Why do you dismiss DIR?

[Lost Yooper]

I've always been curious why some people, who know about DIR, and all of it's merits, don't adopt it. Some of you guys obviously know what DIR is and the enormous success it's had in the technical diving community. It has been a key part of the success the WKPP has had in doing dives that no other group has come close to. I mean, the WKPP has had a zero percent fatality rate since Irvine took over (9 years now?) and implemented his strict DIR philosophy. It seems clear to me that they have a system that really works.

What I don't understand, I guess, is that some people freely acknowledge the success and the merits of DIR, but knowingly and willingly choose not to adopt it for their own diving. DIR is a proven system used by a proven group of extreme divers in one of the most demanding environments possible. Most of us will never get to where these guys have gotten or do what they can do routinely.

What I am getting at is if DIR is good enough for those nutt cases, why isn't it good enough for you? What makes you think your system is better than theirs? I'm assuming you believe your system is better than theirs because we all strive to be the safest divers we can be, right? Do you think your system, though different, is equal to theirs regarding gear and philosophy? Do you think they haven't thought about other systems or tried other ideas and techniques? Do you believe you hold a higher level of expertise than the guys within the WKPP and, therefore, regard your own opinion as more worthy? Do you think DIR is not applicable to your diving environment? Does it come down to wanting to be an individual and figure out every last detail on your own and hope for the best? Is it because you were trained by an agency to do things another way, and you don't feel like relearning or buying new gear?

I'm not being argumentative here, but I have just never understood why people who know, and thoroughly understand DIR, choose to dismiss it. Putting attitude aside, why do you choose to dismiss DIR in it's entirety? Go ahead and be honest, because this has had me baffled for a long time.

Thanks.

Mike

PS. I understand the sidemount issues, and even the WKPP acknowledge the use of side mount for certain applications.

 

[Rick Murchison]

Well, in the first place, I wouldn't drive an Indy car in a motocross. Or use doubles full of trimix on a 40 foot patch reef. A sherman tank with rubber tires is safer than a sedan, but ain't necessarily the vehicle to drive to the local supermarket.
I'm leaving for Cayman in a couple of weeks; I'll take my little tropical "Explorer" BC with integrated inflator/second, my console mounted air integrated computer, my single buckle weightbelt and a snorkel to wear on my mask strap. None of these things qualify as DIR, but for the dives I'm planning they are safe, convenient, comfortable and minimal but adequate.
So, you see, I am following the DIR philosophy but leaving much of my "DIR" equipment back home for use where the dive dictates it.
Rick

 

[Lost Yooper]

OK, I understand that. Do you think that a single tank, harness/BP config, and regular octo style reg is over kill for a tropical reef diving? Do you think DIR is only applicable to technical dives? Why don't you buy into the idea that being similarly configured for all of your dives (as a matter of habit) is a good thing?

Again, just curious .

Mike

 

[MikeFerrara]

I don’t think I’ve disagreed with any single point of dir that I know of. But let me describe something we see all the time in a corporate environment. Someone takes a bunch of methods and tools that we have always had, packages them, gives them a new name (usually an acronym), then travel around making a fortune as a consultant. Part of the pitch is always a list of success stories that they attribute to their system. Sound familiar?

 

[Lost Yooper]

Hey Mike,

I agree, in part, that DIR is a compilation of stuff that has roots in other places other than the WKPP. However, it is the compilation that makes it DIR. Can you blame someone for making money selling a proven and safe system and it's components? I wish I could . That's capitalism. DIR was around prior to Halcyon, EE, and GUE (tools?).



Mike

 

[Rick Murchison]

OK, I understand that. Do you think that a single tank, harness/BP config, and regular octo style reg is over kill for a tropical reef diving? Do you think DIR is only applicable to technical dives? Why don't you buy into the idea that being similarly configured for all of your dives (as a matter of habit) is a good thing?

I don't like having to fool with a long hose on a boat or on a sandy beach. I don't like messing with a bungeed necklace and a snorkel on the same rig. I like using a computer on recreational dives. I like having my snorkel for goofing off on the surface, I don't like packing a backplate in a boat bag when I don't have to. I don't like four hoses when three will do. I am diving for fun, and when something detracts from that and adds no tangible benefit, I junk it. My rig packs into a boat bag half the size of a DIR rig and I like that. I know my gear and my buddy's gear and I even look around the boat to see if there's any gear I don't understand... it really isn't hard; there is some value in gear standardization - it may save me half a heartbeat in pre-dive planning, but with the investment of literally a few seconds pre-dive thought, I've got it covered...
I'm happy, I'm safe... I love every dive!
Rick

 

[jetblast00]

Originally posted by Lost Yooper
OK, I understand that. Do you think that a single tank, harness/BP config, and regular octo style reg is over kill for a tropical reef diving? Do you think DIR is only applicable to technical dives? Why don't you buy into the idea that being similarly configured for all of your dives (as a matter of habit) is a good thing?

