DIRF, A Sobering Experience

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I'd like to throw in a couple thoughts on this, because as a PADI DMC and a budding tec diver who's about to take a DIR class, I've gone through a lot of the same arguments with myself I see here.

First, I value all of my diving training experience, including my PADI DM training, because I learned from everything, and I'm a much better diver for it. However, I'm currently struggling to reconcile the approach to diving I learned recreationally with the approach I learned in technical training. What I think I've come to see is that for me, diving is diving. The mental approach I was taught for technical diving is the correct one in my mind, and that's the biggest problem I have with my recreational training, and what I don't see enough focus on from the DIR converts. I've read JJ's stuff and he seems to get it, but the herd, not so much.

I think the argument for DIR is weakest when based on skills and gear, frankly, since the average OW diver doesn't need the skills or the gear that a cave diver does. Sure, they won't hurt, but the vast majority of OW divers go down, swim badly, come up, and go home safe and happy. Someone used the license analogy, and it's a good one - you don't need to be Jeff Gordon to drive the kids to school. I was thoroughly humbled by my first (non-GUE) cave class, believe me, and I've got a Hogarthian doubles rig, a sore lower back from arching it, and a redesigned frog kick to prove it. However, I dove fanatically, and fairly safely, a whole lot before I'd ever seen a backplate and wings. A well-maintained set of recreational gear and a mature attitude are about all the equipment the average recreational diver should ever need. As part of that mature attitude they should work to improve, but they don't need to be perfect or even very good to have a good time.

I believe the biggest value of the DIR system (and any good cave/tech instruction, in my experience) is the mental approach to diving, the careful preparation and planning, and thorough knowledge of yourself, your abilities, etc. As above, the biggest problem is the approach to diving that is taught - or rather, not taught - in recreational diving. Ignorance is the real problem I have with dive training today, not skills. While lip service is paid to topics like dive planning, etc, the wrong things are emphasized, students don't practice the skills, and generally the divers just aren't mentally prepared for extraordinary circumstances. An example: which is more dangerous: 1) a rec diver who accidently overstays an NDL, notices, ascends, calmly does a few minutes of hang time as a result as per the tables or computer he carried with him, and surfaces with 800 PSI, or 2) a diver who dives to 130' on air with a single 80 cub. ft cylinder and one reg, who stays for the appropriate NDL time and then surfaces with 300-400 PSI, with no idea how to calculate how long his gas supply will last at that depth. I've actually seen divers in the first instance freak when their computer went into deco and surface immediately with tons of back gas, because DECO IS EVIL - or so they've been not-taught. I've seen a ton of diver #2s off the NC coast, getting back on the boat grinning with 200 PSI in their single 80, not understanding that a first stage failure could mean death. Both of these problems are caused because their training emphasized that time (i.e NDL) is the most important thing, when really, AIR is the most important thing. How many recreational divers know what a SAC rate is, let alone have calculated theirs? How much time is spent in class computing SAC (none) compared to how much is spent on the dive table they'll never use after they buy a computer (a lot)? Sorry, pet peeve, the point is, there were a whole lot of gaps in my training that didn't get filled until I went tec or self-educated, and they shouldn't have been so new to me. Diving is diving.

Anyway, I ran on a little long there, so I'll stop. This is a work in progress. I'm currently just a guy trying to figure it out for himself. If DIRfund changes everything, I'll come back and tell you about it.:confused: :banging:
 
I am a big believer in epidemiology in proving whether activities are safe are not. In the end, statistically speaking, current training does not result in massive numbers of injuries and is therefore pretty safe. Could it be safer? Of course, but potentially at diminishing returns. At some point the cost per percentage of safety gained is just not worth it. Theoretically speaking there are a ton of problems with the way open water is taught today, but based on statistics, diving is pretty safe and the proof is in the epidemiology.

Insurance companies are a pretty good regulator on quality of training. As the training goes down, people get hurt and insurance goes up (PADI's instructor increases could be, but aren't necessarily, a signal of this). As insurance goes up, the certifying agencies will do what is necessary to decrease their insurance premiums or go out of business.
 
Originally posted by O-ring

...just used to show how you can control buoyancy through breathing. I think Naui or maybe SSI teaches a horizontal hover instead...much better idea...

