What does DIR mean?

[Thalassamania]

Hey guys, we're getting a little close to the line here. Can we turn the personal stuff down a notch?

 

[Gombessa]

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.

I don't think DIR practitioners do this, at least not to any degree greater than divers in the general population.

Also, read JeffG's post above. The S-word doesn't mean "non-DIR." It means someone who dives with an unsafe attitude. The vast majority of divers I know use splits, snorkels, 40" hoses, computers and Air2s, and none of the local DIR divers think of them as strokes.

The guy I ran into who went from shop to shop trying to book a dive in the morning in time to catch a cross-country flight in the afternoon, now that's a different story. I have no idea if he had a 40" hose, conventional octo, air integrated computer and splitfins though.

 

[JeffG]

Hey guys, we're getting a little close to the line here. Can we turn the personal stuff down a notch?

buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuttttttttttttttttttttt.......its fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnnn

 

[Thalassamania]

Yes ... it's funny. But it's in "Basic Scuba" with a special set of rules.

Do It Right - Take it to the Pub!

 

[letterboy]

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

It's herd, and don't you know diving anything thats not stainless WILL KILL YOU!!!!



I swear to god, this one time I heard this one guy talking to this other guy about this boat he was on where this one guy had a brass bolt snap and he got the bends because of that bolt snap. I was like OMG, I can't believe I just heard about this guys friend who heard it from the other guys gas pump operator guy at the Exxon in South Beach.

 

[Reg Braithwaite]

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.

Can you expand on how "training, preparedness and a reliance on proven methods" goes haywire when having a fun dive on a local reef?

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.

I have never observed this. What I have done is read an explanation for the term "stroke" attributed to Parker Turner. The gist was that a stroke was someone who was trying to stroke Parker's (and possible his own) ego by boasting of his accomplishments and skills.

My impression of the DIR community is that if I say to them, "I don't know what I don't know," they have little to say in criticism. But if I say, "I am an expert, I know what I'm doing, blah blah my dive on the Forest City using a 40" hose, conventional octo, an Suunto computer, blah blah," then the term may get bandied about.

 

[Blackwood]

Hey guys, we're getting a little close to the line here. Can we turn the personal stuff down a notch?

It's perhaps more appropriate to move the line.

I guess the question is why is DIR/GUE so strict?

Because standardization is a keystone to the "DIR" philosophy.

Either you are standardized or you aren't, hence the strict view of things like communications, team roles, planning, preparation, procedures and gear.

I like to think of the term "DIR" as a briefing. It tells me (assuming both parties have the same understanding, which the internet clearly belies) how everything related to a dive will be conducted. I'll know how their gear is set up. I'll know how to communicate with them. I know what kind of pre-dive checks we'll do, and exactly what to look for. I'll know how we'll handle deco. etc., etc.. Does it matter a whole heck of a lot if someone says "I don't dive DIR." No. But "I do dive DIR" greatly simplifies things.







That said, as I've suggested elsewhere, such strictness isn't exclusive to GUE training. Take PADI, for example. The way the world learns to dive is with right-hand-release, octo in the golden triangle, snorkel on the left, reg in from the right, etc.. After training, they are welcome to re-configure their gear to personal taste. The same is true with GUE.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

The system is a highly standardized one, because standardization brings some significant strengths to any system. But it is neither completely rigid nor fossilized, as the people who teach it are actively engaged in exploration and research diving, and they change things when they see something better.

I've read numerous articles and reports on exploration dives by DIR divers. What can you say when JJ or one of the other inner circle members talks about how they were outside the parameters of the plan and basic safety rules accepted by the entire cave community, but that they pushed on because laying a few hundred more feet of line was worth the risk? After that kind of casual dismissal of a total lapse of discipline regarding basic safety rules and dive planning, why would I want to accept their judgement on what is right, effective or even prudent in my cave diving?

 

[Nemrod]

Internet scuba DIR expert, pull that scooter over sir, you are doing it wrong!

Seriously, it is all good, what ever floats your boat.

N

 

[Blackwood]

After that kind of casual dismissal of a total lapse of discipline regarding basic safety rules and dive planning, why would I want to accept their judgement on what is right, effective or even prudent in my cave diving?

Same way you accept your parents, teachers, bosses, and politicians (that one's a joke, by the way) when they say to you "Do As I Say, Not As I Do."