Why NOT DIR?

[Doc Intrepid]

I feel real stupid asking this...but what is DIR?

It is a philosophy regarding the manner in which diving ought to be planned and executed which had its genesis in the early 1990s and has remained a source for endless controversy ever since.

Here is a place to begin:
http://www.gue.com/Expeditions/WKPP/index.html

Alternately, there are approximately five years of threads containing classic arguments featuring our very own "not ready for prime time players" in the archives. You may access all of these for free, by using the Search function in the tool bar at the top of the page, and typing in DIR or WKPP or Irvine.

Just remember that the internet is not reality.

 

[BarryNL]

I was on a boat dive with a DIR guy who was pretty arrogant. He looked down his nose at everyone. He refused to be buddied and insisted on being solo. I write him of as just being a Tool. The qustion I have is how would he be able to give an octo drager his 7 footer if he refused to be anywhere near the rest of the group. I guess there are jerks on both sides of the fence.

He may have been a jerk, but if he insisted on diving solo he certainly wasn't DIR.

 

[John_B]

I feel real stupid asking this...but what is DIR?

From the sticky at the top of the DIR forum: What is DIR? written by our very own Cave Diver.

See also:
http://www.gue.com/Equipment/Evolution/index.html (GUE.com)
http://www.gue.com/Equipment/Config/index.html (GUE.com)

John

 

[ZzzKing]

At least 95% of people who I've seen diving the non-bungied backup way have their octos dragging through the mud. They might start clipped off or otherwise, but usually they end up dragging.
Just an observation.

That 95% is probably a good rule of thumb number to use when estimating the jack*ss
portion of the DIR community as compared to the DIR community as a whole. Needless to say, the SB DIR members would all be in the 5%.

 

[OneBrightGator]

Good grief... and you guys complain about the anti-DIR guys poo-ing up your threads...

 

[John_B]

OBG, first it wasn't *your* thread, and second it was moved here from the DIR forum shortly after it was started. Cmon, keep up here!

John

 

[texdiveguy]

DIR...uh

We in Texas now have DIB......... 'Diving It Blind' .........now that is real diving!

 

[ZzzKing]

Ignoring the "dragging through sand bit" -- handing off whats in your mouth is a "good idea"
because you
- know exactly where it is (your mouth)
- know it is working (you are breathing it)
- know the gas is good at that depth (you are breathing it)
- know where your backup is (around your neck)
- if for some dastardly reason your backup fails when you go to it, you gave the diver most needing a working reg, exactly that (now if absolutely necessary you can buddy-breathe the longhose if that's the only reg you have)

if you "test" your "octo" on the surface, then hand it off and it isn't working (assuming you can reliably find it), the already OOA divers gets a bit breath of nothing (or water) and they are the one most in need of a breathable gas.

The "dragging" argument is a part of it (and seen very very often where I am) but not all.

The "donate from the mouth" technique also scales up to tech diving where you might have more than one other reg attached to you -- you really dont want to grab a reg that is for the wrong depth to donate to someone.

What you and Randy43068 both seem to have missed was that I wasn't advocating ANY specific method of donation. I was calling BS on a blatantly obvious falsehood.

 

[texdiveguy]

Zzz you know that no SBer would ever utter a falsehood. :11:

 

[Hank49]

Yes. I live in a city with lots of DIR/team divers, and I'm likely to move to other large metropolitan areas with lots of DIR/team divers. The "stranded on a desert island with all the scuba gear in the world and a solar-driven compressor that never breaks down" hypothetical is unlikely to occur to me.

That's too bad Lamont. I hope your life takes a turn for the better. Hang in there.