Why do you dismiss DIR?

[Dee]

Originally posted by Rick Murchison
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

Thank you Rick...my feeling exactly!

Yooper...right off the bat you've put me on the defensive by your question. Maybe it's the phrasing you used. I've never said DIR isn't good enough for me, my system was better than theirs, that they haven't thought about other systems or tried other techniques, that I hold a higher lever of expertise or think my opinion is more worthy. This seems to be the thoughts of the whole DIR crowd. Maybe these same questions should be asked of them. It's the whole 'we are better than them' attitude that I can't stand. And every time I see the letters DIR it turns me off.

Just because I don't wear a BP/wings, use a long hose wrapped around my neck, blah blah blah...that does not make me an unsafe diver. And yes, I have tried those things and do not like them for various reasons. There's no question that with the technical diving the WKRR bunch does that DIR is exactly right for them. That does not automatically make it right for everyone, regardless of what the DIR community thinks.

I'm glad that everyone who does buy into the DIR philosphy is happy with it. I, too, am perfectly happy and safe with my mine. There's been alot of good ideas come from the DIR methods that alot of us recreational divers have incorporated into our own systems. But just because I don't follow along 100% doesn't make me less of a safe diver, that their system is better than mine, that I haven't thought about other systems and tried other techniques, or that DIR divers' opinions are more worthy than mine.

The us (DIR) against them (everyone else) attitude makes me sick.

I don't like labels but the closest thing to 'technical' diving I do is light wreck penetrations so my recreational divers opinion probably doesn't mean anything...

 

[Lost Yooper]

I don't really know how to ask the question without putting people on the defensive, I guess. If you don't believe you have to, or want to, defend your system, then don't -- that's fine. I'm really not interested arguing here (hard to believe, eh? ). I just want to get an understanding why people believe their system is better than or equal to DIR. I'm talking the specifics here. Again, putting attitude (which is irrelevant, IMO) aside, what specifically makes you believe that your system of diving is equal to, or better than, DIR?

Mike

 

[pipedope]

The first big problem is that I am suspicious of any group, (person, organization, etc.) that claims to have the only, one right way to do *anything*.
There is always more than one way to do anything and usually several ways that are just as right and no more wrong.

As to the technical points of DIR, I ordered the book and will let you know after I read it.

I work as a diver and the equipment and technique have to change to fit the job at hand. Heck, we even use SCUBA sometimes when it is not possible to get the surface supply gear to the job site and the job can still be done safely self contained.
Oddly enough, even then we usually still run a com box so there is two way voice communications between the diver and the surface.

Standard scuba regulator, band mask, superlight helmet, Desco air hat, I can thing of a number of reasons for choosing one over another depending on the job, the location, the water and any contaminates therein.

I am not anti DIR but I am anti evangelical zeal.

michael

 

[Lost Yooper]

Mike,

I agree that commercial diving is very specialized and DIR has nothing to do with that type of diving.

Mike

 

[Dee]

Originally posted by Lost Yooper
...I just want to get an understanding why people believe their system is better than or equal to DIR. I'm talking the specifics here. Again, putting attitude (which is irrelevant, IMO) aside, what specifically makes you believe that your system of diving is equal to, or better than, DIR?

Mike

I feel my system is equal to DIR because it works for me and my buddy, who has basically the same set-up. With my Zeagle Concept I use an Octo+ instead of a necklaced octo. My 2nd stage is on a 48" hose routed under my right arm and my console is clipped off close to my chest to prevent danglies. I use a pony when it's called for.

 

[Ontario Diver]

Sorry Mike, I didn't understand.

I will not lose sleep over defending "my system". It represents what I've learned, what I could afford, and what I was told before I knew any better. It is also going through incredible evolution, becoming safer (although for my diving, it was never unsafe) and more reliable.

For my diving experience and level, it works and it is not better, or worse than DIR; but right now it is different. It is Hogarthian and I am working on it with my instructors and my dive buddies. For that reason, I'm still lurking on the DIR threads.

Matt

Originally posted by Lost Yooper
I don't really know how to ask the question without putting people on the defensive, I guess. If you don't believe you have to, or want to, defend your system, then don't -- that's fine. I'm really not interested arguing here (hard to believe, eh? ). I just want to get an understanding why people believe their system is better than or equal to DIR. I'm talking the specifics here. Again, putting attitude (which is irrelevant, IMO) aside, what specifically makes you believe that your system of diving is equal to, or better than, DIR?

Mike

 

[Uncle Pug]

Uncle Pug loves you all....

 

[TRUETEXAN]

Please, I am not trying to start an argument, I just have a question. LY stated that there had been no fatalities in the DIR clan, but I seem to recall reading about a dead DIR diver the other day in one of our cave diving threads. Or are you only included in the statistics if you are in the water with JJ or George and you do absolutely nothing wrong and you just up and die?

 

[buff]

First the name-Doing It Right. How can you expect a community with strong, rugged individuals to adopt a system that inherintly says "You're Doing It Wrong". Not the method to use to teach anybody let alone a group of experienced divers.

I shy away from any "one system". I find that technical knowledge inferior to knowledge of principles and laws that govern the situation. From some of the questions posed on this board and others I gather that many divers would do better to review and truly understand the elements of physics and physiology that govern this sport instead of worrying about where to put their dive knife.

The application of a diving system that works in Florida is not all relevent to one that works in cold water-or wreck diving - or altitude diving. The right tool for the right job and that implies that there is no one universal setup.

I disdain any group that feeds its ego by using the term "science" to justify its actions. Those divers in Florida are just recreational divers who have a system that works well for their environment. They are NOT scientists and the work they do is not of a scientific nature. They are recreational explorers who have developed a diving setup that works well for deep warm water cave penetrations and now are marketing it.

 

[jimholcomb]

Originally posted by TRUETEXAN
Please, I am not trying to start an argument, I just have a question. LY stated that there had been no fatalities in the DIR clan, but I seem to recall reading about a dead DIR diver the other day in one of our cave diving threads. Or are you only included in the statistics if you are in the water with JJ or George and you do absolutely nothing wrong and you just up and die?

There has never been a death of a WKPP diver during a WKPP sanctioned dive.

I'm assuming you are referring to the death of Jonathan Gol. His cause of death has not yet been determined but is highly suspected of being a medical issue.