Bradymsu, i arnt a presumptuous kind of person, i wasnt making a point of you disagreeing, but the argument you put forward was not truthful with respect to DIR, thus i just pointed out that you were ill informed, or atleast mis- informed. DIR divers dont assume that they will be ok because they "think" they have planned for the worse. No were in the DIR philosophy does it say about diving ONLY with people who have the same kit configuration as yourself. DIR divers do NOT "rely" on there buddy for safety and life support they use teamwork as an effective means of increasing the safety of each dive. All none truths Bradymsu, i dont know were you got you information from (i hope not just from these boards) but i suggest that you do some reading on the DIR thing whether you are for or against.
http://www.gue.com
http://www.dis-uk.org
http://www.wkpp.org
"The premise I'm operating on is that recreational and technical divers are not military or commercial divers in that we have both the freedom and responsibility to continually question our own styles and those of other divers in order to learn and improve our diving. Even a diver who has adopted the label of DIR needs to remind himself that this isn't a license to exclude other ideas or insultate himself from considering non-DIR concepts regardless of whether he is diving in caves, deep wrecks, warm Carribean open waters, etc".
I for one dont exclude ideas i consider them wisely before coming to any conclusions, lets not make blanket statements and put all DIR divers into a box. I choose to conform to DIR becuase i (like you said above) decide to take note of the amazing safety record (since DIR was introduced) of the WKPP/GUE considering the EXTREME nature of their cave diving. This form of diving is probably more dangerous than most diving done by commercial or military personel. In such extreme environments you will find many RULES which apply to ANYONE who decides to take this route and without question those rules are followed , and for good reason.
"However, when technical diving you are doing extended depth and time which requires a drysuit. With a drysuit you need argon. The argon bottle is placed on the left hip behind the d-ring but it should also be removable. This cant be done with the ACB pouch on the left. In addition, a canister light is carried on the right that also needs to be ditchable. Again the pouches will prevent this".
Omar, you are talking of extended range/trimix etc. Argon is NOT "needed" it is only an option, and according to GUE , yes you can position the argon bottle on the left behind the ACB weight pouch. Again on the right with the canister light there is no problem attaching one onto the weight pouch. Omar i think for everyones benefit that you should at least try equipment before telling people what it is or what it isnt, from what you have said you clearly havnt used the Halcyon ACB pouches. The ACB system IS DIR according to Halcyon and GUE although i have been told that GUE instructors prefer the ACB system to be used in open water only. The pouches have been designed specifically for what you just said they were not good for.
Regarding my question to you Omar...i never said i was clipping off onto a weightbelt , i sugested that if you were going to use a conventional weight belt (which most people attach after there backplate harness) it could and probably would interfere with any hip d-rings on the backplate harness. Omar how are you wearing your weightbelt so as not to interfere with the crotch strap and hip d-rings. For example i was going to buy a bowstone shot weightbelt but it would have probably rendered my hip d-rings useless, heres a link of the belt i was considering:
http://www.cybaqua.co.uk/acatalog/dw2_d7681_lge.jpg
PS: In no way whatsoever did i mean to offend or to get personal with any one here. Lets keep this thread civil, its difficult sometimes but i am sure we can manage it
Apologies to you guys if i did manage to offend anyone. Cheers