DIRF Class Report

[Cave Diver]

5:30 a.m and I am still half asleep driving to meet my buddy for the two hour drive to our OW session of DIRF. I am thinking to myself that I must be crazy to be doing this. Hmm, come to think of it, I already know I am crazy, so drive on!

We make good time on our trip, and after a quick breakfast we make it to our dive site with time to spare. "Lost Lake" seems to triple as a trailer park, a diving/fishing/swimming site and a zoo. The trip would not have been complete without getting to meet Zelda the Zonkey. Half zebra, half donkey. *TIP* never let Texas A & M agricultural students play around with your livestock!

Our instructors regaled us with tales of dive planning and how the DM's were amazed when they surfaced exactly 89 minutes after entering the water just as they said they would. They did however seem to have a bit of a problem being to class on time as they were usually the last to show. In all fairness tho, Tyler had just finished teaching in Helsinky, so he was all screwed up about which time zone he was actually in.

On a sad note, ED decided to drop out of the class. He showed up at the dive site to return the tanks he had borrowed and proceeded on his TEN HOUR drive back home. Tyler talked to him privately but ED decided that he didnt have the skills to finish the class and felt rather overwhelmed with the task loading. Perhaps he will take it again once he gains some more experience and comfort in the water, but I felt bad for him that he spent that much time and money on getting to the class and elected not to finish. However, any diver can call the dive at any time. He choose to call his dives, and no one can fault him for having the guts to recognize the he wasnt up to the dives. That really drove home the lesson to me tho, that equipment does NOT make the diver. It is simply one part of the overall package.

A quick briefing about our dive plan for the day and Dave lays out a line course on land for us to practice following. They demonstrate proper techniques for OOA sharing while on a line, touch contact, etc. then break us into our buddy teams to practice the land drills.

After a little more practice and a little more lecture, we gear up and hit the water. Dave an Tyler go out to lay the line course and the rest of us just relax on the surface talking amongst ourselves. Our instructors return shortly and tell us it's show time. Let the fun begin!

 

[Dee]

More....more....

 

[Fetch]

*chuckle* I'm glad you wrote all this and not I, John, for your memory for 3 days of pretty intensive trainings is more accurate than mine.

A few minor corrections: I caught Dave saying "stroke" once. It was used offhand, not offensively, etc. I've personally progressed beyond the point where I have a problem with the term (indeed, I can sit and read G3 post after G3 post, and just chuckle ).

A 7' hose wasn't a requirement for the class, only a "long hose" (at this time GUE still officially recommends a 5' hose for OW, Dave indicated this would likely change). The class was illuminating. There are differing opinions on gearing between different members of the DIR scene (specifically, G3 dictates breakable [vs cuttable] links only on long-hose second stages used while rebreather diving, whereas Dave indicated that breakable links were a good idea on SPG and long hose 2nd stage)... but everyone agrees about the truly fundamental parts of DIR diving (training, awareness, asking "why?").

John originally stated that DIR was about "why?", and then said it was about "what?" later... I think he was tired from all that typing A key emphasis was that there should be no change in responses when you do different types of diving, and that the DIR gave you a comprehensive solution, once you learned to apply it.

That, and that diving solo is never DIR, but that you should always be watching out for yourself, in addition to your buddy.

Enough of the serious stuff (Cave Diver will hit on it more, I'm sure). One of the benefits of GUE classes is getting to talk with instructors of surpassing skill, who have dove in some of the most challenging environments possible. There were great tidbits. Dave on the Transpac II "I know the guy who designed this, he's a friend of mine. We tease him about it all the time. He's never personally dove it." (I am still chuckling over that) Or Tyler relating a gentleman diving 4 independent singles, with 8 regs, in Europe. And hearing how, contrary to popular opinion, solo diving wasn't necessary in European caves.

Oh, additionally: I don't think Ed was in our group, John We thought he was with the other doubles folk (my buddy and I were by far the two worst with skills, excluding Ed). BTW, pick a buddy to go with you to go to this class. Pot luck is bad when it comes to this level of buddy interaction.

I learned a lot, sure, but I think that if you are at an instructor level with several hundred dives, you won't "learn" all that much new information, but you WILL definately learn where the bar is in diving skills, and where you are in relation to it.

