The minimalist movement

[White Knight]

That is the great thing about America....you can configure your gear anyway you want. I am a believer in integration and I try to integrate everything I can: Weight belt and BC; Computer and Console; Knife pocket in Dry suit; Oct and Power inflator; etc. I don't like extra straps or long hoses wrapping around me. I am an avid hunter, so all my gear revolves around being able to handle a spear gun, load it and retrieve it, and deal with the fish after I spear it, etc. I do not dive mixed air, do not penetrate deep caves or wrecks, and do not do deco diving. So, my gear configuration works for me. It conforms to my needs and objectives. Not everyone drives the same car or truck, why would everyone use the same gear? My two cents....

 

[Apollon]

Hmmm.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I think that the vintage gear crowd and the Hog crowd are talking about totally different things when speaking of minimalism and therefore the term cannot be used generically to describe any sort of actual 'movement'.

Rachel

I think that the vintage gear crowd and the Hog crowd are talking about totally different things when speaking of minimalism and therefore the term cannot be used generically to describe any sort of actual 'movement'.

Rachel

Vintage is 'vintage', even though they have a minimal configuration just by default of the way vintage gear is. But they are known first as vintage.

DIR has a minimal configuration for the types of dives that they were originally doing when the environment demanded that type of gear and training like the WKPP and deep wrecks on the east coast. It is my opinion and observation that their movement has been morphed into a monster, at least on the west coast. I see thousands of dollars spent on stuff that in my opinion is silly for the type of diving we do in California. If the dive calls for all that gear then great, but using all that crap just for simple beach dives just because someone told them "you have to use all this stuff every time you dive because if you don't you have violated the configuration and you're not DIR" is rediculous. If people are that mentally fragile that they can't change their gear to suit the dive then maybe they need to work on their mental skills a little more.

Here's my story.

Got certified like eveyone else, bought all the cool new gizmos that the dive shop told me I had to have including the huge and worthless Black Diamond BC, expensive computer, ankle weights, big fancy snorkel with all the check balls and valves. If they would have had an elevator lever bc back then I probably would have been the first in line. They didn't have split fins then either or else I have a pair of those in the closet now too.

I dove all that stuff for a while. Then the BP/W became popular as the DIR movement
spread and began to make it's way into the recreational dive world. I soon after got a BP/W and then started taking tech classes and totally got into it. Then came the drysuit and the stage bottles and the jet's w/ spring straps and the long hose, etc, etc. I found myself drinking the Kool-aid to some degree even though I was not officially DIR trained (there was no DIR training or instructors any where near me at the time). The guys I was diving with at the time were into it also and we had to gleen as much info as we could from the internet and use our TDI tech training the
best we could to try and conform to this new way of diving.

Once on a beach dive up on the North Coast, my buddy and I were coming back in after an hour long dive out around the kelp beds and structure at one of our favorite dive sites. It was a fairly big day, there were some pretty healthy sets rolling through every so often. The tide was going out and on that particular day the exchange was big. We didn't really worry about before the dive because we figured the cove we were diving out of wouldn't be affected. When we tried to get into the lagoon the tide was sucking us out and just then a big set of swells rolled through and I got wrapped up in bull kelp and feather boa kelp. All that crap I had on didn't help one bit, all it did was get in the way. I remember the long hose getting wrapped up and pulled out of my mouth. kelp was wrapping around everything on my configuration. All this was happening after I was already exhausted from fighting the current for 20 minutes just to get a few hundred feet to get to the entrance to the lagoon.
We finally got back to shore and it was then that I decided this rediculous set up clearly doesn't work for Norcal beach dives. Not to mention we had a long trail hike to get back up to the parking lot and packing all that stuff was not something I was looking forward to after that experience.
I also saw the amount of money I was going to have to spend in order to go fully DIR with the can light, scooter, Apex regs and so on, and realized i just wanted to keep it simple and just dive for fun.

So, from that point I began to analyze the type of diving I really do and came up with this:
Rocky shore entries involving steep and sometimes treacherous hikes.
Hunting, spear fishing, collecting, Southern California lobster diving. The environment required a maximum slipstream for speed and natural entanglement hazards. There is also the factor of urchin spines, sharp rocks, all of which are not drysuit friendly.

Here's what my gear has been distilled down to:

M&B Custom wetsuits; both are old school cut beaver tails with attached hoods, 3/4 zip, kevlar on knees and elbows, spine pad.
Jet fins w/ spring straps
Scubapro MK2 and MK20. The MK2 I use with one single 2nd stage and an analog pressure guage.
The MK20 I use with an octo for when I dive with a buddy.
One of my Freedom Plates; with or without a wing.
a watch with depth guage or bottom timer.
Low volume mask; right now a shadow.
Plain J snorkel on some beach dives, never on boat dives.
Spear gun and game bag.
Steel tanks: 120, 100, and old 72's
And one of my favorite pieces of equipment, my boat.
That's it.

