a weekend with MHK or yet another DIR-F report

[Boogie711]

Do yourself a favour - take a DIR-F class BEFORE you make any major gear purchases.

 

[Vladi]

... The major things I took away from the class were the in-water skills, harness fitting, and gas management.

Do not forget the "Budy Awareness - Team Work!"

Vladi

 

[jonnythan]

Do not forget the "Budy Awareness - Team Work!"

Vladi

Absolutely right. I kinda included it with "in-water skills," but it's worth putting by itself. Communication and team work are also at the absolute core of the class. Being constantly aware of your buddy and effectively communicating with him are just one more thing I got from this class.

Feels like I learned more in the past couple of days than my entire OW class. Why didn't they teach me a few simple command signals and how to use them?

 

[VTernovski]

Why didn't they teach me a few simple command signals and how to use them?

well, my favorite hand signal is the signal for "broken". I was also blown away by simple signals used in zero viz. Makes perfect sense.

Can I ask? Why were your dry suits crap? fit? name brand? type?

poor seam and zipper placement. that becomes a problem for some restricting the motion of movements in the groin area (frog kick, etc) and in the armpit area (reaching the valves).

 

[globaldiver]

I would recommend to take a breather and let the class impressions really sink in before you e-bay a lot of your gear. I took the class with MHK, Brandon, and Jay last year and it has resulted in some gear change on my part as well. The Diving Concepts suit is very nice, but not the only suit used by experienced GUE divers.
Even though I have decided to sell my CF 200 suit, I know a lot of divers that swear by them, especially wreck diving in cold waters.

I found the DIR-F class very good and it definitely revieled my "poor" diving techniques. Using my (at the time brand new) double E-8 130 tanks did not make the class any easier, that is for sure...
I was diving last weekend in a wet suit and single tank configuration for the first time in a very long time. I thought to myself while diving "Wow, imagine if I had taken the DIR-F class with this configuration. How much easier things would have been." But in reality, the struggles I had during the class really made me "wake up" and realize that I needed to change the way I was diving.

I agree that this class should be taken by every diver since it gives invaluable information and experiences. I wil also take the class again to check if my practice has paid off and to pick up more valuable advice.

Anders

 

[MHK]

The Diving Concepts suit is very nice, but not the only suit used by experienced GUE divers.
Even though I have decided to sell my CF 200 suit, I know a lot of divers that swear by them, especially wreck diving in cold waters.
Anders

Hey guys,

First off thanks for all the kind words, they are very much appreciated.

Secondly, to speak to the point you raise above about drysuits, I would like to extend that line of thought to most all of the equipment that we discuss in the class. All of you that have taken my class recognize that I try to go out of my way to NOT mention specific brand names. In the instant case, to speak directly to the DUI suit -v- the Diving Concept suit, for the most part either suit will suffice, but there were a few things I felt the DUI suit could have done better. For example, the panel in the legs and under the arm that you see in the Diving Concept suit makes reaching valves much easier. I have felt for the longest time that DUI should change their 4 point connection in the crotch area. Recently you see that DUI has put a circular "patch" in the crotch area. It's a great step in the right direction. It doesn't go far enough in my view, but atleast they recognized the issue. The telescoping torso and the zipper placement still need to be addressed and I suspect they'll get around to it eventually.

For reasons such as I state above, is why you see me specifically avoiding recommending for or against a specific brand because more often then not students tend not to remember why I recommend against something, they only remember " don't buy brand XYZ".. What I prefer is that students remember what the defeciency is and why we recommend against something. Generally speaking the industry is very copy cat like, meaning that if one manufacturer is doing something that is more efficient sooner or later other manufacturer's will copy the idea. It's therefore important to me that rather then avoid a specific brand that the student avoid the defeciency issue because eventually the manufacturer's will play ctach up.

Hope that clarifies the issue and again thanks to all of my students for the kind and generous words.

Regards,

Michael Kane

 

[Tom R]

Thought you were gone dude, are you not going to be a star in the video for me to edit?

 

[MASS-Diver]

When I first signed up for my DIR-f in June I was all set to practice my butt off to get ready, then MHK posted a number of reasons why trying to teach yourself DIR skill is a waste of time. So, while I've been diving like crazy, I'm not trying to imitate videos or anything, I think I have enough bad habits without adding any new ones.

I'm going to nailed for my poor fitting DS, but, that's OK, it will all the more motivation to save up for another one after the course.

Thanks again for the report.