Value of the DIR approach

[rongoodman]

As for the original question, given what I saw in my first two(PADI) classes, I think the DIR approach would save beginning/recreational divers a lot time getting up to speed. I'll catch up with you guys eventually, but having a mentor like Lynn early on would be a wonderful thing. (Just out of curiosity Lynn, do you work with residents too?) As for this 34 page discussion, like most of other similar ones, I've many more shots taken at DIR divers than by them.

 

[djanni]

I didn't dive today either but I spent about 30 minutes reading (the manual is brief) and learning about my new Amoxtec O2EII Oxygen Analyzer.

Pretty cool. That time included picking the foam out of its Pelican case and into the void that was left behind, I carefully placed the Analyzer.

I've used them several times and I guess I could have put a few hours into trying to understand the inner working of the sensor but I didn't think I would gain much from doing that.

 

[PacketSniffer]

Well, I didn't dive today, but I spent the whole day learning about inspecting tanks, and it was eight hours well spent. Moral of the story (and for the thread also): Never stop learning.

I know the course you speak of. I took mine with Mark in Houston. It was worth every penny. I thought it was the most informative course I have taken in diving yet!

 

[David P]

don'tcha love the picture of the top of a rusty aluminum tank? Wait a minute aluminum doesn't rust...eeewww! PSI puts out a good class.

If a recreational diver is the diver that rents all gear, goes diving once every other year on vacation, silts up the bottom by sitting on their knees but doesn't know that it is a bad thing, has a huge brick dragging on the rocks, has their tank so far down on their back as it bangs the back of their knees, and is happy swimming through the water at a 45 degree angle... then DIR-F will do nothing for them. They are content just getting in the water and blowing bubbles. By the numbers, there are a LOT of divers that are not active, once every couple of years; wich makes these divers the "average" diver.

If the diver is already tech and doing hours of deco with numerous tanks, then again no DIR-f will do no nothing for them as they already have the training. Sure they might gain some knowledge from the TECH level GUE classes, but more likely they are happy with the training they already paid for.

I feel DIR/GUE fundies or above are classes best aimed at the diving enthusiast who is looking to better their diving abilities or maybe looking into tech diving.


I have always dove with a BP/W, the first time I got on a boat for my check out dives the skipper said "oh oh, your one of those DIR guys?" I didn't even know what the hell he was talking about and said so... Today I help out at the LDS and didn't even tell the boss/coworkers for a while that I took the class because they like to bad mouth it so much. "ooh your a dur diver now, do you have your long hose wrapped around your neck ?"(wich I hind funny because he actually its wrapped around your throat!) I hear so much anti-DIR, and GUE training is presumed to be DIR I generally do not say that I took this class unless I know someone is honestly intersted or has taken the class themselves. When I took the class I was a curious how egotistical the class was going to be (ala GI3) but to pleasure, the class was real down to earth and I have since met many GUE certified divers all of whom are nice quiet people. Now I wonder where the attitude originally came from (just a couple bad apples I guess). It seems to me their is more DIR bashing today than DIR Chest thumping....

 

[Jasonmh]

Whoever this group is, it is most certainly NOT anyone that has dove with you ... their loss I say...

Yes, but these kinds of statements are the kind that cause problems and mis-understanding:
" I feel that thre is an assumption among a group of people "
Note that he didn't say that anyone actually said ANYTHING like "you are a piece of crap" to him, he just FEELS that someone might be thinking that. So 6 months from now there will be another thread just like this one (there always is), where someone will say "Well I remember hearing that DIR divers were calling someone a piece of crap, what a bunch of jerks". And it keeps going, and going, and going...

 

[boulderjohn]

Whoever this group is, it is most certainly NOT anyone that has dove with you ... their loss I say...

Thanks, Tim. I enjoyed diving with you very much.

Wish you had been with me three days ago for the condescending conversation I had with someone (yes, a DIR grad) who clearly thought I was lucky to have survived my dive to the San Francisco Maru in Truk Lagoon because I did not do it his way. The fact that the way we did it was guided by professionals who have done that dive nearly every week for many years did not matter--they, too, were doing it wrong.

I don't know how much of "his way" was DIR and how much came from other tech training, but it is the attitude I am talking about. I don't feel small, inadequate, and abused easily--you have to make an effort. He made that effort.

Just as an example, I walked onto the boat with more than 1/3 of the gas left in my overfilled steel 112--enough for another hour in the water if I had needed it--but according to him I did not have enough gas for the dive. I should have had another full tank with me. The fact that there were safety divers with extra tanks in the water with us did not matter--I had to have it in my own possession.

 

[WesTexDiver]

:hijackedthread:

 

[Jason B]

Just as an example, I walked onto the boat with more than 1/3 of the gas left in my overfilled steel 112--enough for another hour in the water if I had needed it--but according to him I did not have enough gas for the dive. I should have had another full tank with me. The fact that there were safety divers with extra tanks in the water with us did not matter--I had to have it in my own possession.

Sounds like sound advice to me.

 

[Thalassamania]

Wish you had been with me three days ago for the condescending conversation I had with someone (yes, a DIR grad) who clearly thought I was lucky to have survived my dive to the San Francisco Maru in Truk Lagoon because I did not do it his way. The fact that the way we did it was guided by professionals who have done that dive nearly every week for many years did not matter--they, too, were doing it wrong.

This happens in all training programs. I can remember a female biological oceanography grad student who took my spring class, spent the summer doing field work and went through Asst. Team Leader training in the fall. The next spring, shortly after we started our spring course we went to a national dive show, she came up to me and said, "Are all these people divers?" I told yes they were. The she wanted to know could many of them pass their annual dive medical.

She'd never been around recreational divers and knew nothing about any diving or divers except what she'd learned/seen in our research program, not her fault ... my fault. I added some lecture time to talk about the various diving communities and what to expect. So cut the newbie DIR a little slack, he only knows what he's been taught and hopefully he'll learn in time.

 

[boulderjohn]

She'd never been around recreational divers and knew nothing about any diving or divers except what she'd learned/seen in our research program, not her fault ... my fault. I added some lecture time to talk about the various diving communities and what to expect. So cut the newbie DIR a little slack, he only knows what he's been taught and hopefully he'll learn in time.

Actually, he has been diving with different groups for many years. I have known him and dived with him for years. He was never like this before.