Why NOT DIR?

[Sloth]

Ascending and descending at 10 fpm is used as a training add to ensure you are always in control of your bouyancy. This is the ascent/descent drill. We werent taught to always descend at 10fpm only to make sure that your descent is just as controlled as your ascent. No more lawn darting to the wreck more or less.

The main focus of 10fpm is on the ascent as it relates to the DIR way of doing your ascent in a NDL rec dive. Instead of 3 mins at 15 following the mend and bend concept they push the deep stop concept to NDL diving so you do a 1 min stop at 40, 1 min at 30, 1 min at 20 and a final 1 min at 10. This can be viewed as 10 fpm though it easier to do this as 30sec at your stop followed by 30secs to your next stop.

Your ascent up to 40 would be at the normal 30 fpm with the inclusion of a 30sec stop at half of your max depth.

 

[Noob@40]

I think a lot of people are put off not by the DIR philosophy, but by the few extreamists that force it down others throats. However, DIR Divers do not hold the patent on this mentality. There are a lot of non DIR divers on this board that would have others believe theirs is the only way.
Fortunatly there are also many on scubaboard that truly wish to help others enjoy the dive. The trick is to identify these people and heed their advice.

Sorry for the rant and now back to the question.

I would look into DIR if I ever choose to dive caves or penitrate wrecks, but for now I am enjoying my dives in 60ft or less of open water. For this type of dive I do not believe a strict approach such as DIR is necessary.

 

[Nemrod]

I became a much better diver after taking the DIR-F class. The skills they teach are not taught in any other PADI class that I'm aware of. Better can be defined in terms of mastering buoyancy, trim, buddy awareness and doing skills such as valve drills, air sharing, mask remove/replace, shooting a bag all while maintaining neutral buoyancy and position in the water column. Another skill taught in DIR-F that I don't think is taught anywhere else is descending/ascending at 10 feet per minute. All of these skills lead to better safer diving and most importantly having more fun underwater.

Most of the posts in this thread only demonstrate the general ignorance of DIR.

PadI, who said anything about PadI?

Safer, safer this and safer that, here we go again with the safer assertion which is based on nothing but the wish to assert superiority by claiming the "safety" turf--yawn--yawn. Well, anyways, y'all go on and on.

N

 

[sambolino44]

At first I was going to say I'm amazed at how little of this thread is about the OP's call for reasons not to dive DIR and how much of it has diverged into arguments about stuff like weight or gear configurations or wild assertions and emotional responses. But then I realized every thread about DIR ends up like this. I must like the discussion to read this far.

I am surprised there aren't more responses who say they don't dive DIR for the same reasons I don't: it's so expensive! Diving is expensive enough; I was shocked when I started looking into GUE courses. Pay to fly an instructor across the country to give me a diving lesson? Right.

It's not for beginners. I've heard several times that you won't get as much out of a fundies course if you don't have your act together going in.

It's unnecessary. Well, I have heard that one.

But I'm not against it. DIR is just not for me at this time.

 

[grazie42]

I dive deep, wrecks and caves as well as shallow, warm (whenever I can) and sometimes solo. Perception of risk is certainly subjective but I don´t feel unsafe now.

If I weren´t getting into CCRs I would take a dir-f class just to see "what it´s all about", I´m sure I´d learn something useful.

To me, diving is about fun, I wouldn´t let image or perception stop me from learning something useful that would increase my enjoyment of diving.

ymmv

 

[BarryNL]

I think a lot of people are put off not by the DIR philosophy, but by the few extreamists that force it down others throats.

I notice that those DIR divers do seem far more prevalent in cyberspace than in real life. All the DIR divers I've actually met diving have been perfectly nice people, and generally only start to explain the whole DIR thing if asked. In fact most of the time you don't even know you've met/dived with a DIR diver unless you ask.

In cyberspace it's often the opposite. There is a much noisier type (probably a small minority actually) who doesn't necessarily understand DIR but nevertheless takes a missionary attitude to spreading the belief.

My advice is to seek out DIR divers in the real world - you will get far more sense out of them than out of some of the zealots who repeatedly crop up online.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Ascending and descending at 10 fpm is used as a training add to ensure you are always in control of your bouyancy. This is the ascent/descent drill. We werent taught to always descend at 10fpm only to make sure that your descent is just as controlled as your ascent. No more lawn darting to the wreck more or less.

.

Why? Sometimes it is necessary to descend very fast in order to reach a particular site within a high current environment. I even recall listening to GI "brag" about how he could make it from zero to 200 feet in a minute (or something like that). I often descend much faster than I ascend, especially within the mid-point of a dive say, 80 to 150 feet, where the pressure change is not that fast and I don't need to waste time and air slowly drifting downward. i would think that making a rapid descent could even be considered safer (and more fun) because it saves air and allows more useful bottom time. I would probably never intentionally let myself get 10 lbs bouyant on an ascent, but I often allow myself to be 10-12 lbs (or more) negative to aid my descent and thus expend little energy on the way down.

Obviously an uncontrolled descent could present equalization and other potential problems, but you seem to be equating the ascent and descent? I only learn about DIR from the internet, so I am really curious as to what is being taught in this regard.

 

[Blackwood]

Blackwood, what sort of yellow regulator is that because I want one. N

I never knew!

 

[JeffG]

Why? Sometimes it is necessary to descend very fast in order to reach a particular site within a high current environment.

The 10 ft ascent/descent stuff is just a drill someone would practice (in some quarry )

Real descent rate depends on conditions.

If it was a high current, I would probably descend as fast as my scooter would go.

 

[JeffG]

At first I was going to say I'm amazed at how little of this thread is about the OP's call for reasons not to dive DIR and how much of it has diverged into arguments about stuff like weight or gear configurations or wild assertions and emotional responses. But then I realized every thread about DIR ends up like this. I must like the discussion to read this far.

Why did the thread take a turn like that?

Easy.


Poster A says "I don't like DIR because of x, y and z" where x, y, and z have nothing to do with DIR.

It demonstrates a lack on knowledge of DIR by the poster.

Then the pile on starts..."explaining" the little tidbits of DIR. Some of which is correct. Some of which is not. The cycle of misinformation is now complete.

The hazards of learning on the internet.