Why not Fundies?

[*Floater*]

For those of you who would consider taking Fundies

Why not? We've had a couple of classes here in Seattle not fill, and it puzzles me. It's SUCH a good class, and I keep reading of people who are unhappy they can't get access to such a class. And here we are in the Puget Sound region, loaded with divers, and spots are going empty.

Do you not have the equipment? Is it too expensive? Are you too far from anywhere where the class is held? Is it the reputation for difficulty that's stopping you?

No need to hear from those who wouldn't take the class if their life depended on it, now . . .

I was fairly new when I decided to take DIRF, maybe about 25 dives in (though I did another 25 or so before taking the course). It wasn't an obvious decision for me because for the same price I could have taken TDI's adv. nitrox/deco procedures, but I was impressed by the control and techniques demonstrated by DIR divers on the clips I saw, their knowledge and well-founded arguments on these forums and the positive reviews I had read about the course. The gear also made sense to me and I wanted to learn more about it so that I could make good gear purchasing decisions in the future.

Now my girlfriend hasn't expressed any interest in the course even though her gear's already DIR-compliant. I think she thinks it's a lot of money that could be used for other courses, and she feels she can learn most of it from me anyway. I can certainly teach her the kicks and drills. It won't be the same as taking the course, but good enough for her. More fundamentally, I don't think she sees a huge need for DIRF training to have fun, which is of course the point of diving in the first place. She's perfectly happy diving at her current level and improving slowly with experience. Maybe she would see it differently if she actually took the course, but right now I can perfectly understand her thinking.

 

[TSandM]

People that are willing to expend the energy and resources to take the class are the very people that you want in the class!

Yeah, Stephen, you're right. I guess it just distresses me that such a great resource is going begging.

 

[jbd]

I don't know an epiphany maybe or a dream in which Uncle Pug swims into my head and tells me to DIRF.....

If you're diving with Uncle Pug or NW Grateful Diver etc, etc you don't need to take DIRF. Also if you're diving with them---I'm envious

 

[jonnythan]

I don't know an epiphany maybe or a dream in which Uncle Pug swims into my head and tells me to DIRF.....

Asking you the same question, unless you took the class directly out of OW, clearly there was a decision point for you as well. I figure it this way: I took 27 years to get married, 26 years to decide to move to the US and 23 years to become vegetarian. If I took that long making those important life decisions, I figure I can let a year or two pass before DIRF

I learned about it from Scubaboard after I already had a couple dozen dives. I was very resistive to the entire idea at first and had many of the same objections as most. However, the more I learned about it, the more it made sense, and the more I wanted to take the class. I took it the first time with about 50 dives and then again with about 100.

I, again, highly suggest you take the course right away.

 

[limeyx]

I am a "take it or leave it diver" and am open to anything DIR offers that I like. Love the gear, the long hose, the minimalistic function-oriented equipment.

I don't think the rigidity it requires brings anything to the table for me. For example, the other day my post regarding SMB attachment to my eclipse D-ring was pulled. Holding a camera with strobes, and blowing the SMB for our captain on drifts would not work as well packed in my backplate pocket. I can almost do it one-handed and it seems really silly to me to follow what works for another diver and the need to be conforming. The generalized notion that if it is clipped on my butt, it will somehow be less of an entanglement issue just makes no sense. I enter wrecks and can see for myself how I might get caught, and I prefer to have it in close proximity to my opposing thumbs, in direct line of sight. The x-shorts create so much drag and seem to be just another item to market, and sell to divers who have been told that this is THE way to carry an item.

The word "fundamental" says it all because fundamentalism connotes certain characteristics whether art, religion, etc. I prefer the option of diving solo at times and adapting to a given environment or even dive culture. So far, I have observed DIR divers often do not make decisions the way I think, but rather follow a set of protocols.

