As part of my ongoing public humiliation :sorry: series I have determined to break this report on my DIR/F class into more than one part (7a, 7b, etc.) for a couple of reasons:
1) Leadweight finally said something that stuck with me
Brevity is the soul of wit. I want to keep the DIR/F review bite-sized.
2) Most of the stuff I'll likely say has been covered, so I want to drift into the class its self, my personal motives for taking it, the presenters, and the presentation, etc. and not into a whole DIR rules, you suck thing. Suffice it to say, its so much more than a gear config, people.
3) Because I am prone to ramble on, I want to keep it short (somewhere south of SeaJay and Peace) and easily searchable because some of what I have to share is important.
About me
I highly recommend anyone taking the class to be clear on your objectives going in. Our instructor (MHK assisted by Terry Lee May) was very good about this. I made it clear early on what I wanted to get out of the class, and the class delivered on all three counts.
Like anything else, I guess - if you have your head around your objectives, youll get more out of the class. Im not an instructor, so Im not carrying or teaching one agencys doctrine of another. I dont consider myself a highly educated diver (I cant blab tables and the wacky science of decompression off the tip of my tongue.) Im not a highly skilled diver never done overhead, wreck penetration, caves, scooters, ice, sleet, hail diving. A few night dives not more than 5 or 6. Ive been a very non-committed diver for most of my 4 diving years, with about 70% of my total dives coming in the most recent 6 months. Just went dry in December, went to BP/W in February. What I bring to the party is a commitment to skill improvement and an insatiable desire to learn all I can about this stuff.
My motivation for taking DIR/F
Unlike many of you, I have never seen "the guys" dive or speak before (MHK, Andrew, JJ, GI3, TCole, etc...) so I'm coming into this class without the "skill envy" others speak of, and without, frankly, the baggage many likely take into the class (think GI3 flaming some ignorant stroke )
I'm in the DIR/F class for three reasons, and three reasons alone:
1) Improve my dive planning. (i.e.: wean off complete dependence on my AI computer and drive myself to better cognitive dive awareness) In short, more than the "uh, lets go that way until we hit our gas turn-around, then, uh, come back..."
2) Assure my gear is properly fitting - I've been doing it all by internet and books. Nobody that really knows how this stuff is supposed to fit has checked me over. I need someone to see my rig, tighten/loosen things, adjust this / that, etc.
3) Skill Improvement - I need to come away from the class with a plan for improving my skills underwater. I know I need work in this area (we all do, I'm sure) so bring on the video-humiliation.
About the instructor & his Assistant
MHK as he posts here. Michael Kane as he is known on the GUE site. Not at all what I expected the textbook GUE -DIR/F instructor to be. I expected a skinny, intense, para-military, pasty, emaciated vegan. Sort of R. Lee Ermey (from MailCall) meets the local PETA Chapter President. MHK is a big guy tall, confident, successful. Good in a crowd. Picture Alec Baldwin (Glengarry Glen Ross) with the New Yawk accent and delivery that has elements of Andrew Dice Clay. This isnt a slam. Where Dices stock and trade is the everyman kind of guy with that mouth, MHK is too intellegent to pull off that everyman nonsense. A bright guy. A sincere guy. A guy with his students interests in mind. Hes not a professional educator (in the classical sense) but hes made a study of teaching and becoming a better teacher a better imparter of tough subject matter to willing minds. Been in So Cal for years, talks like he just got off the Staten Island Ferry. Hes an interesting, accessible guy. In the water, hes all that. He really is out of the water, too. Ill have more about MHK later for a professional communicator, he has a few interesting turns of phrase that are at the same time funny and disarming.
His assistant in our class was Terry May. A local So Cal GUE Tech 2 diver and videographer. On land he's there to assist in the classroom and manage the on-site facilities (assure the room is together, the course is laid, the gear is safe, a land drill spot is reserved, etc.) In water, he and MHK sort of conduct this underwater live documentary. MHK effortlessly hovers over and about the flailing students (much like a red-tail hawk hovering over a pod of rabbits) and sort nods to Terry (who is also effortlessly hovering) just what to capture for a later kill (the video review). The choreography involved to capture this in-water roadkill is no easy task (as Terry is usually the one getting his mask kicked off by one of us...) and being inside MHKs head to anticipate what hes going to want to have in the video likely isnt easy either. His job in this class was a tough one. An important one. Often, a thankless one. Thanks Terry.
