong, he was nice although we disagreed on pretty much everything.
Before he left he made a comment that made me wonder.
he said: DIR takes the fun out of diving. i assume he meant that raising the bar takes the fun out of it.

personally i have welcomed the challenge of raising the bar and i have had more fun than ever. all DIR divers i personally know seem to be having plenty of fun.

so, my question: it takes the fun out of diving for whom ?

for the DIR diver or others that maybe are unable or, more likely, unwilling to raise the bar? what do you guys/girls think.

 

[ScottyK]

From your description of his personality, I would say that DIR is taking all the fun out of him being able to tell everyone how to dive.

 

[MikeFerrara]

DIR aside, because I'm not, raising the bar makes diving more fun especially for new divers. I say this because I see new divers strugling through their dives staying busy just surviving and afraid to leave the divemasters side and I see other new divers hover there effortlessly wondering if they should step in and help. Guess who's having more fun diving.

I guess you have to expect some resistance when you're telling some one they've been doing it wrong for a long time. It's a hard thing to admit.

 

[sheck33]

MikeFerrara once bubbled...
DIR aside, because I'm not, raising the bar makes diving more fun especially for new divers. I say this because I see new divers strugling through their dives staying busy just surviving and afraid to leave the divemasters side and I see other new divers hover there effortlessly wondering if they should step in and help. Guess who's having more fun diving.

I guess you have to expect some resistance when you're telling some one they've been doing it wrong for a long time. It's a hard thing to admit.

oh but believe it or not when i just started talking to him i didnt even know his background, he brought it up when he looked at my gear , not me. this time i am innocent i swear

 

[detroit diver]

Sheck,

I've heard the same thing for a long time. To reitterate what Mike said, the skills learned in DIR make diving a much more pleasureable experience. If you're stuggling to maintain your bouyancy, or you're working hard to move, turn, etc, you are being distracted from whatever you are there to see/do.

If you've raised your training level to a point where the skills are automatic, then everything else is for enjoyment. And fun.

 

[Wendy]

I think I might understand what he meant.

I dive DIR. I know that its important to practice skills, I do OOA drills on every dive at some point. A lot of my DIR buddies practice skills alot too, OOA, OOM, valve drills, etc. But sometimes I just want to do what we call "****-up-and-dive". That's a dive where we just dive, no drills every 5 mins. Practicing drills and skills on every dive was sucking the fun out of the dive for me. I guess since I spent 2 years training and diving I am just at a point where I want to dive (DIR) and have fun, while a lot of my buddies are still training and furthering their diving into areas that I am not interested in.

So I guess that this instructor is under the impression that all DIR dives are about training all of the time and figures what fun is it to be training all of the time and not diving to enjoy the scenery type of thing. I've just learned to not focus so much on the training portion, but to still have fun.

 

[cornfed]

As several people have pointed out, once the bar has been raise diving will be more fun because you can enjoy the dive instead of worrying about bouyancy, etc. The lack of fun centers around getting the bar raised.

I probably spend as much time at the local quarry as I do in the ocean. Because of this I tend to practice a lot at the quarry so everything runs smoothly when I get do the the chance to go offshore. I get frustrated when I have to call a dive because of something my buddy and I could have straightened out in 15 minutes at the quarry.

Cornfed

 

[detroit diver]

Wendy,

OOM?? Out of money?

I do that drill every day!!

 

[Dyno Bill]

Wendy, it sounds like there's hope for you. All kidding aside I for one am not DIR. Not saying that its a bad style of diving to follow but out here we dont have caves, we have kelp and it might even be as much fun as caving. The wonder of a heavy canopy allowing only shards of light to penetrate into the forest as it were. Its something you just have to experiance to understand. As far as skills go, I even do drills every time I start a dive day and I stay in touch with my abilities with esa's but that takes 5 minutes and its off to the kelp forest.
Bill...Dive Safe

 

[Wendy]

detroit diver once bubbled...
Wendy,

OOM?? Out of money?

I do that drill every day!!

Yes, I'm often out of money, but in this case OOM is Out of Mask.