What can DIR teach me about dive planning?

[rivertanker]

Hi everyone!
I am new here but have been diving all my life.
My buddy and I, (together- since they landed on the moon!), were looking at the GUE site and thought "Hey that's not such a bad idea! We could even use that! Look at how streamlined he looks! We have seen so many trends come and go. Many are comercialy driven, some are just fashion, but when it seem better, then they deserve a look.

Dive planning has been a major reason we have survived this long. "Plan the dive - dive the plan". Simple, but "lets just go in and dive to the bottom until our air runs low, then surface." is NOT a plan. So we belive in planning and disaster contingency. If this is the right forum, I would like to ask some DIR questions.

Now, at the risk of awakening some of the firebreathing dragons who seem to lurk around DIR forums...and
if you'r sensitive or irritable or Irish (image of a red faced guy in a cowboy hat, with a cigar in his mouth and a beer in one hand, typing furiously somewhere on a beach in Australia!!!!!) hehehe.

I have a question.

What can DIR teach me about dive planning?

Now pleasseee! I dont want to start a war or get flamed by anyone, this is only for people who know and practise good diving. We dont care about politics or the length of your hose (figuratively speakin). Just the facts please.

Our context:
-We have been dive buddies for ever (respect, trust, love, in that order - if needed, each would take a hit for the other - some may understand this.)
-We tend to dive in poor vis and cold water. (Drysuit, easy to lose contact. Buddy system must work!)
-We dive in mountain lakes and raging rivers, often below dam sluice gates or rushing waterfalls. (altitude procedures, specialists in extreme curent diving.)
- We sometimes dive deep in mt. lakes. (For us that means 90'. My N. narcosis limit is about 90 to 110' (and getting shallower as I age!)
-We are getting old. (Technology far exceeds our physical limitations. We have the gear but our bodies are definitly limiting us. We plan to adapt new procedure to compensate for being aging divers) (p.s. why are there not more threads on older divers? ... anyway)
- We are older divers so we rely less on technologies and more on procedures that have worked for decades. (eg. spg., compass, depth. KISS works for us! Got a computer but don't trust it in the weird environments we sometimes dive in. eg. the plunge pool of a waterfall, or in 4' up at the lip!)
- We may have to stay down for hours while in 12', with tanks being brought in relays. (Handling gear in high current.)
- It is just the two of us , often in remote locations.(no medivac, no going back for gear, usualy 1 window per day.)
- The bears keep eating our gear!

There you have it in a long post. Thanks everyone for indulging a non techieee.

 

[PfcAJ]

Welcome to SB and the DIR forum. I'm sure that if you look aound a bit, you'll see that there is alot to learn from alot of qualified people, and alot to ignore from firebreathing dragons.

As im sure you've read, DIR is all about saftey while diving. For dive planning, as you specifically mentioned, a DIR-F class will teach you about concepts such as rock bottom, usable gas, minimum deco and gas sharing, in addition to a standard pre-dive plan outlined in basic open water. It expands on what you already know, and throws some completely new stuff in the mix. I highly recommend taking this class. The benefits you will reap from 3 days cannot be expressed in words.

From what you've said, it looks like you already have a good dive buddy. The DIR style will only make your diving easier, more fun and safer.

Check out DIRExplorers (another forum). There is alot of good info there and some people from Canada that might be able to help you out some.

 

[rivertanker]

I specificly meant does DIR teach procedures for handling emergencies that are different from standard
(say BSAC tech diver) training? Since the equiptment is highly thought throug, I would expect the procedures are as well.

As an example, medical emergency with stage decom stops still ahead, assuming surface support.

 

[DiverBuoy]

Nice try, take the class <grin> or Read my DIR-F trip report.

 

[Peo]

I specificly meant does DIR teach procedures for handling emergencies that are different from standard
(say BSAC tech diver) training? Since the equiptment is highly thought throug, I would expect the procedures are as well.

As an example, medical emergency with stage decom stops still ahead, assuming surface support.

