I was wrong...

sort of.

I've been bitching and moaning about the abundance of DIRFy stuff on this forum. It seemed to me that the focus of DIR here was just on DIRF and not much past that. And I know that DIR is sooo much more than that.

However I just read a DIRF report in the Western Canada forum and it brought me back to around 1998 when I read a similar report. AG and Michael Kane were doing an "Intro to DIR" course which was not much different than how the DIRF course was a couple years ago except that I think that it was free. They took their show to Virginia Beach and one of the VBtech crew, who had a considerable amount of deep diving experience, took the course and around Saturday evening realized that he had been vastly overestimating his abilities and gave up the deep game until he could get his basic skills up. At the time I was a deep air, advanced nitrox kinda guy getting ready to take my trimix course; and firmly anti-DIR. After reading the report and watching Kane's transformation prior to this, I decided that maybe this DIR stuff is something to be checked out and not to be just dismissed out of hand as the ramblings of a madman and his sycophants. And so I set out on my own road of discovery.

To get to my point; While I would like to see more Tech/Cave 1/2 reports, I realize now that this forum could also use more reports from people that take a DIRF course with their experiences and observations. These reports are the ones that get those that are wondering what DIR is all about curious about pursuing instruction in DIR. I know that people that pass the course have usually worked very hard to get that pass. So what I would like to see is that if you are one of those and really appreciate what you learned in your DIRF, then put your thoughts into electrons and post them here. Your report may be the one that convinces someone else to look into DIR.

Who stole Brian's username?

Brian, thank you.

I have been trying for the last five years to put into electrons, over and over again, why I find this kind of diving to be so compelling and SO worth the effort and the expense. But NOTHING intrigues people as much as the honest and intense enthusiasm of those who pull the trigger to change their gear and their way of thinking, and take the first step.

We DO need reports from folks who are taking the system and using it and seeing the benefits in beyond-the-class diving. But we need the Fundies reports, too.

TSandM:

We DO need reports from folks who are taking the system and using it and seeing the benefits in beyond-the-class diving. But we need the Fundies reports, too.

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Absolutely. Not just Atta-boys but reports. I suppose I would rather read 100 atta-boys for DIRF than 1 for a solo diver course or something equally as stupid but it's the reports that get people interested.

who are you and what did you do with nadwidny?

but seriously, you've got to have the DIRF pipeline feeding into the tech courses. i've been spending a lot of time diving lately with pre-fundies folks getting them ready for the course they'll be taking next weekend. can't have tech and cave course reports if you don't get a lot more DIRF reports, because there is a dropout rate from DIRF.

and then there's the huge dropout rate from SB itself.

i'd like to see people stick around and post their cave and tech reports, but those tend to wind up posted to blogs and facebook and wind up on the tech/cave-specific boards, or just quietly get done and the divers keep on diving... people find their community of dive buddies and that becomes more important to them than SB, particularly when it comes to DIR...

The VBtech crew sounds like something I wish I were around for it's more active days. I had dinner with 2 of the members from several years ago this past week....wish there were more like that these days.

lamont:

who are you and what did you do with nadwidny?

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It's my nice week. I'm rolling with it.

ucfdiver:

The VBtech crew sounds like something I wish I were around for it's more active days. I had dinner with 2 of the members from several years ago this past week....wish there were more like that these days.

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They did some cool stuff that I envied.

From where I sit I see the whole tech thing seems to be losing momentum. When we first started our Nova Scotia expeditions in 2002 there were a couple of dozen or more technical types in the Halifax area. When I last went out in 2008 there were about 4.

nadwidny:

They did some cool stuff that I envied.

From where I sit I see the whole tech thing seems to be losing momentum. When we first started our Nova Scotia expeditions in 2002 there were a couple of dozen or more technical types in the Halifax area. When I last went out in 2008 there were about 4.

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Economy sucks, training, equipment and helium is expensive.

economy gets worse, classes get more expensive. so this is what we're left with