Posted by MHK on February 05, 2001 at 09:40:24:
In Reply to: Re: An unanswered question:. posted by AADIVER on February 02, 2001 at 20:43:49:
Frank,
I've said this on many occasions but sometimes it bears repeating.. Just because someone wants to become DIR doesn't mean it happens overnight. It takes time, understanding, additional training and patience. Loosing the computer is probably the most time consuming process.. The skills necessary to discontinue the reliance on a computer is difficult to put a time estimate on. For example, if you do 2 dives a month it may take that person substantially longer than someone who does 10 dives every weekend..
That is why you see me reluctant at times to supply time estimates.. Seahunt will argue that I'm evasive, but not everything has an answer that can be given easily on a NG. Furthermore, a lot depends on how quickly the diver * get's it*.. SOme things come easier to some.. The *math* part I think is overblown.. You won't see us doing math underwater inasmuch as you will see us understanding the awareness and our surroundings..
Seahunt posed a challenge to me and I've accepted in that I will do ANY dive.. But in reality, as I've stated many times, we try to solve problems before they occur.. What I mean by that is that I don't regularly engage in diving sawtooth profiles.. I try to do the deepest part of my dive first and then slowly work my way up, but simply to put the matter to rest I wanted to make the point to Seahunt that no matter what kind of profile he could come up with I would match the NDL's to his computer.. But in my view that type of practice isn't something I would do and should be discouraged.. It's called thinking the problem through and solving as much of it as you can before you get in the water..
DIR is as much about solving it proactively as opposed to relying on computers and/or hoping a diver is skilled or practiced enough to solve a problem should it occur..
As for an instructor, it probably won't surprise you that I would recommend John Walker...
Later