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At 4:30 AM on Friday 9 June, 2006 I left my warm and cozy bed for the 4 hour drive from Chicago to Detroit to start my DIR Fundamentals course. I've been looking forward to this course ever since I first started talking to one of the instructors in late 2005. Needless to say, my excitement got the best of me and I didn't sleep much the night before.
I arrived at the home of Scot Wernette shortly after 10:00 AM. I felt bad for being late, but I was relieved I didn't miss anything as Scot was having technical difficulty getting the projector to work. At 10:30 AM everything was running and my official journey towards DIR started. Teaching along with Scot was Brandon Schwartz.
Day 1
This day was dedicated to achieving as much classroom work as possible. We spent the day in Scot's dinning room going over all of the things in the DIR-F workbook and a few other things that Scot and Brando had for us. Nothing really special here. Just your typical classroom stuff.
Day 2
The morning started off by stopping at a local coffee shop to pick up James Mott. He was to help out by shooting video of the class. Grabbed an OJ and muffin and we were on our way to the quarry. Once we arrived at the quarry, we geared up and started our dive briefings.
Dive one was to consist of propulsion techniques. My frog and modified frog kick looked good as did my helicopter turns. My modified flutter still needs a little work as I don't quite have that "snap" at the end of the kick. I need to work on keep my back arched and butt cheeks tight. I'm still dropping my knees. My back kick, well do we really need to go over how bad that was? I did practice it a little during the weekend and could feel it getting better. Especially on the times when I had my trim under control.
Dive two was to consist of the basic 5 and center of gravity drill. The basic five went well as I'm used to having students knock my mask off or kick the reg out of my mouth. To test our situational awareness, Brando and Scot threw an OOG at my two dive buddies. They performed it well, but didn't pay attention to me. As a result, I got punished. Brando yanks me away from the team and asks for my mask. Below the thermocline. Thanks! No use deploying the backup as he would have asked for that too. I think I sat there waving my light, getting a major brain freeze, for 10 minutes before they finally found me and gave me my mask. Dive was called after I broke rock bottom. Doh!!!
We went to the hotel and checked in. We met up again at to go over the video debrief We went to dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings and had a good time making fun of ourselves.
Day 3
We started the day by finishing up the lectures on dive planning, the 4 pillars of DIR and lift bags. Then we headed to the pool for our swims. It wasn't as bad as I was planning. But 16 laps in a small hotel pool really suck. The only thing that I practiced before the class was making sure I had the swimming down. I wasn't happy with the time it took for me to do the laps. I finished them up in 12 minutes. During my practice sessions, I was doing them in 9. But it was still with the 14 minutes required. The breath hold swim went well. I had to go last in order to catch my breath from the laps (and my shoulders were starting to tighten up). The pool was 50 feet long, I was able to do with no problems. And to add an extra touch, I swam half way back. At least I could do something right for this class.
Dive three of the class was to consist of valve drills. I was able to perform the drill, but it needs to be cleaned up a lot more. My buoyancy wasn't the greatest. My problem was that I made an equipment change prior to the class and not having a chance to try it out yet. I needed to tighten up my harness for the suit I was wearing. When I test dove that, I found that I was top heavy from the tanks. So I moved the bands up further and of course I didn't get a chance to dive them yet. If I had, I would have realized that they were up a tad to far and had some slight difficulty reaching them on the first try.
Dive four was to only consist of the descent/ascent drill. What a mess! Right off the bat one of the team members was having ear problems which slowed down our descent. Of course, we didn't keep track of him and lost him when we got to the bottom. For our sin, Scot and Brando threw an OOG our way. So now we are sharing air and decide to look for our missing teammate. I tied off my spool to the up line to perform a circle search for him. That was another mistake. Since we were at the beginning part of the dive, we should have just surfaced after losing the buddy. There really was no need to search. While we were searching, Brando and Scot put our missing buddy close to where I tied off. Now this buddy was a line magnet. On every dive, he would always get tangled up in the line. Not because the instructors did it to him, but because he did it to himself! This is where things got worse. We find him and get ready to surface, but now he is all tangled up in line. Not just tangled, but it was tied around his valve! Once we freed him, we realize that we lost track of the up line. During all of the mess with the line, the person I was donating to swam under another line. She then had to share with the buddy we just found to free up my long hose. Once we got everybody squared away, we ascended. But we ascended to slow to Brando and Scot's liking. I got punished again. Scot comes over and asks for my mask. Damn him!!! I let him know what I was thinking with a one handed gesture. Reluctantly, I gave him my mask.
