dressing for tech diving? (was in What the Heck is DIR?)

[Freedive WI]

Wow, so many topics for just one post, or even thread for that matter.

I’ll address the stroke comment first. If someone has no trim in the water and sucks down a tank like a Hoover I wouldn’t say that they are a stroke- just a diver in training. On the other hand, when a diver continually runs out of air, fails to perform correct deco, but never learns how to do it right, even after several trips to the chamber, I will call them a stroke and identify them as someone I don’t want to be near in the water. I would think that this would hold true of all divers, DIR or not. A stroke doesn’t mean a lousy diver, it means a diver who is unsafe.

As far as a religion, I find it hard to believe. I dove all kinds of goofy rigs over the years until I found a system that I liked. I dove single and ponies, double independents, side mounts, Hp’s, Lp’s, aluminums, steel stages, ect. I went to the DIR gear because it was much more comfortable in the water. I switched over to the whole “no air dives below 100’” after my daughter was born. As a matter of fact, many DIR divers I know dove all kinds of ways until they had small children to worry about. At this point it became a balancing act between doing the dives you want to do, but also making sure you where going to be there for your children. That was the reason I adopted it, and not for some unfulfilled religious zealousness.

When It comes to using DIR in the Islands I can only say that it works for me. On my last trip I used my back plate and wing and it packed up much smaller than my wife’s travel BC. IT also is much more comfortable, when set up correctly, than any other BC I’ve owned- and I’ve owned a LOT!

When it comes to breathing the long hose in warm water vs. an AII, I can only ask’ “how many times have you actually had to share air?” I’ve had to do it more often than I care to think- and it was usually not with my dive buddy! I’ve had people swim up and hit me underwater with those big saucer circle eyes and the need for air NOW! You’ll also find that the long hose routing makes your second stage hose come in much closer to your neck than a standard hose, with the exception of a Sherwood Maximums. This make s it easier to poke your head into those coral caves and wrecks without getting hung up. It also makes it easy to take your tank off underwater and readjust your first stage underwater too minimize the leaking bubbles coming out of the tank valve- anyone who has dove in third world countries will know exactly what I mean by that one.

IF you really want to use your computer while warm water diving go ahead. I would be more concerned with getting a hold of some nitrox on my trip than if I had a computer on my wrist or not..
Lastly, for this post at least, the DIR-F courses are not the push through classes that PADI, and others, run. The last one that I know of had 40% of the class fail. They learned a lot, but their skill needed work before GUE was going to hand them even a fundamentals card. This came as a BIG shock to some of them who were used to just putting their money down and getting a card by the end of the weekend. They all came away learning something and described it as very worth while.

Jon