OH BTW UBERIMPORTANT: There were no harassment drills. None, zero, nada. All drills were at planned times (granted the planned time could be somewhat vague), and consisted of an instructor signalling what your particular ailment should be. Dave told us about a student who was terrified on the first DIRF dive, because he thought it was full of these drills. It simply isn't. ("The most important rule is don't drown. If you drown, you fail the class. And that'd be sad, because this isn't a pass/fail class")

Best money I've spent in diving, and it made me wish I'd gotten my OW through FifthD

jeff

 

[Cave Diver]

Our buddy team gives the signal to submerge and down we go, bumping a little air into our BC to keep our descent rate slow and controlled. We stay facing each other as we descend through the murk. I judge the visibility to have been averaging between 5-7 feet. We make our way to the platform and Dave sends us off in our buddy teams to follow the line course.

The first leg runs from the platform to a sunken boat for a distance of approximately 20 yards. The second leg is slightly shorter and terminates at a signpost of some sort. The last leg leads back to the platform and also runs for about 20 yards.

The designated team leader is supposed to practice different kicks with their buddy following suit.

It seemed as if we used a slightly slower descent than the other teams, so we were the last to hit the platform. When we started down the line, we immediately ran into the second team. I gave the hold signal and we hovered above the line for about 30 seconds. The team ahead of us was still stuck in one spot, couldnt really tell why, so I signalled a return to the platform. We hovered above the platform for about an additional minute, then started back down the line again.

I followed the line using visual reference rather than touch, hovering just above it. My buddy stayed off of my right shoulder about two feet behind me and a quick glance was usually all I needed to locate him. After arriving at the boat, we encountered team 2 again. I again signalled a hold and we gave them a minute to get moving before we started forward.

As we approached the end of the second leg visibility dropped to almost 0. A quick glance back at my buddy confirmed that he was barely visible. At this point I went to touch contact with the line and waited for him to get into position. Once he secured the line as well, we continued on our course. After getting a few yards away from the second turn, visibility cleared up. From the condition of the bottom near the sign post I would speculate that at least one team had a hard time navigating at that point and silted out pretty badly. As we approached the platform, Dave pulled our team and had us do mask removal and OOA drills again.

After our adjustments from the previous night, we showed improvement in controlling our bouyancy, but there was still a greater range of movement than the GUE instructors were demonstrating. After doing an OOA drill, they then sent us to run a circuit while sharing air. On our return to the platform, they reversed our position as donor/recipient and we had to run the circuit again.

Our next approach to the platform we worked on kicks. They demonstrated the backwards kick and the helicopter turns then it was our turn to try it. I managed to turn, even tho I didnt use quite the right form. The backwards kick basically eluded me for most of the session, tho I did manage to pull off a few halfway decent ones. I seemed to be dropping my knees (bending at the hips) too much to get any effective power out of it. I think part of this was due to the the muscle fatigue and cramping that I had earlier, but the net result is that I still need to work on that skill some more. A word to the wise (or foolish): Jet fins are heavy and stiff. They will work muscles you probably forgot you even had. Used correctly they give great power, but with great power comes great responsiblity... Oh wait, that is from another 'thread'

We did a few more circuits before the instructors called the dive. My buddy and I got in position, faced each other and did a nice horizontal ascent to the surface. Dave even complimented us on pulling off a few backwards kicks to maintain our distance. I didnt even realize I had done one!

The single tank guys are almost out of air, so it's time to go in, switch tanks and do a little debriefing. Final thoughts and installment to be posted later, so Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

 

[Fetch]

LOL, I was happy to be such an instrumental element in your training Well, I kicked up/punched/landed on the silt that dive, but at least it helped with the touch contact drills.

This ascent from dive 1 (for at least my buddy and I) was done maskless, which was interesting. And we weren't that bad on air, but it WAS time to turn to the surface. (Ok, yeah, training with an AL80 while one of the doubles has about 2.5 times the gas can be a wee bit frustrating. But the instructors never mentioned it, they accounted for it nicely)

jeff

Cave Diver once bubbled...
When we started down the line, we immediately ran into the second team. I gave the hold signal and we hovered above the line for about 30 seconds. The team ahead of us was still stuck in one spot, couldnt really tell why, so I signalled a return to the platform. We hovered above the platform for about an additional minute, then started back down the line again.

