Posted by tleemay on April 09, 2001 at 17:13:16:
In Reply to: Re: Questioning DIR's Reasoning... posted by MHK on April 09, 2001 at 14:18:03:
Forget the header info Kane, I was just fncking
with you.
Something you stated struck a cord with me (or
is that accord?).
That's the key thing that almost everyone who
is new to DIR lacks to understand on the outset,
that the goal is preventing it from being a
problem in the first place. People who say 'I've
heard enough' or 'I don't need to understand DIR
because I sat through the Demo 'X' times before',
or 'I saw the GUE website and can quip quotes from
JJ - and here is it' are the ones who are first
to denounce the phylosophy and configuration with
little more than their 'limited' total diving
experience, ie; neither me nor my buddy have ever
had an OOA situation so all this training and
planning is for naught - it won't happen to us
because we are good. That's a total BS statement
and the general diving public needs to understand
that. It does happen, just wait and the law of
averages will eventually catch up with you and
your buddy. When the sh!t hits the fan, it's
never expected. What can be expected is the
continual training and drills, at least on one
dive for a minute or two, to be better versed
in what to do and what NOT to do in such scenarios.
Hopefuly if the sh!t does hit the fan you have
a buddy with you that thinks the same way; two
brains calculating the next lifesaving step is
better than one, regardless of depth or OH limits.
This is especially true if one of you is injured
or knocked out for whatever reason.
As you know Michael, we have something brewing
that will enable some of the anti-DIR proponents
to come forward and attempt to prove themselves
in a controlled situation. Hopefully we will make
that announcement sometime after Chamber Day/
Evening. I've got my list of participants I will
challenge that still needs thinning, but it should
provide a rude awakening to most, even those who
do not participate.
You, Walker, and I have been doing DIR Demos up
and down the West Coast meeting divers with all
types of interests, training and experience. It's
always for certain that we come across a couple
divers at these events who show up in feeble attempt
to voice that DIR is not for them and thumb their
nose at us... you know 'em... the chest beaters.
These usually also the people who clearly have
little capacity for understanding even the bare
basis of what proven theories and practices they
are being presented with. Oh no, they just dismiss
the theories and facts and say as a cop out 'I'm
not dead yet, so it must be the best way to dive'.
'None of my friends who have been diving for 'X'
years longer than I dive like that and they are
my mentoring hero'.
I can think of more than a couple famous and
not-so-famous names in the diving communities
that let their egos get in the way or flat out
got complacent in their diving to the point they
got injured or killed. Dead is dead, there is no
remedial class for this one of life's little
fnck-ups.
By eliminating those contributing factors and lack
of attention to the ills of bad diving habits, you
hedge you bets that you will return from that dive
to 'X' depth alive. Obviously the deeper you go or
the farther back into that OHE the more crutial
those acquired skills and ideas become in saving
you or someone else's butt. To punctuate this,
anyone who sees someone in trouble and say to
themselves 'I'm not going to help them - it's
their fault for diving that way' is the lowest
form of diving life on this planet. Some of you
may sluff off this type of thinking, but it's
one of the reasons people give to us to justify
their solo diving practices. Let me also say that
the usual participants of this BBS are not the
ones who have been overheard saying this.
When we present to a group, it's the same reaction;
it's a good idea, but not necessarily right for the
type of diving they do. They continue on to tell us
why gadgets they prefer are superior to anything DIR
could outline. Like an AIR2 or SA is more appropriate
for their type of diving. How they prefer being
overweighted because it makes it easier for them
to descend - and according to them - use much less
air overall. People before you and I have already
gone through all this trial and error and have saved
many others the same grief. JJ and GUE have been
putting it into a class form. All a certified diver
has to do is keep and open mind and, to borrow Trey's
catch phrase, 'take the cotton out of their ears and
put it into their mouths - listen and learn'.
How many times have you seen an AIR2 leak? I used to
be one of those who thought they were the cat's meow
until I got tired of having it serviced every quarter.
It continued to breathe wet, and on one occasion it
freeflowed on me. Anyone who remembers Jeff and I diving
twice a week on the Spectre in '95 can remember
hearing me swear up and down that the AIR2 was the most
worthless piece of crap on the planet - right up there
with SA and split fins in a frog or modified flutter.
Remember that second demo in Monterey when the guy came
up to us after the presentation and told us the story
about his 7 month old AIR2 free flowing during a deep
dive at Point Lobos? He attended the previous Demo in
June where you spoke about AIR2 types of devices and
why they are (A) not needed, (B) restrict your overall
head movement, and (B) were prone to failure. How many
more o-rings does the LPIH + AIR2 type of device
configuration have? What value does a diver place on
their IS (inflation source) when it could free-flow
and require manual inflation of the wings if necessary?
the second Demo we did, he came up to us and said
those three words before he re-introduced himself to us
- 'you were right'.
Someone out there voiced that DIR was a fad, some-
thing found only in Florida and CA. I spent the better
part of early last week in Korea doing some work
for the BBC and Network 10 Australia. While there
I met a guy from South Africa who was also a diver.
After we exchanged afiliations, he was not too
concerned on my NAUI, PADI, TDI, or IANTD certs, but
was fascinated with the GUE afiliation. His core
group of divers were in the process of getting on
what he called the DIR Orientation Program. It seems
that DIR is being very well accepted all around the
world. They first learned it from some passing rec
divers visiting SA from Spain and Norway. He was
estatic that, his words now, a progressive diving
community like California was starting to embrace
the ideals (I didn't have the heart to tell him
about the Nitrox snafu). He viewed CA as being a
trendsetter in such practices.