In installment 7b the class, the skills, drills, thrills and spills of DIR/F.
K
1) Leadweight finally said something that stuck with me
Brevity is the soul of wit. I want to keep the DIR/F review bite-sized.2) Most of the stuff I'll likely say has been covered, so I want to drift into the class its self, my personal motives for taking it, the presenters, and the presentation, etc. and not into a whole DIR rules, you suck thing. Suffice it to say, its so much more than a gear config, people.
3) Because I am prone to ramble on, I want to keep it short (somewhere south of SeaJay and Peace) and easily searchable because some of what I have to share is important.
About me
I highly recommend anyone taking the class to be clear on your objectives going in. Our instructor (MHK assisted by Terry Lee May) was very good about this. I made it clear early on what I wanted to get out of the class, and the class delivered on all three counts.
Like anything else, I guess - if you have your head around your objectives, youll get more out of the class. Im not an instructor, so Im not carrying or teaching one agencys doctrine of another. I dont consider myself a highly educated diver (I cant blab tables and the wacky science of decompression off the tip of my tongue.) Im not a highly skilled diver never done overhead, wreck penetration, caves, scooters, ice, sleet, hail diving. A few night dives not more than 5 or 6. Ive been a very non-committed diver for most of my 4 diving years, with about 70% of my total dives coming in the most recent 6 months. Just went dry in December, went to BP/W in February. What I bring to the party is a commitment to skill improvement and an insatiable desire to learn all I can about this stuff.
My motivation for taking DIR/F
Unlike many of you, I have never seen "the guys" dive or speak before (MHK, Andrew, JJ, GI3, TCole, etc...) so I'm coming into this class without the "skill envy" others speak of, and without, frankly, the baggage many likely take into the class (think GI3 flaming some ignorant stroke )
I'm in the DIR/F class for three reasons, and three reasons alone:
1) Improve my dive planning. (i.e.: wean off complete dependence on my AI computer and drive myself to better cognitive dive awareness) In short, more than the "uh, lets go that way until we hit our gas turn-around, then, uh, come back..."
2) Assure my gear is properly fitting - I've been doing it all by internet and books. Nobody that really knows how this stuff is supposed to fit has checked me over. I need someone to see my rig, tighten/loosen things, adjust this / that, etc.
3) Skill Improvement - I need to come away from the class with a plan for improving my skills underwater. I know I need work in this area (we all do, I'm sure) so bring on the video-humiliation.
About the instructor & his Assistant
MHK as he posts here. Michael Kane as he is known on the GUE site. Not at all what I expected the textbook GUE -DIR/F instructor to be. I expected a skinny, intense, para-military, pasty, emaciated vegan. Sort of R. Lee Ermey (from MailCall) meets the local PETA Chapter President. MHK is a big guy tall, confident, successful. Good in a crowd. Picture Alec Baldwin (Glengarry Glen Ross) with the New Yawk accent and delivery that has elements of Andrew Dice Clay. This isnt a slam. Where Dices stock and trade is the everyman kind of guy with that mouth, MHK is too intellegent to pull off that everyman nonsense. A bright guy. A sincere guy. A guy with his students interests in mind. Hes not a professional educator (in the classical sense) but hes made a study of teaching and becoming a better teacher a better imparter of tough subject matter to willing minds. Been in So Cal for years, talks like he just got off the Staten Island Ferry. Hes an interesting, accessible guy. In the water, hes all that. He really is out of the water, too. Ill have more about MHK later for a professional communicator, he has a few interesting turns of phrase that are at the same time funny and disarming.
His assistant in our class was Terry May. A local So Cal GUE Tech 2 diver and videographer. On land he's there to assist in the classroom and manage the on-site facilities (assure the room is together, the course is laid, the gear is safe, a land drill spot is reserved, etc.) In water, he and MHK sort of conduct this underwater live documentary. MHK effortlessly hovers over and about the flailing students (much like a red-tail hawk hovering over a pod of rabbits) and sort nods to Terry (who is also effortlessly hovering) just what to capture for a later kill (the video review). The choreography involved to capture this in-water roadkill is no easy task (as Terry is usually the one getting his mask kicked off by one of us...) and being inside MHKs head to anticipate what hes going to want to have in the video likely isnt easy either. His job in this class was a tough one. An important one. Often, a thankless one. Thanks Terry.
In installment 7b the class, the skills, drills, thrills and spills of DIR/F.
K