Exactly! The ONLY purpose of the fin pivot is to let the raw beginner see what breathing does to buoyancy, and how to work the BC controls without floating all over the place.THEN you get them horizontal.
This is also not the only way to teach buoyancy.
Instructors who think this is an actual practical skill are not thinking. The real question is why the ***k do PADI instructors have students do this in OW?

Mike,
Forget for a minute WHAT they are teaching and who they are.
I, me, myself, would not be anxious to associate myself with a group that can't seem to instruct well enough to pass more than 50% of students, even allowing for lack of talent and sheer stupidity. The course is good, the goals admirable, but they need better instructors, IMO.

Neil
 
Wow,
I knew DIR was good stuff - but this is pretty scary.

Just keep at it Yooper - as least you realize your weaknesses and thats the first step in getting better. For everyone!

I know that I want to take that class within the next year.

Being a newly certified OW diver, I feel in some ways, maybe thats GOOD (and bad), at least to the point of myself not having dropped a ton of money on C-cards. And I had considered taking the Wreck course soon. I think I'll hold off on that and take DIRF first!

This is EXACTLY the kind of stuff my DIR friends out west have been talking about to me from day one when I got interested in diving and signed up for my BOW course - laden with my BC, console, Fastex buckled stuff, and standard hose routing.

Looks like they were right all along. I realize that DIR gear does not make the DIR diver! Sure, I have selected the right gear, so far - but thats only a small part of the equation....

I don't think one has to be very educated to see now that many of the agencies (mine included) aren't teaching the right kinds of skills and endorsing the right kinds of gear for the safety of our divers.

I have little faith in even the basic skills I have been taught in my OW course. I'm sure in a whole 30 minutes into a DIR class, my self opinion of my OWN mastery of my skills will be shattered!

And, thats probably a good thing for my dive buddies and myself!
 
Originally posted by neil

Mike,
Forget for a minute WHAT they are teaching and who they are.
I, me, myself, would not be anxious to associate myself with a group that can't seem to instruct well enough to pass more than 50% of students, even allowing for lack of talent and sheer stupidity. The course is good, the goals admirable, but they need better instructors, IMO.

Neil

Are you talking about GUE instructors not being good?
 
I'm sure in a whole 30 minutes into a DIR class, my self opinion of my OWN mastery of my skills will be shattered!

I have been prepping for this all week...I am re-reading the DIRF book (for the third time) and finalizing traveling arrangements with my buddies (there are 4 of us that dive together in the class). I don't take criticism well, so I would say I have worked on my attitude lately as much as my trim :D

I am thinking about bringing a nice cold bottle of milk so I can sit back and try to enjoy my humble pie instead of fighting it...
 
Niel,

GUE holds divers to a standard that I have never seen before. They simply will not hand out a piece of plastic to someone who doesn't deserve it -- the way it should be. I don't know how Tech 1 is taught, but I suspect that Andrew, Mike, and Dan would show those students as much attention as they showed us. You cannot hold up an entire class waiting for others who should have practiced more. I would feel far more anxious being associated with an agency that allows divers to slide through for economic reasons. Now that's scary and it's prevailant in this industry.

It makes me sick to see new divers (or any divers) get their piece of plastic who cannot maintain simple buoyancy, keep track of their buddy, or manage their air. It seems to me that the only reason diving is so safe is the relatively dependable equipment on the market. It's not the skill of the divers out there, IMO.

Mike
 
Diving is not safe because of the equipment. It is safe because most people only do canned dives under supervision. When divers venture out on their own they don't do nearly as well. Most diving is like any other tourist activity in that it requires very little knowlege or skill. One major point that many of you are missing is that most divers don't give a sh#t about being a great diver. The are underwater sight seeing. If they can see the reef, they are happy. For most diving will not receive any more time or effort that any other casual hobby. If you go to a golf course what do you think the average score would be? How about the bowling alley?

more later...
 
I'm not sure if most divers could safely handle an equipment failure or multiple failures with the skills they are "taught". I believe most divers rely solely on their equipment rather than their skills. I do see your point though, Mike, and I agree.

Mike
 
FYI, for those of you taking the DIRFund class this weekend in Raleigh NC, word is JJ himself is teaching it. Presumably the guy who wrote the book is a pretty good instructor - should be fun.
 
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