PA/NJdiver
Contributor
This past weekend I participated in the DIR Fundamentals course with Andrew G. and Mike K. Overall, I thought the class was very good with a few exceptions.
Friday evening was introductions of the students to Andrew and an overview of DIR and the weekend.
Saturday morning we were at the quarry. We went over undergarments, drysuits, and backplate rigging. We spent 2 hours in our undergarments and drysuits in the hot sun. This part was not fun. We all made adjustments to our rigging. I found this part to be very informative. After lunch, we spent about 45 minutes to an hour lying in the hot sun on tarps practicing different types of kicks (this was not fun either). We then went over s-drills. While covering s-drills and valve drills, a bit of confusion arose. Mike informed us that we should do valve drills first and then s-drills. After lecturing to us for about 15 minutes on why we do valve drills first and then s-drills, Andrew chimed in and said we do s-drills first and then valve drills. The two need to be on the same page.
We finally got to do our first dive. One group was to go with Mike and another group with Andrew. My buddy and I were in Mikes group on this dive. I was a bit pissed because we spent the first 30 minutes of the dive hovering around the platform waiting for Mike. My buddy and I would start to do the circuit (they had layed a line starting at the platform, going shallow, and then ending back at the platform) and then Mike would tell us to hold. It was a CF. We finally did get to do the circuit three times, but the other team always got lost. While doing the circuit, we were supposed to practice using the different types of kicks. We were also supposed to demonstrate our helicopter turns and backward kicks. We never got to demonstrate our helicopter turns or backward kicks.
On the second dive, we were with Andrew. We did the four basic skills (regulator removal, primary regulator removal and go to back up, partial flood of mask, and mask removal), valve drills and s-drills.
After these dives, we went to fill tanks and to watch ourselves on video. We reviewed the video and talked about the problems. If you do something correctly, you will never know. Im assuming if we dont receive any feedback, we did ok. But you will be told if you did something incorrectly or poorly.
On Sunday, my buddy and I were teamed up with a third diver. Our first dive again was with Mike. We did s-drills, valve drills, OOA horizontal ascents and horizontal descents. We must have done well on these because we didnt receive any feedback. (Andrew did ask Mike how we did, and he said we did excellent. But we didnt receive any feedback directly.)
Our final dive was with Andrew. We were supposed to do the four basic skills again and scenarios. Scenarios are where you and your buddy swim the circuit and Andrew would do something to you. We had also asked if we could demonstrate our helicopter turns and backwards kick since we didnt get to do them the day before. Again, we never got to do them. We also never did the four basis skills with Andrew.
The scenarios were really fun. On the first scenario, Andrew pulled an OOA drill on my buddy and I. We had to follow the line back to the ascent line and ascend. Our second scenario was a no-mask drill. Andrew pulled my mask off as well as my buddys mask. We again had to follow the line back to the ascent line and ascend. This was so much fun!! Again, I guess we did ok because we didnt get any feedback.
We then went to watch the video and listen to Andrew lecture. Andrews lecture was very good, and I learned quite a bit.
I was a bit disappointed in the structure (or lack of structure) of the openwater work. I was also disappointed because I didnt receive a lot of feedback from either Andrew or Mike. When I introduced myself to Andrew Friday evening, I told him I wanted to take Cave I in the fall, and I wanted to know where my skills were at. He never said if my skills were up to par for Cave I or if I should hold off. I will continue to practice everything, but my assumption is that I can move on to Cave I. (I will be in Seattle in a couple of weeks and plan to talk to Andrew then about several things.)
I would highly recommend this class to everyone. Leave your ego at home, go with an open mind, and be prepared to learn.
Stacey
Friday evening was introductions of the students to Andrew and an overview of DIR and the weekend.
Saturday morning we were at the quarry. We went over undergarments, drysuits, and backplate rigging. We spent 2 hours in our undergarments and drysuits in the hot sun. This part was not fun. We all made adjustments to our rigging. I found this part to be very informative. After lunch, we spent about 45 minutes to an hour lying in the hot sun on tarps practicing different types of kicks (this was not fun either). We then went over s-drills. While covering s-drills and valve drills, a bit of confusion arose. Mike informed us that we should do valve drills first and then s-drills. After lecturing to us for about 15 minutes on why we do valve drills first and then s-drills, Andrew chimed in and said we do s-drills first and then valve drills. The two need to be on the same page.
We finally got to do our first dive. One group was to go with Mike and another group with Andrew. My buddy and I were in Mikes group on this dive. I was a bit pissed because we spent the first 30 minutes of the dive hovering around the platform waiting for Mike. My buddy and I would start to do the circuit (they had layed a line starting at the platform, going shallow, and then ending back at the platform) and then Mike would tell us to hold. It was a CF. We finally did get to do the circuit three times, but the other team always got lost. While doing the circuit, we were supposed to practice using the different types of kicks. We were also supposed to demonstrate our helicopter turns and backward kicks. We never got to demonstrate our helicopter turns or backward kicks.
On the second dive, we were with Andrew. We did the four basic skills (regulator removal, primary regulator removal and go to back up, partial flood of mask, and mask removal), valve drills and s-drills.
After these dives, we went to fill tanks and to watch ourselves on video. We reviewed the video and talked about the problems. If you do something correctly, you will never know. Im assuming if we dont receive any feedback, we did ok. But you will be told if you did something incorrectly or poorly.
On Sunday, my buddy and I were teamed up with a third diver. Our first dive again was with Mike. We did s-drills, valve drills, OOA horizontal ascents and horizontal descents. We must have done well on these because we didnt receive any feedback. (Andrew did ask Mike how we did, and he said we did excellent. But we didnt receive any feedback directly.)
Our final dive was with Andrew. We were supposed to do the four basic skills again and scenarios. Scenarios are where you and your buddy swim the circuit and Andrew would do something to you. We had also asked if we could demonstrate our helicopter turns and backwards kick since we didnt get to do them the day before. Again, we never got to do them. We also never did the four basis skills with Andrew.
The scenarios were really fun. On the first scenario, Andrew pulled an OOA drill on my buddy and I. We had to follow the line back to the ascent line and ascend. Our second scenario was a no-mask drill. Andrew pulled my mask off as well as my buddys mask. We again had to follow the line back to the ascent line and ascend. This was so much fun!! Again, I guess we did ok because we didnt get any feedback.
We then went to watch the video and listen to Andrew lecture. Andrews lecture was very good, and I learned quite a bit.
I was a bit disappointed in the structure (or lack of structure) of the openwater work. I was also disappointed because I didnt receive a lot of feedback from either Andrew or Mike. When I introduced myself to Andrew Friday evening, I told him I wanted to take Cave I in the fall, and I wanted to know where my skills were at. He never said if my skills were up to par for Cave I or if I should hold off. I will continue to practice everything, but my assumption is that I can move on to Cave I. (I will be in Seattle in a couple of weeks and plan to talk to Andrew then about several things.)
I would highly recommend this class to everyone. Leave your ego at home, go with an open mind, and be prepared to learn.
Stacey
