mikemill
Contributor
Before I start on the report I think it is important to state what I went into the class with and wanting.
I'm not "DIR" nor do I have any real desire to go down that path. Perhaps if I ever feel the need to do technical diving I'll revisit that position.
I took the class to work on buoyancy, trim, the kicks, and to get some education on the philosophy. My primary desire for it was to improve my diving skill so that I can be a better underwater photographer (still need to work on the photography skills
).
I am still new to my drysuit so that did present some challenges throughout the weekend.
Ok now onto the report:
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Class Makeup:
Instructor: Don Chennavasin (ae3753)
Mike Miller (mikemill)
Mike Guerrero (mikeguerrero)
Kathy (kathydee)
Auditing: Chris (masterof0)
I really, really, really enjoyed the class. It was challenging, frustrating (a few times I cursed into my reg), and rewarding. Kathy and Mike seem to have a different mind set then I do so I'm sure that caused some tensions. But even with that we were able to come together as a team. We started with practicing the kicks in the pool the night before and then moved to Breakwater for the Friday/Saturday/Sunday sessions. The weather was very favorable but the vis was so-so (especially once we got there).
After the first day Don switched wings with me since the Rec Wing I was using was just too big and causing me additional problems that I didn't need.
It is amazing to think that on Wednesday I had no idea how to move backwards in the water and now I can get some serious movement. It still isn't perfect though
I think the part that helped me the most was the morning of day 2. I realized that the point of the class was not mastery. It was to introduce skills and concepts, give you a chance to practice them, get critiques and feedback, and then to go do that stuff in your normal diving. That made me a lot less worried about trying to be perfect and more focused on getting a solid grasp of the fundamental concepts as mastery will come later.
As the weekend progressed Don kept taking less and less of an active role in team issues. By day 3 it was very much a "yeah sure, whatever you guys decide". There were a couple of times when an issue came up, we gathered together, worked out what the issue was, and made a decisions of what to do. While stressful at that point it was a lot of fun to be able to work though that.
Video reviews: Talk about the biggest ego killer! But it is just so amazing. There were so many unconscious movements that were just laid to bare. At the same time it was great to hear "oh you guys messed up here but then recovered excellently". Don was really good about making sure his critiques did not come off as an attack. It was also nice to be able to watch your team mates perform. There was a lot of laughing at ourselves and each other that made for a very relaxed environment during the reviews.
Dive debriefing reviews: Before we watched the videos we walked through the dives by event (swim out, descent, team movement, skills, ascent, swim in). Especially from a team perspective I found this more useful than the video review. This is when the difference in perspective between the team members were laid out. There were a few times when I thought something was a non-issue and one of the other two did (and vice versa). This really helped in the team building I think. For example it became clear that I want more personal space than Mike G does. Not a huge issue but being aware of it helped Kathy in the later dives.
The pre-dive drills: This is something I've heard people criticize about "DIR" diving. While we took some time to go through it all I realized that a lot of it was just inexperience. I watched Don and Chris do theirs and they did it in less than half the time.
In water drills: Honestly some of them were quite fun. The S-drill (OOA donation) was a blast in trying to manage you actions, be aware of the other person's action, keep an eye on the 3rd team member, all while trying to remember the steps. I can definitely see the point of continual refreshing of the skills. The whole thing can be fast but that does take quite a bit of subconscious familiarity to just whip it out.
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At this point I still don't consider myself DIR nor do I wish to be constrained by any such label. I will say that I hope to dive with these guys again and will be taking quite a lot with me. I am planning on moving to the UTD NDL table and min deco though I'll be keeping the Cobra 2 in gauge mode since I do want the dive data afterwards. The long hose is staying. I'm keeping my Force Fins. I'm also taking with me the sense of team importance and calmness (though I still think I'll pursue soloing also).
I want to thank Kathy and Mike for allowing me to join them in the class, Don for being such a great instructor and for keeping me motivated about my drysuit, and to Chris for helping out.
