Posted by tleemay on April 09, 2001 at 11:48:39:
In Reply to: Questioning DIR's reason to donate the primary second ... posted by Eins on April 07, 2001 at 21:28:27:
Arno wrote;
"In every explanation, DIR talks about the reason
being that the primary is proven to work. I always
had a feeling that something is wrong with that
explanation, and now I know why:"
I beg to differ - until you take a DIR class and
learn the fundamentals beyond what is written here
or any other electronic forum, you are not
qualified to make such a statement.
But let's wait a second before we delve into that.
A point of experience here. If you dive often
enough with other strangers in the water the same
time as you, eventually the odds will catch up with
you... and I don't mean just a couple trips or
3-5 dives a month.
I want to relate MY OOA situations as they involved
me. These events were during my pre-DIR days.
I have had an OOA or otherwise panicked diver come
to me three times looking for air. All three times
the diver NEVER gave me the OOA sign, NEVER searched
for my then properly located and secured *octo*, and
NEVER wanted to give back my primary after I was
able to demonstrate the *octo* was functioning fine
after I had to shove it in my mouth. All those drills
in their openwater class on what to do when they
have an air supply problem went right out the
porthole when the anxiety of potential death by
drowning hits their brain like a ton of bricks.
Every time, the diver either grabbed the reg from my
mouth or yanked on my primary hose from behind pulling
the second stage and jerking my head to the right
until which point the reg popped away from me. As
one very prominant local instructor once explained to
me, 'People will do what they have been trained to do'
The reality is, at least in my cases, they did not.
To speak to why having the backup reg bungied under the
chin; it's always there, it has much less chance of
getting gunked up, if it does fee flowing or otherwise
like malfunction is readily noticed and addressed. If
you dive the configuration regularly, you will
eventually be able to slip it in your mouth without
using your hands. If the backup is in a scum-ball,
or velcro sheath, or bungie looped to a split-ring
that's then suicide clipped to the waist, chest,
or other area within the mainstream agencies'
"triangle of life", it has the potential of becomimg
clogged up with sand, or other debris. It can be
seeping air, it could even be freeflowing (but you
would probably hear that). If the backup was showing
the signs of any of the above problems while under
your chip, you will imediately notice and correct
it as possible underwater.
The *octo* could be pulled out of the retaining
device without you knowing, causing you to have to
search for it if the diver who is OOA reached for
your primary. Worse yet, the diver who is OOA does
try to find your loose *octo* only to discover it's
not there, it's behind you after coming out of it's
'holder'.
I saw probably no less that 20-25 divers out of 63
who dove with us the last two days come out of the
water with their *octos* popped out of their
'securing devices', if they were ever secured to
begin with.
Why donate your primary, as Michael has already
pointed out - it's working, and it's in the direct
sight of the person who's 'demanding' the air. You
as the wits about you and un-panicked diver are the one
now in control of the situation and can make a much
better recovery of the problem since YOU are the one
not coming loose over the possibility of drowning.
When the diver does take the primary from your mouth
you just slip in the back-up knowing right where it
is - not futzing around doing an arm sweep for the
*octo* hose that may have come loose. You know that it's
not full of gunk - because a dangling octo was flailing
about un-secured while you were hunting or taking
pictures in the sand and some debris (uck, wet sand
on the first breath).
A quick side note -
We had one diver with us for over the weekend both days
from Manchester, England who was BS-AC trained - with
a necklaced back-up. A real nice guy and an agressive
diver overall who knew and understood the DIR
principals and protocols. Other than his air-
integrated computer, he considered himself as
DIR as he could get for now... and he was 72
years old. We chatted for a good long bit and
as told me that more and more BS-AC members from
his club were migrating to DIR, which is about
40/60 right now after two years of the phylosophy
and configuration exposure (40% DIR). That from
a club/org I consider to be one of the best in
the world. (Hello Charles!).
It sounds like what MHK, Kendall, Walker (at least
in THIS forum) and myself plus others have been
trying to explain has been getting lost in the
noise generated by others who have an agenda
to label DIR in a negative context or otherwise
discredit our intentions. So here's a possible
solution for you if you really want your Q's A'd.
Get the experience and basic hands on exposure
provided in one of the DIR Fundamental classes
(I'm not speaking to Tech 1 through 3 here) and
then take your questions back to your instructor
if you still feel they were inadequately addressed.
Walker (who is in real life a real nice guy and one
of this state's best instructors in the rec and now
tech fields) offers a class in OC as well as
Andrew Georgitsis up at Fifth Dimension in Seattle.
All snide comments aside, there is where you will
learn and be able to put up what you believe the
preceived short comings of DIR are to the people
who are the professionals.