RikRaeder
Contributor
I have a couple of questions for the DIRies out there. I looked into the GUE website a couple years back, and lately have become aware of UTD. I checked out that website too, and it seemed to me a carbon copy of the GUE site (with a few newer certs, perhaps).
Questions;
1) What is the difference, if any, between DIR and UTD? It seems like the same thing to the uninitiated. If, as I suspect, UTD is a spinoff from GUE's DIR, what was the perceived need for a new agency?
2) Again, prefacing with the fact that I have perused, glanced, and looked over the relevant websites and not done any heavy homework on them;
My understanding of the DIR method (and perhaps the UTD as well, if they're indeed the same) is that it is an all or nothing affair. You either dive with the gear, configuration, and methods or you do not. If you do, and have the appropriate certification, then you are "DIR." If you don't have the GUE cert or divert one bit from the DIR program, then you are not. If this is, in fact, the case, how could it be that DIR divers can dive in a team with non-DIR divers? Wouldn't this be forbidden by the strictures of the DIR system since there is no uniformity of training, gear, and technique?
I've read some of the threads regarding DIR diving (until the devolve into **ssing contests) and checked out some online material as well. The above are what I have taken from my, admittedly, shallow skimming of the topic. I ask these questions because a) I recently heard about UTD, checked the site, and thought it looked the same; and b) I have several times had DIR "practioners" offer to dive with me (I'm not DIR) and so was wondering how that could be. Can you be DIR today and not-DIR tomorrow? I'm hoping someone can set me straight on these issues. Thanks!
Questions;
1) What is the difference, if any, between DIR and UTD? It seems like the same thing to the uninitiated. If, as I suspect, UTD is a spinoff from GUE's DIR, what was the perceived need for a new agency?
2) Again, prefacing with the fact that I have perused, glanced, and looked over the relevant websites and not done any heavy homework on them;
My understanding of the DIR method (and perhaps the UTD as well, if they're indeed the same) is that it is an all or nothing affair. You either dive with the gear, configuration, and methods or you do not. If you do, and have the appropriate certification, then you are "DIR." If you don't have the GUE cert or divert one bit from the DIR program, then you are not. If this is, in fact, the case, how could it be that DIR divers can dive in a team with non-DIR divers? Wouldn't this be forbidden by the strictures of the DIR system since there is no uniformity of training, gear, and technique?
I've read some of the threads regarding DIR diving (until the devolve into **ssing contests) and checked out some online material as well. The above are what I have taken from my, admittedly, shallow skimming of the topic. I ask these questions because a) I recently heard about UTD, checked the site, and thought it looked the same; and b) I have several times had DIR "practioners" offer to dive with me (I'm not DIR) and so was wondering how that could be. Can you be DIR today and not-DIR tomorrow? I'm hoping someone can set me straight on these issues. Thanks!