Minimalist SCUBA diving is not necessarily "old school" or vintage. Yes, it draws upon techniques used in earlier SCUBA diving but my new VDH universal mini-plate or Freedom Plate, aluminum 63 and a Titan LX is not vintage and yet is a fine ultra minimal rig for certain diving adventures.
I agree with Herman, minimalism, again is not a single bare bones rig as I just described. The minimal amount of equipment matches what is needed for a particular dive. Herman gave an excellent example, a computer can and may be more minimals than a watch, gauge. The tables, they are in my head. I plan my dive ahead of time, particularly as it gets deeper (below 30ish feet). I dive my plan and I can run tables in my head. I do not need to carry them with me. Some of us can get into deco even at shallower depths on a single 72/80. Herman is one of them as his SAC rate is on par with a decomposing body.
Minimalist SCUBA is here to stay. It has always been and it is growing. It fits in well with "Maker" movements and anti-consumerism, simplification lifestyle movements. It is not advanced, it is basic. It was asked in one of the threads that was removed last week if an instructor could teach basic SCUBA to basic level divers---the answer is yes. There is no reason that an ABC agency could not have a Minimalist or Simple SCUBA course just as, like, well, now they have Solo courses and there have even been a few Vintage courses. Even Padi is throwing in the towel on the snorkel and I remember when back inflate BCs (aka wings) were generally forbidden because they float a diver face down.
And I can tell you one thing, there is no better way to learn "Peak Buoyancy" skills than simple, minimalist SCUBA diving. It is not an advanced level technique, it is a CORE basic technique that should be part of every Basic level SCUBA course. So should figuring tables, calculating air consumption and the whole rest of what used to be taught to basic level students.
I am minimalist here, I have a buddy (my wife) so I have a regulator for air sharing, I am multi day diving so I am up with the computer. We are drift diving and there is current, a sausage and spool is smart. Minimalism is not one specific rig, therein lies the confusion, it is a philosophy applied to SCUBA, not a specific set of gear (or exclusion of) as in the DIR world:
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Very well put on all points.
To reinforce the meaning of "Minimalism".
The minimalist movement is a sort of counter culture reaction to the growing amount of gear used by todays divers at a suffocating level.
Most of the gear used as a "standard" by todays definition is convenience gear and as such just becomes clutter and in my estimation just makes things more complicated and un-fun. There is more to manage, more to remeber to bring, more to clean, more to maintain, and more to push through the water. The gear has become so overwhelming that new fins even needed to be invented to be able to make moving your feet easier because of the excesses of fabric, pockets, hoses, air wings, dangling objects, etc. and the resulting drag created by all this "stuff
Just look back in time and you will see that divers of the past did all the same dives people are doing today, the same depths, the same locations.
I look at the gear they used and see there was hardly anything to it. What a concept, less is more, and it works!
Less to buy, less to clean, less to maintain, less to drag around and carry down to the beach.
Minimalism is a dynamic concept. There are no hard and fast rules or standard gear choices.
Yes, a computer is less than having a watch & depth gauge, 2 : 1.
Tables in the head will always be there, rule of 120, pretty freakin' easy. Most of the time I never even get close to NDL's on a shore dive, it's air supply that determines the length of the dive.
Minimalism is the idea that you don't have to bring everything on every dive just because someone told you you are not a certain way or are violating a certain protocol if you don't.
You have the freedom to choose as little as you want to free yourself up of unneeded gear.
I personally have explored the extremes of minimalism as an excercise and to push my personal envelope.
I considered everything I was doing and accepted the risks, and had a plan to abort if necessary.
. There is a difference in minimal and vintage, I dive both.
