Super secret DIR equipment? Post your stories (all in good fun)

[TSandM]

Mpetryk, one of the core values of DIR diving is to bring the equipment you NEED for a dive . . . so of course, for shallow, brief dives, single tanks are ideal! We go to doubles for deep dives, long dives, or overhead dives. Who wants to carry around doubles when they don't have to?

Another funny story . . . I was in Mexico, and ran into an instructor running a cave diving class for three people from Norway. I asked them if they knew my cave class buddy, Gunnar. They thought for a moment, and said they thought they did. "He's one of those deer divers, isn't he?" they asked. "Deer divers?", I thought. What's a "deer" diver? And then it hit me . . .

Ben, I don't think this is a DIR bashing thread. I do think there are some funny stories regarding misperceptions or misconceptions about us, what we dive, and what we do.

 

[ScubaInChicago]

:applause:
I have no doubt that some gear is superior to other gear in a given situation. The take-home message for me, however, was that a truly excellent diver can execute the dive, regardless of what kind of gear they wear. Gear-worship is a bit over-rated for me...

Very good point, it does get lost in translation at times...The fact is that when you have learned how to do things very well and how to overcome trim and buoyancy issues, you can dive a double bladder garbage bag (exaggerating) and know in your gut what needs adjustment, be it body posture, weight movement, gear tweaking and still dive well.

The education should be priority #1, with it open all new worlds of fun...It's even more fun when you have gear that fits the dives and doesn't fight you tooth and nail (= NO FUN).

 

[FireInMyBones]

A "Dur?" That's awesome.

Yeah, I am not one to bash anyone. DIR guys are some good divers, but like those on blue planet or the guys at my LDS, who dive some pretty weird stuff, we do not have to be DIR to be good divers. Off the box, sorry.

I was offered a pair of split fins at the lake once when the owner noticed my Jet fins. When I did not take them I was ridiculed for being too young to dive gear that old.

 

[Crush]

Mpetryk, one of the core values of DIR diving is to bring the equipment you NEED for a dive . . . so of course, for shallow, brief dives, single tanks are ideal! We go to doubles for deep dives, long dives, or overhead dives. Who wants to carry around doubles when they don't have to?

Your point is sound. I am displaying my (self-professed) ignorance of DIR.

I know that The Last Dive is not a DIR handbook. However, I am reading that book now. In it, Chouwhury details how the Rouse's dove their local quarry all the time with doubles. Whether this was for practice or out of dogma or both was not evident to me by page 191 (my current bookmark).

Personal question - if the situation arose where doubles were too much, but a pony would potentially be helpful, would you carry one?

 

[FireInMyBones]

Personal question - if the situation arose where doubles were too much, but a pony would potentially be helpful, would you carry one?

I dive a pony with 100% O2 even when on a single tank for my safety stops even when not doing an official deco dive.
I am reading Shadow Divers right now with the Last Dive on my book shelf to be read next.
I actually am pretty close to DIR minus a few preferences due local conditions and lack of fundage. I do not feel I must be looked down upon for lack of gear, so I make up for it with technique. Most of the guys I dive with are as close to DIR without being DIR as can be. Even the smoker is giving it up to be a better diver and healthier overall individual.

 

[kathydee]

Last summer I was traveling solo all over SE Asia for 10 weeks diving with various insta-partners. I was decked out in DIR gear, had learned a little of the diving style, and planned to start formal training when I came home. Throughout the summer many recreational divers eyed my gear with curiosity and oddity. Some tech shop guides eyed it with envy, while other dive masters called me a navy seal. It seemed to confuse almost everybody.

I eventually found my way to Coron Wrecks in the Philippines - where I dove in the off season with a tech shop as their only client. They were understandably very curious about the solo American women wrapped in a long hose & decked out in bp/w & bolt clips, X shorts and jet fins who had strolled in from the dusty road without reservations during the monsoon season.

It's quite common in Coron to drop down to 130-150?ft on air. Most dives are at least 100ft and many included partial penetration at depth. Respecting my future instructor’s suggestions, I stuck pretty close to that DIR perscribed deep air limit of 100ft which avoids debilitating narcosis and I'm not overhead certified so refused to do more than a swim-through, especially at those depths . The instructors teased me for being so conservative when it appeared I had the skill to do more. Resisting the peer pressure, it took some smooth talking for my guide, a tech instructor, to understand the limits. I tried to explain the DIR path but to no avail.

Finally, I showed him a 5xd training video that I happened to have on my laptop & a light went on in his eyes and he said - "Oh you mean the Florida divers" - he continued to rave about how tech divers visited from many countries - he told me that the Fla divers were conservative, but they were also consistantly the best divers he had ever seen. He was very impressed that I would be lucky enough to train with them. After that, nobody in the shop harassed me about my conservative depth limit & they invited me back for even more fun after training !

I loved the trip, but boy was I happy to come back home to my DIR buddies & not have to explain my DIR gear and personal dive limits to every new boat & dive shop .

Oh a funny DIR secret gear story? Well I carried my rubber roll up snorkel all over SE Asia and on every boat - just in case a Dolphin swam by on a surface interval so I could hop in .

 

[Blackwood]

while other dive masters called me a navy seal.

I'm always tempted to carry a picture of a navy seal and of Nuno Gomez with me when I go on a new boat, so I can pull them out and say "do I look like this?" when accused of being something I'm not.

 

[TSandM]

Personal question - if the situation arose where doubles were too much, but a pony would potentially be helpful, would you carry one?

Hmm. I'm trying to come up with a dive that would fit those criteria. I'd need a dive where doubles were disadvantageous, which is mostly getting in and out of the water, and one where a single tank and reserves on my buddy's back wouldn't seem good enough. Maybe a rocky entry into surf with an instabuddy? In that case, I think I'd probably just keep the dive shallow and simple, and not carry the pony.

The one time carrying an additional tank has looked like a reasonable option is that I keep thinking I ought, at some point, to go do a solo dive, just to see what it's like. In that case, doubles are a bad idea, as I often need a bit of help out of the water with them, and a single tank isn't enough redundancy. But every time I start thinking this through, I just decide to call somebody and go diving . . .

 

[Blackwood]

a single tank isn't [-]enough [/-]redundancy.

fixed

 

[Nemrod]

You know, I have shown up on dive boats with pink super kitty stickers on rainbow colored tanks or in black stealth ninja gear or Sea Hunt double hose and only in a blue moon does anyone ever say anything or ask anything about gear, other than once or twice (when I was in full vintage) the captain winked at me and asked me to come up before two hours so he could move the boat, I complied. Mostly, people ask questions, if any, about my camera and rarely about any gear, gear configuration or equipment. Well, the homemade LSU VIP stickers stir them up in Flariduh, a little.

I think there is something of a show off component to some of this. Isn't there a DIR forum?

N, doing it wrong so many years it feels right diver, DIWSMYIFRD