Posted by Dick Analog on April 12, 2005 at 13:39:25:
In Reply to: Dive conditions at Avalon, 4/10/05 + OOA drills posted by Dick Analog on April 11, 2005 at 20:42:29:
A lot of very good information is coming out of this discussion. Personally, I want to thank each of you for your ideas. Every suggestion or piece of advice I've seen so far has appreciable merits. And so far, we've all been pretty civilized about it. Though...we seem to be edging a little closer toward that threshold where civility flies out the window... let's be careful :-)
It may be useful to know that my own assessment of what I felt I would need to have a robust, redundant air supply system led me independently to the type of system that AADIVER uses. I contacted him to get a few specifics on his particular implementation. And yes, this system, like all approaches to recreational diving has its own peculiar drawbacks. I am, however, still of the opinion that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. But you never know... we may see each other out there on a boat or at the beach and I'll be using an air supply system that is very different from what I tested this past weekend.
A lot of the BBS discussion over the past few weeks got me curious enough about DIR to do some Internet research. I think if I were going to do some serious cave diving, or wreck penetration, I would inevitably be drawn to many of the DIR concepts. But, for recreational open-water diving, I feel there is a lot of room for variation on technique and equipment that meets all reasonable expectations for safety, reliability, and enjoyment.
I know that in the headgear department, I would fail horribly as a DIR candidate. With respect to my snorkel, I can only think of Charlton Heston, when he said "...out of my cold, dead hands" ;-) My snorkel might well be my favorite scuba toy; it makes a long, potentially boring swim to the drop-in point not so boring. And my mask, another bad mark for me. I'm terribly near-sighted, so I've got (expensive) coke bottle bottoms mounted in each side of my mask - very un-DIR indeed.
Seriously, I can see a lot of merit to the DIR way of going about things, and I think it's great that there are guys and gals out there getting excited about this approach to diving. But, if I or anyone else chooses not to go down that path I don't think anyone would be justified in thinking, or implying that we're NOT doing it right, either. And that's my 250 Rupiah worth, as we used to say whilst wending our way through the steaming jungles of Borneo.