What sealed the deal on DIR-F for you?

[El Orans]

I am interested in the DIR philosophy to improve my diving.
I may not go out and change my entire gear this upcoming weekend (budget issues) but several principles I've heard so far seem worthwhile.

It will probably take some time before I have a BP/W but I am in no rush. If I do it all today, what would I do tomorrow?

 

[Hory]

I saw a bunch of guys doing some form of lesson. I asked what they were doing and the instructor told me it was DIR-F. Curious, I joined them for lunch and asked questions about it. 3 months later, I took the course. Been recommending it to all my diving officemates and friends since.

 

[FreeFloat]

Curiosity.

And I started out (after reading the book) wanting to see how I stacked up. I read the section on required skills and kept saying to myself "hey I can do that" and "I wonder if I can do that, never tried"

Incidentally as a freshly painted OW diver with like 3 dives under my belt the local shop already started giving me advice aimed toward the DIR-aspiring diver. What did you see in me Tom?

And like others, I was also dissatisfied with the loose lack of organization so inherent in recreational diving. Maybe my being military had something to do with it but I always viewed scuba as an activity where, in order to mitigate risk, you have to control as many variables as you can........ and just "let's jump in, swim around wherever til we get low on air, then come up" just didn't do it for me.

 

[FreeFloat]

There aren't stupid things dangling everywhere (see my profile photo).

Your what?

 

[PatH]

...because GUE made it a prerequisite for CAVE 1. Unfortunately my CAVE 1 plans for this winter didn't work out... well, there is still next year.

 

[ScubaDadMiami]

I am curious as to why divers on this board who took DIR-F decided to do so.

I think that one is not able to intelligently comment on something until first knowing about it. So to find out more about the whole thing, I decided to take the class and decide for myself about it.

 

[jumsted65]

Hi people,

The equipment drew me in. The people got me excited and have kept me interested.

I found myself several months ago, upon returning from a dive vacation, needing something more out of diving. I returned to find a gear discussion on another internet forum which is very much pro-DIR. Someone pointed out exactly what i hated about my scubapro classic bc, which I'd been wanting to replace for years, as if he was watching my every move. Didn't realize how uncomfortable I was until having it pointed out. The guy who was to be my buddy for DIR-F posted a message about an upcoming training. I did my homework, communicated with the instructor, and was enrolled in class before I knew it. It all happened very fast. I had a new rig, drysuit, and six weeks to prepare for class. Whew. I tell ya, it was WORK.

The gear configuration and training method made perfect sense. I needed to continue my education, and was dissatisfied with the teaching path I had previously chosen. DIR simply worked. It's helped me become a better diver, meet a new network of competent, like-minded buddies, and it's FUN.

That's it. It works. It makes sense. It's fun. Hopefully the philosophy will continue to help me grow as a diver and as a person.