Posted by AADIVER on February 05, 2001 at 16:22:39:
In Reply to: Re: An unanswered question:. posted by MHK on February 05, 2001 at 09:40:24:
Thanks, Mike, that substantially answers my questions.
The DIR discussions over the past few months, both negative and positive, have given me the opportunity to reassess and reevaluate my own particular style of diving. I'm convinced that two well trained and experienced DIR buddies would be, and are, the safest buddy team in the whole universe of sport diving. But safety is not my number one priority. If it was I wouldn't be diving at all. My personal number one priority is enjoyment and there are two vital aspects of DIR that I would not enjoy: computing on the fly and buddy diving. I enjoy the freedom and additional bottom time a computer gives me. Of course it could fail and that's why I carry a back up. Even if both failed on a resort or liveaboard trip, I'm out of the water for 12 hours and back in with tables and square profiles for the remainder of my trip. As to buddy diving I don't enjoy it, even with my gorgeous daughter who's also an instructor. I enjoy being self-reliant, planning my own dive, doing my thing independently. Safety certainly isn't a part of that equation, I'm the first to admit. And I'm not a misanthrope. I enjoy the company of other divers immensely: before the dive and after the dive.
Needless to say, my "style" of diving prohibits me from deep or cave diving, neither of which have I ever had the slightest interest in doing. My "hard bottom" for the remainder of my diving years is 100 fsw.
I certainly don't advocate my diving profiles and procedures but I DO advocate the principles and practices of DIR, especially for advanced mixed gas tech diving. It just isn't for me.