What does DIR mean?

[gotwake]

Yawn...... I'm just waiting for my Whites Fusion Special Edition drysuit to arrive on Thursday. It's all black...... sweet, I'm DIR

 

[DA Aquamaster]

But it gets pushed to the level of absurdity by some of the DIR forum members. I recall suggesting to you that glueing a small neoprene "nose block" might make "hands free" ear clearing easier...

...and being roundly thrashed because that was not "DIR" and because I was suggesting an "equipment solution to your skill problem." ...

...It was not until a "GUE God" stepped and proclaimed it alright, that the rabid DIR claque sheepishly backed off...

...In the interest of ideological purity I started a new thread in a different forum for that suggestion, but somehow that seemed incredibly inefficient.

That is largely my point as well.

If you suggest even a slight modification to DIR, it is likely to be viewed as "wrong" (at least on the internet) simply because it was not DIR with no willingness to discuss it on its own merits.

I suggested at one point that a Jon line made more sense than than a spool in some off shore conditions, supported by a death from AGE where the lack of a Jon line was a contrbuting factor. The responses included all sorts of implausible but apparently more DIR suggestions like scootering the deco.

What does not impress me about DIR is how many DIR adherants are unable to articulate why something is done a particular way - just that an instructor, a book or one of the DIR inner circle say so. I have trouble buying a concept that has such a havy reliance on an authoritarian model rather than placing more value on dicussion among thinking divers.

 

[Thalassamania]

That's just group mentality. It doesn't matter what the group is you will find incidents of that at times with any group. If I were to go to a forum for scientific divers and suggest that something they were doing was wrong most would jump on that post in a negative way without thinking and a few would address it on the merits. It's just human nature in a group setting.

Hardly, the scientific diving community does not have a bible, or a catechism, or any sort of "group mentality," beyond general agreement as to what the skill performance level of candidates for diving duty should look like. That is to say they should be proficient divers.

 

[JeffG]

I revel, nay, I glory in the term STROKE! Apply George Irvine's (negative) term to me any day.

Ahhh...you are an unsafe diver. Good to know.

I'm proud to have my name listed amongst those who cave dive with procedures and gear configuration other then those espoused by DIR.

Oh...You don't understand what it means. That may explain some things.

You'll notice above I haven't said anything negative about the procedures DIR practitioners use.

True...you just take pot shots at the practitioners themselves.

Says more about you than them.

 

[Thalassamania]

...
What does not impress me about DIR is how many DIR adherants are unable to articulate why something is done a particular way - just that an instructor, a book or one of the DIR inner circle say so. I have trouble buying a concept that has such a havy reliance on an authoritarian model rather than placing more value on dicussion among thinking divers.

I would like to note that I have found the "DIR inner circle" quite happy to discuss, consider and even change based on thoughtful discussion.

 

[Teamcasa]

Safety in diving has to do with preparedness for when things DO go wrong. It's measured during a dive, not after.

I agree, to a point.
Safety is evaluated after a dive. For the most part, an uneventful dive needs little evaluation post dive. However, a dive that ended in a fatality will get evaluated and scrutinized down to the smallest detail.

I guess the question is why is DIR/GUE so strict? The answer is simple. If you are diving in some deep dark cave, thousands of feet from safety, where the difference between life and death is training, preparedness and a reliance on proven methods then DIR/GUE works. However, the problem and attitudes goes haywire when you take that cave diver mindset to the normal recreational diver, having a fun dive on a local reef.

Sure a DIR/GUE diver can indeed safely dive a warm water reef all decked out in thier standardized gear. But so can a recreational diver. The opposite is not true.

For me, I like recreational diving. I have zero interest diving into a deep cave or poke around in some old sunken engine room.
I have no intertest diving anywhere where the smallest oh no.. moment could cost me or my buddys life. I have a great deal of admiration and respect for those who do, it just not for me.

Having said that, I do like some of the tech concepts but I also chose to reject others as unnecessary for my diving style. I just don't see any point in branding someone a stroke because they use a 40" hose, coventional octo, air intergrated computer and splitfins when diving their local dive park or reef.

 

[JeffG]

That is largely my point as well.

If you suggest even a slight modification to DIR, it is likely to be viewed as "wrong" (at least on the internet) simply because it was not DIR with no willingness to discuss it on its own merits.

I suggested at one point that a Jon line made more sense than than a spool in some off shore conditions, supported by a death from AGE where the lack of a Jon line was a contrbuting factor. The responses included all sorts of implausible but apparently more DIR suggestions like scootering the deco.

There is one phenomenon that I see over and over. (and no "real" solution for either)

is territorial tunnel vision.

Different water conditions (or even boat procedures) will/can dictate different "diving" procedures.

unless you seen them all, its tough to comment. But that never stops people on the internet. But since there is supposed to be one "DIR" out there...there should be one stop shopping for an answer....right? LOL

What does not impress me about DIR is how many DIR adherants are unable to articulate why something is done a particular way - just that an instructor, a book or one of the DIR inner circle say so. I have trouble buying a concept that has such a havy reliance on an authoritarian model rather than placing more value on dicussion among thinking divers.

Even just talk about technical diving in general has that problem. How many comments come from people that only have learned about it on the internet?

 

[Nemrod]

Thanks for a perfectly "lucid" account of what DIR is *not*. You've got to love those who pontificate on matters they know nothing about... Oh the joys of internet experts.

Thanks, you are welcome there Mr. Internet Expert. Is it possible to do it half right? DIR/2 or like that? Better go make sure your bolt snaps are guru approved, you might not be in compliance with the heard. Yawn, wake me up when it is all over.

N

 

[Reg Braithwaite]

I'm going to have to go ahead and, unh, ask everyone to come on in on Saturday and write an essay about Internet culture. It bears repeating that in a semi-anonymous forum like this with zero face to face contact, people behave much more aggressively than they do in "real life."

In addition, if we are talking about a large group of people, it is difficult to draw generalizations about everyone just from those who post on the Internet. It is especially difficult to draw generalizations from those who post frequently on the Internet.

I guess what I am saying is that if we are discussing the Internet behaviour of people who self-identify as DIR divers, we should remember that it may not represent the"real life" attitudes of people who self-identify as DIR divers.

 

[JeffG]

Is it possible to do it half right? DIR/2 or like that?

Nope. Either Do It Right or don't do it at all.

Better go make sure your bolt snaps are guru approved, you might not be in compliance with the heard.

N

Use the right tool for the right job. Get it right the first time. Thats what DIR is all about. LOL