Who dives what now?

I have yet to have any real idea what portion of the diving community dives what system. I'm not biased either way so I'm not looking to prove anything. I havent been able to find a survey on it, so here's one now.

Do you dive DIR or what I shall call conventional? Or somwhere in between perhaps?

Gear config and philosophy are different items.


I dive DIR philosophy with conventional gear.

Charlie99 once bubbled...
Gear config and philosophy are different items.


I dive DIR philosophy with conventional gear.

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As I understand it, that isn't possible. The gear is part of the philosophy.

Also as I understand it to pick certain peices and not others is very un-DIR because the theory goes that it all works together and one part without the other parts may actually mess thing up.

I dive a DIR rig and adhere to their philosophy.

It makes sense to me and it works.

I voted

I dive conventional style and configuration always.

I agree with Mike. How can you dive with a DIR philosophy with conventional gear? The philosopy is tied with the gear. If you belive it and dive with that philosopy then you would be going against what you belive in by not diving with the gear. I think the two are tied together and cannot be seperate.

Now I do agree you could dive with DIR style gear but that by itself doesn't make you a DIR diver. Just because you have the Gear doesn't mean that you adhear to there standards. Theres all the other stuff about diving with a budy that thinks and dives the same way you do. Being familure with the same skills so that when a problem occures that you both know how and when to react. As an example what would be the advantage of offering your Buddy your primary reg when most Conventional style primary hoses are shorter than your Octo. Any good diver will belive in practicing and honeing their skill whether it's just basic finning technics, Boyancy or emergany skills and thats only part of the DIR diving philosopy

That being said I still think that DIR has it's merits and that we can all learn and be better divers by understanding what they do and why they do it the way they do. That doesn't make me a DIR convert just a more dedicated diver by learning as much as I can about other aspecs of diving.

Geek

an internet "poll" is kinda a strange place to ask this question...you see, only the people who are really into diving sign-up and participate regularly in an on-line diving forum. The results will be really skewed in this poll. If you go to Hawaii or Cozumel or even your local dive locale you'll see that 95% of the diving world is "traditional". What you'll find here is a variety of different styles and techniques which you may not be regularly exposed to. Take the various information from here and do some research...don't worry about how many people are doing what, see what will work best for your own style and diving goals and seek out help in getting there.

Brian

MikeFerrara once bubbled...
As I understand it, that isn't possible [diving DIR philosophy with conventional gear]. The gear is part of the philosophy.

Also as I understand it to pick certain peices and not others is very un-DIR because the theory goes that it all works together and one part without the other parts may actually mess thing up.

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:box: My statement was somewhat a reaction to the divers that outfit themselves head-to-toe in Halcyon gear, but have little buddy awareness, poorly plan their dives, and need to improve basic dive skills like buoyancy. Maybe I should say that I believe in "doing-it-right", with lower case letters.

There is an underlying philosophical underpinning of DIR which is responsibility and safety ---- my goal is to dive with that general philosophy.

Lots of divers seem to get caught up in the details -- and do things like diving a reef using the rule of thirds ---- when the real philosophy and rule is to have adequate gas for both you and your buddy at all times during the dive.

In some other forums, this is sometimes called DIR-L, for DIR-Like, or DIR-light.

Charlie

bwerb once bubbled...
an internet "poll" is kinda a strange place to ask this question...you see, only the people who are really into diving sign-up and participate regularly in an on-line diving forum. The results will be really skewed in this poll. If you go to Hawaii or Cozumel or even your local dive locale you'll see that 95% of the diving world is "traditional". What you'll find here is a variety of different styles and techniques which you may not be regularly exposed to. Take the various information from here and do some research...don't worry about how many people are doing what, see what will work best for your own style and diving goals and seek out help in getting there.

Brian

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Actually I agree fully with everything you say and what I'm interested in is the practices of the dive-devoted community.

I knew if I asked the question in any manner than I did (to just ask "what do you dive?") I'd get *really* skewed results. Believe me, I'm not labouring under the illusion that the numbers will be indicative of the diving world as a whole. But for what I want to find out....they'll do

I dive underwater, not DIR.

Once I looked at Dirquest and saw what they said DIR meant. It seems like a some folks buy DIR style gear and say they are DIR. I hope they are, but I suspect many are no different from the hordes with jackets that they so despise, only they have BP & wings instead.

Gear does not a diver make. (OK, I realize things have to be done differently outside of the recreational arena, but there are different interpretations of the best gear to use.)

As Lance Armstrong said, its not about the bike.

Of course, many disagree about what this intangible aspect of diving is and how to achieve it.

It certainly is not swimming at a 45 degree angle and sinking when you stop. But, they are having fun, are none the wiser, providing revenues to dive related businesses, and not getting killed in droves.

But, is there salvation in a pony bottle, or a buddy you don't know or one instead of the other?

There is a lot of judging of other divers going around here. Should anyone be doing that?

Right now I'm still diving conventionally. Though I think when I have some time and money I am going to look into DIR and see what it can do for me.