Posted by MHK on November 13, 2000 at 10:54:31:
In Reply to: Re: DIR question posted by Gerry on November 12, 2000 at 19:09:18:
Gerry,
A few points worth mentioning in our *discussion* ;-)
In terms of the guru's and there priorities with respect to the application of DIR as it relates to recreational diver's.. I have been having many discussions with bothe Jarrod Jablonski and Andrew Georgitis with respect to this very point.. They are in the process of releasing the standards and course outlines for this very program.. Furthermore, our very own John Walker is actively involved in shaping the course.. As you stated DIR has eveolved from some of the more demanding environments but why that disqualifies it's advances has been a mystery to me.. I have argued in the past that while many of us will never drive a race car at Indianopolis 500, we welcome the ergonomic advances as they relate to our family car, the same logic applies in the DIR to recreational analogy..
Let's talk about the standarization of the gear configuration.. Delayed respone time in our sport may very well result in death.. We dive in conditions that are unpredicatble and what is good vis one moment, can be horrible vis in another.. Surge, kelp, night diving and yes, OE diving ( especially given the popularity of the Yukon ) all present significant challenges that could cause problems.. By standardizing a gear configuration your buddy knows exactly where everything is in the event of a silt out, zero or limited vis and can be fixed by *touch* only...
Wearing a 7' hose, in you discussion you suggest that you can't imagine a constriction wothout an OE, which is presciley why we recomend 5' for the open ocean and 7' for OE's.. If I read your comments correctly you have no problem with 7' in an OE??? Is that accurate???
As to the open ocean by using a 5' hose the donor has the ability to manipulate the situation.. If you nned some distance from a paniced diver you can *hold* him off while still maintaining the ability of donating air.. If you need to look around for whatever reason ( boats overhead, additional support, or whatever ) you are not constricted by the limited size of the donated hose.. The 5' hose provides options without any correlating risks..
You mistate the drysuit position.. Thermal protection, of course, is addressed but the idea behind drysuits in warmer climates is to provide an additional inflation sourse if you are using steel tanks.. Under DIR philosphies if you use AL tank [s], which become positively bouyant when empty the drysuit is not required.. If you are using steel tank [s], which remain negatively bouyant when empty than we recommend drysuits so in case you have a bladder failure you will still have an inflation source to get you to the surface...
Non-ditchable weights factor into your overall weighting taken as a whole.. If you put all your weights in one basket ( so to speak, ie; all on the weightbelt ) if you have a problem and ditch the weightbelt you now have lost ALL your weight, which could lead to a rapid ascent.. By distributing your weight you provide adequate weight to ditch in the event of an emergency, but yet sufficent ditchable to allow a safe ascent...
Backplate and wings... The jacket sytle bc provides for unnecesary increase in drag in your stomach area.. If you look to teh coefficients of drag in this area the results are staggering.. By using a BP and wings you eliminate the clutter around the stomach, you allow a diver to swim a mere inches of the bottom without disturbing the reef or the environemnt and most importantly you decrease your drag.. In terms of face down in an unconscious situation, this is resolved by using a *keel* weight which is strapped around the back of your tank to float you face up if you are unconscious...
As to the one piece webbing, if it is sized properly none of the problems that you cite are applicable and to the extent you have never seen a QR fail, I'll invite you over to my garage and I'll show you mine that did in fact fail.. If you size the webbing properly this discussion is moot..
Hope this helps...
Later