The other thing that I feel is dangerous about DIR philosophy is that often their minds cannot encompass other's views. For example, many threads in Basic Scuba often turn into long discussions of "the DIR" approach to a problem...which is fine because I like to hear all views. But then in the DIR forum, the DIR divers don't really want (or allow) any discussion outside the realm of the DIR way. It is not reciprocal, which is acceptable to me, but I want to be free to choose from a much broader set of options. I like thinking for myself, and to follow a pre-determined set of solutions actually detracts from my diving enjoyment. I am not a conformist in my approach to anything else--it does not fit my identity. Having said that, it is intellectually very well thought out and superior in many ways so I try to get exposure when possible.

I think you might be seeing the wrong side of things a little here.
In all honestly, there are relatively few things that a DIR instructor is going to tell you you "have" to do one particular way.

Heck, our T1 instructor (who happens to be one of the very few T2 instructors) was fine with us clipping our reel off to a left shoulder D-ring or SPG D-ring, and in fact cautioned somewhat *against* the butt-dring due to entanglements.

What DIR does for me is:
1) present gear that is mostly standard (does not have to be 100% )
2) focus on drilling physical and mental responses to common problems into your head. This is good because we think less clearly underwater and having an instinctive reaction for the most serious situations can help. This frees us up to focus on other issues (situational awareness, team awareness etc)

Not being a conformist does not preclude you from being a "DIR" diver. In fact, no GUE/DIR instructor would *want* any student to be a conformist. However, certain things have been learned the hard way and sometimes it's easier to take it than learnd it the hard way yourself.

However, not conforming just for the sake of it is destructive, and not useful.

You might find that (as lamont says) the more experienced DIR divers are not quite as fascist as might be apaparent from the internet ....


EDIT: DIR-F was the second best non-equipment diving $ I have spent. Tech1 was the best.

 

[TSandM]

If you're diving with Uncle Pug or NW Grateful Diver etc, etc you don't need to take DIRF.

As someone who has dived with both of them, I'd amend this: If you are diving with Uncle Pug or NW Grateful Diver, you need to take DIR-F and you know it and know why!

 

[wedivebc]

I was considering taking fundies until;
-my son got insulted and browbeaten by a group from 5th-d because he was diving a rebreather.
-A student of mine was told he would die because I was teaching him with independant double.
-I was on a boat with some 5th-d folks again who not only didn't want to dive at the same time as us but didn't eat with us or even talk with us.
-I saw a big discussion on scubaboard about whether a yellow 7ft hose was DIR.

(walks away shaking his head)

 

[bradshsi]

If you're diving with Uncle Pug or NW Grateful Diver etc, etc you don't need to take DIRF. Also if you're diving with them---I'm envious

I've yet to have that particular pleasure. Unfortunately his office is a bit too far north for me. Still hopefully one day.

 

[Darnold9999]

Agree with Peter. Lots of people who might take the course don't because they don't know its happening. The DIR-F course schedule is not easy to find and incomplete. Looked a few months ago saw nothing that was even close to where I live. The Seattle course in August was not there or I would have sheduled it.

Have yet to see a course in Vancouver/Victoria at all. Lots of divers here.

Won't take it if I don't hear about it and it isn't promoted. Not going to log on to the GUE site every month or so just to check and see if there might be a course close by. The couple of times I have looked it was pretty clear that I was not going to see a local course unless I made it happen and its not that important to me yet.

 

[jonnythan]

I was considering taking fundies until;
-my son got insulted and browbeaten by a group from 5th-d because he was diving a rebreather.
-A student of mine was told he would die because I was teaching him with independant double.
-I was on a boat with some 5th-d folks again who not only didn't want to dive at the same time as us but didn't eat with us or even talk with us.
-I saw a big discussion on scubaboard about whether a yellow 7ft hose was DIR.

(walks away shaking his head)

I've had instructors, OW divers, AOW divers, and tech divers make rude comments and/or tell me I was going to die because of my backplate and wing.

They didn't make me quit diving.

I fail to see the logic in not taking a class because some people who have taken the class are idiots. If everyone followed that logic... well, no one would take any scuba classes at all.