After we surfaced, we agreed that that dive flat out sucked and wanted to practice it again. Be careful what you wish for!!! We descended again. The times and depths weren't right on the money, but close. We kept track of our teammates and were thinking this was going to be a fun dive. WRONG!!! Our ascent started a little slower than we would have liked. For that we got punished. I did a good job keeping the up line in sight, but came to close to some yellow line that was already there. Some how I got tangled up on it.
No worries, I stopped what I was doing and signaled my team to come and help. While they were helping me, Brando and Scot threw another OOG at them. We got squared away and started our ascent. Again the ascent was too slow and again I got punished for it. Scot comes over to me and asks for my mask again! Come one! At least we were above the thermocline. Now this is where the dive turned to crap. The person who was controlling my ascent wasn't controlling her buoyancy. I found out the hard way when we dropped below the thermocline. Thanks. Scot and Brando thumbed the dive due to gas and we surfaced.
We met up again at Buffalo Wild Wings for the video debrief and evals.
Conclusion
Overall I didn't bring my "A game" with me. I know I can do better than what I did during the class. The things I need to work on are keeping my trim while task loading and slowing down the thought process to get things in the right priority.
GUE doesn't want zombies. They want thinking divers. That was the thing that was driven home for me. You can have great skills, but if you can't think and put things in the right priority, then those skills aren't worth spit. Very little time was spent on the equipment of DIR. More time was spent on situational awareness and thinking the right way. That is what is truly at the heart of DIR.
In the end, I achieved most of what I wanted out of the class. I wanted to be put into situations that I haven't be in before. Scot and Brando definitely did that and then some. There is so much more that I can put into this report, but you won't learn anything by reading this on the internet. You have to go experience it.
I have to give a big thanks to Scot and Brando for starting me on the path to doing it better in my journey to doing it right.
I arrived at the home of Scot Wernette shortly after 10:00 AM. I felt bad for being late, but I was relieved I didn't miss anything as Scot was having technical difficulty getting the projector to work. At 10:30 AM everything was running and my official journey towards DIR started. Teaching along with Scot was Brandon Schwartz.
Day 1
This day was dedicated to achieving as much classroom work as possible. We spent the day in Scot's dinning room going over all of the things in the DIR-F workbook and a few other things that Scot and Brando had for us. Nothing really special here. Just your typical classroom stuff.
Day 2
The morning started off by stopping at a local coffee shop to pick up James Mott. He was to help out by shooting video of the class. Grabbed an OJ and muffin and we were on our way to the quarry. Once we arrived at the quarry, we geared up and started our dive briefings.
Dive one was to consist of propulsion techniques. My frog and modified frog kick looked good as did my helicopter turns. My modified flutter still needs a little work as I don't quite have that "snap" at the end of the kick. I need to work on keep my back arched and butt cheeks tight. I'm still dropping my knees. My back kick, well do we really need to go over how bad that was? I did practice it a little during the weekend and could feel it getting better. Especially on the times when I had my trim under control.
Dive two was to consist of the basic 5 and center of gravity drill. The basic five went well as I'm used to having students knock my mask off or kick the reg out of my mouth. To test our situational awareness, Brando and Scot threw an OOG at my two dive buddies. They performed it well, but didn't pay attention to me. As a result, I got punished. Brando yanks me away from the team and asks for my mask. Below the thermocline. Thanks! No use deploying the backup as he would have asked for that too. I think I sat there waving my light, getting a major brain freeze, for 10 minutes before they finally found me and gave me my mask. Dive was called after I broke rock bottom. Doh!!!
We went to the hotel and checked in. We met up again at to go over the video debrief We went to dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings and had a good time making fun of ourselves.