I don't know how much of your latter example that will be covered in a Fundies class; but these are definitely areas where the DIR way of looking at things have a - sometimes drastically - different view than much of the rest of the tech diving ballpark. Much of this will be covered in your Tech 1 and Tech 2 classes, and much will also depend on how eager you are to learn these things; it's a two-way communication during a GUE class.

That said, GUE training is very much about turning on your brain. The fundamental skills are laid out as procedural knowledge, where you try to train your body to react out of "muscle memory" for such things as air shares of valve failures. The overall objective of this is to both make sure these things are dealt with without further compounding the situation, but also to minimize the load on your brain to deal with this particular issue to make it easier to at the same time keep an open eye to the whole picture -- what ELSE is going on around you!?

Once you adopt the DIR mentality in your dive planning, much of the things such as when you need support divers and what they should be doing comes naturally. This isn't taught like a procedure where "if you go deeper than this, you need support divers" but rather aims to turn on your brain so that it's very clear to you how you decide upon these things for yourself. So I'd say these things are very much covered, but perhaps not in as much "here are the procedural steps" as you'd think.

From what I've read in your post, I'm guessing that you'll probably -- just as almost anyone else -- learn a few really good things in a fundamentals class, but I think some questions you have will be left unanswered in that class. You should really try to go through Fundies and head for Tech 1.

I hope that helps.

 

[StSomewhere]

The deal with DIR is there are no shortcuts. What you are looking at is what? Tech 1? Tech 2? And you'd have to pass fundies first.

 

[Rick Inman]

What can DIR teach me about dive planning?

Hey! Welcome to the board! My other obsession is fly fishing, which I take it from your very Nick Lyon-ish self-description is something you enjoy as well. Ya know, it's cheating to dive a pool before you fish it. I know. I've done it several times.

MHO:

As to DIR dive planing, it may seem like you are getting somewhat vague answers (like, "take the class"). The reason is because it's more than just, do A, B and C. It's a pre-dive plan that works in unison with several holistic ingredients, including unique team-diving concepts, compatible skill sets and a standardized equipment configuration. Even the dive plan is one small part of a whole that looses it's meaning without the entirety.

It would be a disservice to the DIR concept to answer your question by simply saying, do this, this and this. Although some my try, and their answers may be like describing the taste of a donut by giving you the brand of flour.

So, don't get frustrated and misinterpret the comments as snubbing (as some have).

Take the class,

Again, welcome!

 

[rivertanker]

Take the class huh? Yeah I am already planning it. First a DIR fundamentals class then well see. Of course there are no snap answers but as someone said - nice try. But here is a new thought (only for me), DIR gets lots of discussion in terms of equiptment but much less in trems of procedur... opps sorry - philosophy and outlook. Dont you guys find that equiptment gets 90% of the air time while the ideas get the rest?
p.s. I seem to be hijacking this thread here...

 

[RTodd]

Take the class huh? Yeah I am already planning it. First a DIR fundamentals class then well see. Of course there are no snap answers but as someone said - nice try. But here is a new thought (only for me), DIR gets lots of discussion in terms of equiptment but much less in trems of procedur... opps sorry - philosophy and outlook. Dont you guys find that equiptment gets 90% of the air time while the ideas get the rest?
p.s. I seem to be hijacking this thread here...

The reason is that equipment is easy to discuss. There are very few people that actually understand the philosophy part well enough to explain it and doing it via a message board would be painful.

 

[rivertanker]

... doing it via a message board would be painful.

Well yes, gear is the easy part, I agree. Maybe incident description would be the way to go.

"There we were, diving according to how we were trained (lets call it DIR), and Charlie decided just then to pass out (or blow an o ring or whatever), all this while we were deep in a cave approaching our turnarround point ... Here is what we did to handle it succesfully... "

Having said that, this board is probably full if I search. But I mean incidents where DIR specificaly worked.

I use this board as an educational tool. (probably the whole point), so why not discuss the merrits of different philosophies as well as gear?

Oh - and I see you are in Cairns =sorry about the redneck thing, everyone knows what Cairns is really famous for.... hehehe

hmmm Australia. Summer there, warm, girls, cold beer.... sorry! started to gray out there for a moment...