Posted by tleemay@diver.net on December 18, 2000 at 12:08:57:
I received quite a few e-mail inquiries in the last month or so in response to MHK's advanced notice that a recreational DIR program was in the works. As I am not totally versed in the program as written yet, there was some feedback given by a recreational OW diver who did take the new course this past week. Here is his written experience. The post was posted to the national Techdiver list as well as forwarded onto the GUE Quest private list:
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From: Trav H. [mailto:neoreborn@hotmail.com]
Sent: Friday, December 15, 2000 10:51 AM
To: techdiver@aquanaut.com
Subject: dir class
I reside in the Pacific Northwest and am new to this list, but I wanted to write to express my opinions on a class I took. It was for "Recreational DIR". I can't express how much I learned and changed my outlook on the whole subject of diving in such a short class.
I don't know about the others in the class but I was a little put off at first about the idea of having everything in a certain place. Just a little hang up of dislike from my military days. But this class was nothing of the sorts, the whole philosophy of the DIR method was explained and then Andrew (our instructor) gave us reasons for equipment placement. Of course we had questions about the whole system and our own personal safety and our questions were answered to our satisfaction. And it all made sense!
I am not saying that this is all we learned but I could write for a very long time on all that we learned and still have to work on to get my skills up to snuff. But in just the short period of time I felt much safer diving with someone that I had never dove with prior than some of the people that I regularly dive with. At first it did have the appearance of militaristic but I began to see it as nothing more than you would do if you were a pilot. Wouldn't I want to make sure I was the safest I could be and make sure my buddy was the safest he/she could be before getting in the water. Of course I would and I thank all of you for the whole philosophy that is making an improvement in
my diving and my personal comfort/enjoyment.
Sincerely,
Travis