Day 3
We started the day by finishing up the lectures on dive planning, the 4 pillars of DIR and lift bags. Then we headed to the pool for our swims. It wasn't as bad as I was planning. But 16 laps in a small hotel pool really suck. The only thing that I practiced before the class was making sure I had the swimming down. I wasn't happy with the time it took for me to do the laps. I finished them up in 12 minutes. During my practice sessions, I was doing them in 9. But it was still with the 14 minutes required. The breath hold swim went well. I had to go last in order to catch my breath from the laps (and my shoulders were starting to tighten up). The pool was 50 feet long, I was able to do with no problems. And to add an extra touch, I swam half way back. At least I could do something right for this class.
Dive three of the class was to consist of valve drills. I was able to perform the drill, but it needs to be cleaned up a lot more. My buoyancy wasn't the greatest. My problem was that I made an equipment change prior to the class and not having a chance to try it out yet. I needed to tighten up my harness for the suit I was wearing. When I test dove that, I found that I was top heavy from the tanks. So I moved the bands up further and of course I didn't get a chance to dive them yet. If I had, I would have realized that they were up a tad to far and had some slight difficulty reaching them on the first try.
Dive four was to only consist of the descent/ascent drill. What a mess! Right off the bat one of the team members was having ear problems which slowed down our descent. Of course, we didn't keep track of him and lost him when we got to the bottom. For our sin, Scot and Brando threw an OOG our way. So now we are sharing air and decide to look for our missing teammate. I tied off my spool to the up line to perform a circle search for him. That was another mistake. Since we were at the beginning part of the dive, we should have just surfaced after losing the buddy. There really was no need to search. While we were searching, Brando and Scot put our missing buddy close to where I tied off. Now this buddy was a line magnet. On every dive, he would always get tangled up in the line. Not because the instructors did it to him, but because he did it to himself! This is where things got worse. We find him and get ready to surface, but now he is all tangled up in line. Not just tangled, but it was tied around his valve! Once we freed him, we realize that we lost track of the up line. During all of the mess with the line, the person I was donating to swam under another line. She then had to share with the buddy we just found to free up my long hose. Once we got everybody squared away, we ascended. But we ascended to slow to Brando and Scot's liking. I got punished again. Scot comes over and asks for my mask. Damn him!!! I let him know what I was thinking with a one handed gesture. Reluctantly, I gave him my mask.
After we surfaced, we agreed that that dive flat out sucked and wanted to practice it again. Be careful what you wish for!!! We descended again. The times and depths weren't right on the money, but close. We kept track of our teammates and were thinking this was going to be a fun dive. WRONG!!! Our ascent started a little slower than we would have liked. For that we got punished. I did a good job keeping the up line in sight, but came to close to some yellow line that was already there. Some how I got tangled up on it.
No worries, I stopped what I was doing and signaled my team to come and help. While they were helping me, Brando and Scot threw another OOG at them. We got squared away and started our ascent. Again the ascent was too slow and again I got punished for it. Scot comes over to me and asks for my mask again! Come one! At least we were above the thermocline. Now this is where the dive turned to crap. The person who was controlling my ascent wasn't controlling her buoyancy. I found out the hard way when we dropped below the thermocline. Thanks. Scot and Brando thumbed the dive due to gas and we surfaced.We met up again at Buffalo Wild Wings for the video debrief and evals.
Conclusion
Overall I didn't bring my "A game" with me. I know I can do better than what I did during the class. The things I need to work on are keeping my trim while task loading and slowing down the thought process to get things in the right priority.
GUE doesn't want zombies. They want thinking divers. That was the thing that was driven home for me. You can have great skills, but if you can't think and put things in the right priority, then those skills aren't worth spit. Very little time was spent on the equipment of DIR. More time was spent on situational awareness and thinking the right way. That is what is truly at the heart of DIR.
In the end, I achieved most of what I wanted out of the class. I wanted to be put into situations that I haven't be in before. Scot and Brando definitely did that and then some. There is so much more that I can put into this report, but you won't learn anything by reading this on the internet. You have to go experience it.
I have to give a big thanks to Scot and Brando for starting me on the path to doing it better in my journey to doing it right.