Again, just curious .

Mike

I think that most non-DIR divers are probably doing recreational diving, and while DIR might be good or better, their setup is fine too (up to debate, yes, but for the most part it is). so why do the
LDS purchase --> ebay --> research --> BP/Wing
progression if step #1 is adiquite for the type of diving they do.

And I understand that true DIR is much more than gear config, but most non-DIR divers don't. and you don't nessecarily have to be the tip top shape to do modest recreational dives, although, yes, it helps.

I will admit, before I started diving doubles and really looking into DIR out of an environmental need, DIR really seemed like a marketing gimmik to sell Halcyon gear... I'm sure it appears that way to alot of other recreational divers who might have heard a little about DIR, and that makes it a turn off.

 

[Lost Yooper]

OK, I understand the recreational arguments, and I don't necessarily disagee with some of the points. Let's steer this one more towards the tech stuff, if that's OK.



Mike

 

[Ontario Diver]

LY;

I don't dismiss DIR. I look to it and want to learn from it. I appreciate its holestic approach, the focus on minimalization, the gear set up, the dive planning, and the standards that allow WKPP to execute such awesome dives. I see it as a set of techniques for extreme diving.

I'm also aware that such extreme diving calls for such extreme measures in order to be safe, and for that I have no end of respect for it.

I'm also aware that other pressures (Trg, experience, cash) prevent me from diving DIR at 100%, and I still wonder if I need to/should for the level of diving I am doing. But that is part of the learning experience. I know that I will become "more DIRish" because it makes too much sense. Gear that I purchase now, I purchase with an eye towards the basic precepts that I have picked up from this and other forums. (Still can't find a GUE course in Toronto tho )

Having (hopefully) - not exposed myself to flames; if I was to point out the one thing that as a new diver turns me away from DIR as a technique of diving - it is the attitude on BOTH sides of the DIR fence that wants to draw a "us vs them" mentality to the picture. Comments like "DIR-Nazi", "if you are not 100% DIR, you are not DIR", "Bungeed wings = death" and of course "IF you are not Doing It Right, don't do it." - well Mike, they don't help.

Honestly, I just want to stay away from the whole thing, but I realize that doing that will cut me off from a great deal of knowledge and experience.

As I understand, DIR starts with attitudes, concepts, planning, practices and ends up with a standard equipment profile. "Some" DIR people seem to feel that if you do not have the same equipment profile, than you do not share the same attitudes and concepts , therefore you are "dangerous" and thus a bad diver; (I think this is primarily due to the ego boost of belonging to an elite group). Others with a different equipment profile, resent the insinuation that they are a bad diver and react negatively to defend thier own egos. New divers trying to learn from both sides get caught in the middle.

BTW, these are theoritical divers and I am not suggesting that all divers of either ilk or any on this or any other board are exhibiting such behaviours.

George Irvine wrote a piece called "Do it Right, Or Don't Do it!" which has a line in it that I'd like to repeat

"... it is easy to lose sight of the basics, and the objective, which is to have fun...."

Hopefully, new divers (and more experienced divers) can learn from DIR, and some of the DIR -Nazis can re-learn from the new folks just how much fun this sport is.

My .02

I will now go back to lurking on all of the DIR discussions.....

 

[MikeFerrara]

I was told in a phone conversation with JJ that DIR is a protected name. The conversation was in regard to a class I wanted to teach designed to introduce my students to the Hogarthian config (and methods) and its merits. Many tech instructors are already teaching this stuff. I was looking for a way to introduce it to rec divers. JJ said that they routinly helped instructors introduce these methods to their students (and offered to do so) but the term DIR could not be used. Therefor to teach DIR you must be GUE. Check out the IANTD Technical Diver Encycopedia. There is a section where JJ shows and talks about a holistic system (Hogarthian). Also look at the NACD cave diving manual for their recomendations on equipment configurations. How do you really distinguish DIR from non-DIR? GUE and the WKPP are DIR. everyone else is not. I learn what I can where I can.