The single tank guys are almost out of air, so it's time to go in, switch tanks and do a little debriefing. Final thoughts and installment to be posted later, so Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

 

[Uncle Pug]

Fetch once bubbled...
BTW, pick a buddy to go with you to go to this class. Pot luck is bad when it comes to this level of buddy interaction.

When you get to the next level you can be sure that your normal buddy will be paired with someone else... the idea being that all DIR divers should be able to dive seamlessly with any other DIR diver. And you know... it kinda works

But eventually Shane and I got to dive together again.

 

[Uncle Pug]

...with timely remarks from Fetch to spice it up...
Too bad we have to wait until tomorrow to get the final chapter!

 

[Cave Diver]

Fetch once bubbled...
*chuckle* I'm glad you wrote all this and not I, John, for your memory for 3 days of pretty intensive trainings is more accurate than mine.

A few minor corrections: I caught Dave saying "stroke" once. It was used offhand, not offensively, etc. I've personally progressed beyond the point where I have a problem with the term (indeed, I can sit and read G3 post after G3 post, and just chuckle.

I personally never recalled hearing the term from them, but I did hear mention once of "Rule #1 never dive with unsafe divers."

Fetch once bubbled...
A 7' hose wasn't a requirement for the class, only a "long hose" (at this time GUE still officially recommends a 5' hose for OW, Dave indicated this would likely change).

I actually never saw or was told of any requirement regarding this. That was just based on my own assesment that without having a (and I should have said long) 7' hose, several of the skills would have been impossible. Even a wings setup wasnt as critical as the long hose, the class COULD be done using a jacket style BC. I wouldnt recommend it, but I think it would be possible.

Fetch once bubbled...
John originally stated that DIR was about "why?", and then said it was about "what?" later... I think he was tired from all that typing A key emphasis was that there should be no change in responses when you do different types of diving, and that the DIR gave you a comprehensive solution, once you learned to apply it.

I caught myself doing that once, and thought I corrected all of them. Hopefully I didnt confuse anyone with that little deviation.

Fetch once bubbled...
There were great tidbits. Dave on the Transpac II "I know the guy who designed this, he's a friend of mine. We tease him about it all the time. He's never personally dove it." (I am still chuckling over that) Or Tyler relating a gentleman diving 4 independent singles, with 8 regs, in Europe. And hearing how, contrary to popular opinion, solo diving wasn't necessary in European caves.

I personally liked the story of Sergei the Ice diver who tunnelled through six feet of snow to cut a hole in ice with a chainsaw to dive, and had NO overhead training. How he also built his own regs out of office equipment and everyone there thought Apeks regs were junk and wanted to dive "Sergei" regs...

Fetch once bubbled...
Oh, additionally: I don't think Ed was in our group, John We thought he was with the other doubles folk (my buddy and I were by far the two worst with skills, excluding Ed). BTW, pick a buddy to go with you to go to this class. Pot luck is bad when it comes to this level of buddy interaction.

Hmmm, maybe that was part of the problem for him. We thought the group was me and my partner, the NAUI and the SSI instructor, and then the last group that included you as being a buddy trio. I also think your dive buddy contributed a lot to some of your teams problems. He seemed to do more talking than listening and it was apparent when he hit the water he often didnt know what he was supposed to be doing. As far as ED goes, I dont really think he was over his head, rather he convinced himself that he was and gave up trying. Frustration is an awful thing. I felt a bit of it myself during the backward kick training because I KNEW I could do it, I just couldnt convince my legs of that.

Fetch once bubbled...
OH BTW UBERIMPORTANT: There were no harassment drills. None, zero, nada. All drills were at planned times (granted the planned time could be somewhat vague), and consisted of an instructor signalling what your particular ailment should be. Dave told us about a student who was terrified on the first DIRF dive, because he thought it was full of these drills. It simply isn't. ("The most important rule is don't drown. If you drown, you fail the class. And that'd be sad, because this isn't a pass/fail class")

The only time that I ever know where an instructor 'harassed' a student was when Dave removed my mask. And I use the term harass very loosely, because my mask was not yanked from my face. He approached me where I could see him and he slowly and deliberately removed it from my face and handed it to me. In every other instance when they wanted an out of air drill or a mask removal drill they signalled their intent. There was NEVER contact at anytime between them and a student that I observed.

