When has DIR training resulted in a "save"?

[headhunter]

At the suggestion of ghrousseau in another thread, I thought I would start a thread in which DIR divers could share situations in which DIR training has directly resulted in a "save". It could be a situation that you were personally involved with or one that has come to your attention.

Be specific, so that non-DIR divers can also follow along and learn more about why DIR divers think that this training is so important.

Remember, this forum is for a free exchange of ideas concerning DIR. However, The DIR forum is not the place to challenge DIR or the attitudes of it's proponents. Posts like that will be considered trolling and will be deleted or split from this thread and moved to a more appropriate forum.

That does not mean that you can't ask legitimate questions about the system. So, feel free to ask questions and followup questions for clarification, but just don't argue about it when you get the DIR answers.

Christian

 

[Meng_Tze]

I can share one instance: When doing our last dive on Fundies, in 4ft of vis (Hantu, Singapore) this happens:

Instructor comes over and shows me a 'failed valve' with bubbles streaming out. (I think he did this on purpose since I was him fiddling with the o-ring on the boat). He turns off his valve, drops his reg and gives me OOA sign. I deploy long hose and go to backup. The instructor hyper-ventilates and holds out my long hose back to me. I look at him with one big question mark on my face.....(at this point I have not sucked air from backup), I breath in.....and again....and again...no air, just water. I now grab the long hose back from him, purge and breath again.... We signal okay and he fins off to the other team to get some air (he has none remember).

What happened is that my mouth piece had come off of the backup reg and I was just sitting there in the water with a mouthpiece and a bungee.

At no time did I panic, or try to bolt to the surface. I was completely calm and pretty well in trim and kept bouyancy. I knew by now that there was plenty of air to go around. My buddy was also deployed by now.

We get the teams together and prepere to go up. I am now snagged up on his valve with my bungee of my left pocket. When he came over to show me the valve problem, I was just getting my spool out for shooting the bag. (he obviously waited for that moment to double task load me). So when he showed me OOA, I just dropped everything and attended to the situation. I never tought of my spool and bag hanging out. So when he instructed me to go to his right hand side, the bungee caught on his valve. I untangled it, he waited patiently and we went to the surface.


The debrief was simple: this is what can happen when one problem arrises...the next few just compound and you have to learn to manage all. Stay calm and keep your bouyancy, sort the problems out in sequence. But overall I was quite pleased with my extreme learning experience. Stay in trim, keep bouyancy and sort the problem out. Without the training and knowledge that all these issues can get sorted out under the water if you don't panic. I would have bolted to the surface previously. I honestly believe that this DIR skills and knowledge made me stay calm and in trim.

Another lesson I learned that day: fix your own equipment. The bungee had been put on by a shop member and he had not tightened it enough, this now lead to the 2nd stage to come away from the mouthpiece. Since that day, no one gets to put things on/together for me.

Hind sight is 20/20 they say, but only extreme learning experiences will teach you the in's an out's of the lessons that need to be learned. In some respect I am lucky to have had this experience since now I know what it REALLY feels like not being able to breathe under water. Buddies stay close and be aware of each other.

 

[hermosadive]

At the suggestion of ghrousseau in another thread, I thought I would start a thread in which DIR divers could share situations in which DIR training has directly resulted in a "save". It could be a situation that you were personally involved with or one that has come to your attention.

Christian, I know this isn't your intent, but a post like this come off sounding like a troll. Why must DIR fundamentals be justified by mesuring the merits with a "save"? I'm sure you will get posts claiming that "using a long hose helped a buddy by giving him space to calm down and sort out his gear issues, etc", but you'll also get replies like "the long hose got hooked by my buddy's inflator hose and it yanked the reg from my mouth as he swam away". Should threads be started asking people ot post situations where Padi or Naui specific training "saved" a dive?

I'm sure most of the people who knock the DIR concept have never tried to impliment any of the concept. Education through reading & training and implimenting the skills and techiques is the only true way a diver will ever be able to compare their present style of diving to DIR fundamentals. I hate seeing all this trival debate which make DIR theory look like some sort of radical "church of scientology".

If diver truely is interested in DIR, and takes time to educate, I'm confident there is some information to be learned that will benefit them, even if they don't fully embrace all of DIR's teachings. In the end though, they will just have to try it to see if its right for them. Maybe the best thing that could happen with this thread would be to see no DIR divers posting any sort of "save" information. If that was to happen I guess I could conclude the the DIR training must be great since there was no need to actually "save" a buddy.

For the record, I don't dive DIR, but I have implimented a number of the teachings that make sense and work for me in my present diving. I hope they continue to push forward.

 

[headhunter]

Christian, I know this isn't your intent, but a post like this come off sounding like a troll. Why must DIR fundamentals be justified by mesuring the merits with a "save"? I'm sure you will get posts claiming that "using a long hose helped a buddy by giving him space to calm down and sort out his gear issues, etc", but you'll also get replies like "the long hose got hooked by my buddy's inflator hose and it yanked the reg from my mouth as he swam away". Should threads be started asking people ot post situations where Padi or Naui specific training "saved" a dive?

I see where you are coming from and believe I understand where this thread could spin out of control. That's why I was very careful to state things in such a way in my original post that would show that the intent was not to wind up with a bunch of trolls and that in fact they would not be tolerated. If it spins out of control we can always lock it, but I feel that this won't be necessary.

I don't feel that DIR must be justified at all, but that it would be nice to have some real world examples where the DIR diver feels that it made a major difference.

Since this is the DIR forum, I think it is an appropriate topic here. I'd have no problem with someone starting the same kind of thread for PADI or NAUI with the same caveat that it will not be allowed to turn into an agency bashing session.

Christian

 

[Charlie99]

http://groups-beta.google.com/group...group:rec.scuba&rnum=1&hl=en#db3e3912e928661d

Andrew Georgitsis, GUE's Technical Training Director, saved a toxing diver during a GUE Tech 1 class.

(clarification of something orginially posted by Detroit Diver)

 

[lamont]

since a lot of GUEs methodologies are about preventing CFs before they happen, a better metric might be how many CF-free dives you've had where there was no need for a 'save'.

 

[Hank49]

a better metric might be how many CF-free dives you've had where there was no need for a 'save'.

??????? speak american.

 

[StSomewhere]

I agree with lamont. The single most compelling reason I've decided to go the DIR route is because they believe that the buddy system is paramount.

How many dive incidents turned into dive accidents because someone's "buddy" (or worse, "buddy group") wasn't aware enough to actually be available when they were most needed?

 

[hermosadive]

since a lot of GUEs methodologies are about preventing CFs before they happen, a better metric might be how many CF-free dives you've had where there was no need for a 'save'.

??????? speak american.

I'm on the same page with Lamont. One day Hank may understand, provided he wants to take the time.

 

[StSomewhere]

??????? speak american.

CF=Cluster____!