Gone:
The drysuit, doubles, can light, 7 foot hose, poofy pockets, extra mask, lift bags, spools, reels, etc.
And also...
Poodle jacket, ankle weights, big fancy snorkel, aluminum tanks, retractors, scum ball,
computer, other little do-dads

A few things I think are great about DIR and the cofiguration, and features I have retained:

The bugeed octo. I got rid of the long hose and run 2 - 40's under the arm when I use the MK20. When I use the MK2 with the single 2nd I also bungee it. This is not new to DIR btw, early 2nd stages (60's) had a necklace option.

Spring straps.

Doing tables in your head, depth averaging and calculating on the fly... beautiful!!

 

[Nemrod]

Minimalism is also green and it is anti-consumer. I see minimalism becoming a concept much like DIR and their Hog rigs in that there is a philosophy behind it that guides the application and choice of equipment. Yes, DIR has a philosophy and so does Minimalism. One of the key concepts of minimalism is the substitution of skill sets for equipment and redundundumbdancy. Since I see minimalism as a guiding philosophy and principles the minimalist diver is a low impact diver, he/she leaves only bubbles and takes only memories, however, LEGAL, ethical hunting and collecting would fall within that concept. Example, killing thirty fish just because you can may be legal but if dinner only requires three, it is not ethical.

Minimalist diver goals, minimal gear, minimal impact, maximum skill and knowledge.

N

 

[BDSC]

I like the concept of which you speak and that's how I dive! First let me say 99% of my diving is in the clear warm waters of the caribbean. What do I take? I have a WI BC with an AIR II, tank of course, primary reg, AI computer, mask, fins, and sometimes a wetsuit and sometimes not. That's about it. May take a light if I'm going in a wreck. No knife, shears, extra mask, pony, spare air, etc. Don't see a need for any of it. Just the basics.

 

[Laustimus]

Not only am I a minimalist in my diving but I live life that way too. I could make one of those tiny New York lofts look like plenty of space

 

[Nemrod]

My turn, to continue,

Minimalism is not a piece of gear nor is it retrained to a specific gear configuration, it is a concept, an idea, ideas don't die, they are transcendent of the material. Minimalism is a holistic concept, Form Follows Function. The form that the gear takes is a result of the function that the diver requires in the environment--and no more.

Now I must go do something useful for the afternoon.

N,
If I am still standing when you are done shooting you will all be dead before you can reload, my turn. "V"

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I agree Nemrod about being very low impact.
I do hunt and it's one of my very favorite things to do. However I am a VERY conservative hunter and take very little when you look at other hunters and fish limits.
I think I only shot one ling this year (or last year-2008) and a handful of rockfish - probably 20 for the whole year. I've taken probably 30 or 40 scallops and grabbed a few lobsters, maybe 6. This is for the whole year.

I bring this stuff home to the family and we devour it.
I get pissed when I see freediving competitions in my area and see these guys bringing in limits of rock fish which they don't care about except for how much they weigh so they can win some free gear. I get pissed when I see a few of our club members bragging about how many of a certain species they cleaned out of one area on one trip and posting photos about it.
I hunt for food, period. Yes I enjoy the hunt and the stalking but I let go way more fish than I pull the trigger on.

All that said.. here's another one of my goals:

I have a friend who just got certified. He's a freediver / ab diver and so the move to scuba was easy for him. He's already used to the conditions up here.
He got certified by a private intructor and so he has somewhat bypassed the dive shop vortex.
This is my chance to circumvent the dive shops and start this guy off right. I told him not to spend a dime yet until he talked to me. I want to set him on the right path for the type of diving he want's to do and the diving we do. I'll get him set up with one of my plates, the basic minimalist stuff, and I told him that if he wanted to spend money, spend it on the reg and on a really nice custom suit. Needless to say the dive shops don't like me much around here.

 

[gcbryan]

So this is a bit of a hijack - but I'll just put in my two cents as a gym climber looking into basic mountaineering (mt. hood, rainier, etc). There are a LOT of practices in the mountaineering community that I would consider outdated and unsafe, especially given the advancements in gear.

That said, there are multiple perspectives on what minimalist diving is; I agree with saying dive how you wish to, just dive smart.

Not to hijack this further... but what practices in the mountaineering community do you consider outdated? I climbed Mt. Rainier and Mt. Hood years ago, recently started rock climbing both outdoors and gym climbing. Just curious.

 

[Nemrod]

Some things are ageless, here is a minimalist configuration diver:

The regulator could just as easily be a new Oceanic, the mask could be an Atomic framless, the vest might be a wing but there is absolutely no more than is actually needed.

N