Thanks for chiming in Jeff, good to hear it was a positive experience for you as well. Me and my buddy talked at length about it during our drive home and we both felt we got our money's worth and then some.

 

[JamesK]

Now this is what I call a nice detailed report!

Please continue!

 

[Cave Diver]

Since the guys diving singles needed to switch out tanks, we all came to shore to discuss our last dive and to find out more about our final one.

Our last skill was going to be shooting lift bags. Everyone had a bag which ranged from my little 50lb subsalve bag to a monster 185lb bag someone else brought. There were several open bags as well as closed bags in the group. The instructors favored the closed bag design that looked like a safety sausage on steroids. They gave us several reasons for this and then demonstrated it to us in the water as well. While we were taking our SI Dave walked over to the petting zoo and shared his celery with the goats. Interestingly enough, they wouldnt eat it until the pig started to. Dave got a chuckle out that.

Once we all had the basic idea on how shooting a bag was supposed to work and how to properly handle the reel, etc. It was back in the water.

A quick surface swim out to the platform and then buddy team horizontal descent. Once everyone was situated around the platform, Tyler demonstrated the technique for us once or twice, then it was our turn to try it. Dave remained on the surface to deflate the bags so we could keep practicing.

For the most part, I really felt that the lift bag deployment was very easy. I had actually practiced this some on previous dives so it was not a new skill to me, I just needed a little refinement. There are a few important steps that make it a little easier, and using the reg on your long hose to inflate the bag while keeping it away from you was a definite plus. Doing it that way also gave us practice switching to our backup regs. We were shown several techniques, depending on the type of bag and once you learned a technique and got into a rhythm you could shoot one pretty quickly. I probably did at least a dozen deployments before they gave us the signal to surface.

At the surface we talked about the deployments for a few moments and they told us that some of the bags were coming up with too little air, or not enough tension on the line. As a result, they were dumping the air out and basically sinking without Dave even having to touch them.

Tyler then went down and gave several demonstrations on how our bags looked at the surface, and how they should look when done properly. He also demonstrated the open and closed bags and pointed out the differences in using both.

Time to head back to shore for the debriefing and the end to a long and wearying, though thoroughly enjoyable 3 days. We were given the opportunity to discuss and question anything we wanted and we spent a fair amount of time just going over things before packing up to leave.

When it was all said and done, I got to spend a few moments alone with each of the instructors. They had emphasized in the class that they were not here to grade us. It was ultimately up to us to determine for ourselves how we felt we did in class and hopefully we learned a few things.

In my private discussion with each of them, I told them that I was interested in taking a Tech 1 class in the future, and while I felt that I did okay in the class I knew that I still had some things to work on. I pretty much got the same response from both instructors and it was that I had shown a high degree of comfort and ability in the water. The weaknesses that I had been shown in the pool were already improving during the OW session and they had no doubt that with continued practice I would soon be able to do even better. They also both responded that I was absolutely a candidate for the Tech 1 class, so that is a goal for me to work towards.

I really can't say how much my cave training contributed to this class. It certainly helped me as far as being familiar with several of the kicks, bouyancy control and handling line drills and OOA with a 7' hose. I think one of the main issues tho, is the fact that I was comfortable enough in the water to take cave training in the first place, and that comfort will serve me well no matter what type of diving I decide to do.

In a lot of respects I am a pretty new diver. I was PADI OW certified in April of 2000. Since then I continued on by taking my AOW and Rescue classes as well as my Nitrox class and more recently completed my NACD Cave training. I am also in the process of taking my Advanced Nitrox class right now, ultimately working towards Tri-mix Certification.

In the 2 1/2 years I have been diving, I have logged close to 200 dives in a variety of conditions. Local lakes where visibility is often less than 5', Several trips to the flower gardens, drift diving in Mexico, wall diving in the Cayman Islands, spearfishing at oil rigs, cave diving in Florida and a few other spots here and there.

I strongly believe in getting training for the environment you want to dive, then getting progressive experience to build on. I felt that the DIRF class gave me some additional skills and I think it is a great class for someone of ANY skill level.

I am out of time for now, but I will post a few additional thoughts this evening for anyone interested in taking the class. Sorry for the extreme length of these posts, but I wanted to do my best to answer any questions that might be out there regarding what exactly the class was all about. Hopefully I did that, and it will encourage others to continue to learn as well.