Does DIR work for every cave?

[db8us]

The first pics on cavediver.net looks like Orange grove at Peacock to me.
If that is true, i NEVER EVER saw a helmet there !
And also i have been to almost every passage there and i think you do not need it.

I think Duncan knows caves i would never try like Ian Pinkstone told me about caves that i would only call "diving" because you have to breath under water in zero vis, major rectriction for hundreds of feet, depth 1feet, no fins, nomount....
I will not dive there as this is not the diving that is fun for me !
I would not even call it diving.

I like it 3D means i like water around me and not the crawl-stuff.

Michael

 

[Sue]

Sorry I meant

http://www.cavedivinggroup.org.uk/images/


Sue

 

[Sue]

i've been in Mexico, and surely that's good cave diving, but I have to live here, so i dive what I have

Anyway i'm going back to Akumal this summer....

 

[Duncan Price]

db8us once bubbled...
The first pics on cavediver.net looks like Orange grove at Peacock to me.
If that is true, i NEVER EVER saw a helmet there !

Obviously you never saw me there!

"Cave diving" is a broad church with plenty of room for lots of different religions.

The helmet debate is a non-starter as far as I'm concerned. I can justify my equipment choice based up my experience and style of diving. I'm prepared to listen to other points of view and have learned a lot from Michael and his companions....we agree on many things and agree to disagree on others. When the EKPP have put a line though Doux de Coly Sump 1 the CDG will come along and explore the dry cave beyond.

Duncan

 

[db8us]

Duncan,

when are you in FLA next time ?
I once saw a guy with helmet and sidemounts at little river...

Michael

 

[Duncan Price]

db8us once bubbled...
Duncan,

when are you in FLA next time ?
I once saw a guy with helmet and sidemounts at little river...

Michael

Looking like end of June (27th June to the 7th July) . Was going to be end of May but moving house....planning on going to create mayhem at the CDF social on July 5th.

I shall be diving sidemounts (have some tight stuff to push) and will bring a helmet.

Duncan

 

[MikeFerrara]

Thanks Duncan I like reading your stuff.

Most of my cave diving has been tourist caves. Although, I'll end up cruising missouri rivers with sidemount gear in the boat. I don't have the dry caving experience for the Kentucky stuff. Florida is a long way off. It makes a nice vacation but the caves are too crowded, some are too messed up and others are too expensive. There are only a couple easy to get to caves in Missouri that are open to the public. I haven't been in Cannonball yet but we're about as far in Roubidoux as we're going to get without scooters and dry suit heaters. Lots of deco.

Back to caves where you could dive DIR but choose not to. I'm not sure what I can contribute because I don't know what DIR is. Hogarthian rig? got that. Team diving? got that. Solid skills? Anyone I have ever seen who has spent any time cave diving is good in the water. Since I never took a GUE class and don't check quest every day to see what's changed, I guess none of what I do is DIR.

I guess we should define DIR in the context of cave diving. I'll let someone else step in here.

 

[Duncan Price]

MikeFerrara once bubbled...
Back to caves where you could dive DIR but choose not to.

I dive sidemounts, bilateral stages, helmet mounted lights when I'm in Florida (example). I could, of course, dive DIR but I'd have to get the training and gear. Would it be better, probably. Would it be worth it, probably not. Diving solo most of the time, I have poor buddy skills - there again I am highly self-reliant. I'm familiar with my rig, backmounted manifolded cylinders scare me.

As another UK caver diver (Brian "Scoff" Schofield) once related to JJ: The DIR rig is like a racing car: a highly tuned vehicle great for the speedways of Wakulla. The CDG rig is like a Land Rover: rugged and great for going off road. Now, I can drive my Land Rover around your race track and I'll get there (albeit slowly). You could not take your racing car up a mountain.

Duncan

 

[MikeFerrara]

Duncan Price once bubbled...


I dive sidemounts, bilateral stages, helmet mounted lights when I'm in Florida (example). I could, of course, dive DIR but I'd have to get the training and gear. Would it be better, probably. Would it be worth it, probably not. Diving solo most of the time, I have poor buddy skills - there again I am highly self-reliant. I'm familiar with my rig, backmounted manifolded cylinders scare me.

As another UK caver diver (Brian "Scoff" Schofield) once related to JJ: The DIR rig is like a racing car: a highly tuned vehicle great for the speedways of Wakulla. The CDG rig is like a Land Rover: rugged and great for going off road. Now, I can drive my Land Rover around your race track and I'll get there (albeit slowly). You could not take your racing car up a mountain.

Duncan

A guy I know who does a lot of stuff in Kentucky broke down all his sets of doubles. He has some pretty convincing argument for doing so. He says that the tank valves belong in the arm pits.

He also points out that even "balance" is better. With the tanks along your side rather than on your back you can do things that would flip you like a turtle with back mounted steels.

I took his rig for a spin in Cow. Don't tell anyone but I even wore the helmet. Of course, the lights were mounted to the helmet so if I didn't wear the helmet I wouldn't be able to see. LOL

 

[MikeFerrara]

Divesherpa once bubbled...
Is it DIR when you are forced to remove your doubles and push them ahead of you to get through a restriction?

No.

Oh well, at least that keeps the lemmings out of my favorite caves.

Well it may not be DIR but it's better than getting stuck like the guy from EE did in Cow.