So who wants to go diving?
I'm not "DIR" nor do I have any real desire to go down that path. Perhaps if I ever feel the need to do technical diving I'll revisit that position.
I took the class to work on buoyancy, trim, the kicks, and to get some education on the philosophy. My primary desire for it was to improve my diving skill so that I can be a better underwater photographer (still need to work on the photography skills
).I am still new to my drysuit so that did present some challenges throughout the weekend.
Ok now onto the report:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Class Makeup:
Instructor: Don Chennavasin (ae3753)
Mike Miller (mikemill)
Mike Guerrero (mikeguerrero)
Kathy (kathydee)
Auditing: Chris (masterof0)
I really, really, really enjoyed the class. It was challenging, frustrating (a few times I cursed into my reg), and rewarding. Kathy and Mike seem to have a different mind set then I do so I'm sure that caused some tensions. But even with that we were able to come together as a team. We started with practicing the kicks in the pool the night before and then moved to Breakwater for the Friday/Saturday/Sunday sessions. The weather was very favorable but the vis was so-so (especially once we got there).
After the first day Don switched wings with me since the Rec Wing I was using was just too big and causing me additional problems that I didn't need.
It is amazing to think that on Wednesday I had no idea how to move backwards in the water and now I can get some serious movement. It still isn't perfect though
I think the part that helped me the most was the morning of day 2. I realized that the point of the class was not mastery. It was to introduce skills and concepts, give you a chance to practice them, get critiques and feedback, and then to go do that stuff in your normal diving. That made me a lot less worried about trying to be perfect and more focused on getting a solid grasp of the fundamental concepts as mastery will come later.
As the weekend progressed Don kept taking less and less of an active role in team issues. By day 3 it was very much a "yeah sure, whatever you guys decide". There were a couple of times when an issue came up, we gathered together, worked out what the issue was, and made a decisions of what to do. While stressful at that point it was a lot of fun to be able to work though that.
Video reviews: Talk about the biggest ego killer! But it is just so amazing. There were so many unconscious movements that were just laid to bare. At the same time it was great to hear "oh you guys messed up here but then recovered excellently". Don was really good about making sure his critiques did not come off as an attack. It was also nice to be able to watch your team mates perform. There was a lot of laughing at ourselves and each other that made for a very relaxed environment during the reviews.
Dive debriefing reviews: Before we watched the videos we walked through the dives by event (swim out, descent, team movement, skills, ascent, swim in). Especially from a team perspective I found this more useful than the video review. This is when the difference in perspective between the team members were laid out. There were a few times when I thought something was a non-issue and one of the other two did (and vice versa). This really helped in the team building I think. For example it became clear that I want more personal space than Mike G does. Not a huge issue but being aware of it helped Kathy in the later dives.
The pre-dive drills: This is something I've heard people criticize about "DIR" diving. While we took some time to go through it all I realized that a lot of it was just inexperience. I watched Don and Chris do theirs and they did it in less than half the time.
In water drills: Honestly some of them were quite fun. The S-drill (OOA donation) was a blast in trying to manage you actions, be aware of the other person's action, keep an eye on the 3rd team member, all while trying to remember the steps. I can definitely see the point of continual refreshing of the skills. The whole thing can be fast but that does take quite a bit of subconscious familiarity to just whip it out.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At this point I still don't consider myself DIR nor do I wish to be constrained by any such label. I will say that I hope to dive with these guys again and will be taking quite a lot with me. I am planning on moving to the UTD NDL table and min deco though I'll be keeping the Cobra 2 in gauge mode since I do want the dive data afterwards
. The long hose is staying. I'm keeping my Force Fins. I'm also taking with me the sense of team importance and calmness (though I still think I'll pursue soloing also).I want to thank Kathy and Mike for allowing me to join them in the class, Don for being such a great instructor and for keeping me motivated about my drysuit, and to Chris for helping out.
So who wants to go diving?
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