DIR Article - Gear Configuration

[JeffG]

I thought I might stir things up a bit.

The following quote comes from the sticky "What is DIR?"

Perhaps the most widely known and most often discusses aspect of DIR is the equipment. The equipment is based on a Hogarthian setup. This set up, although popularized by GUE, has been around for many years before they ever came into existence. The Hogarthian setup is named after William Hogarth Main. Bill was always working on his gear configuration, trying to find an optimal setup for convenience, reliability and streamlining. It involves diving with only what you need, and placing your gear in the same place every time, no matter what type of diving you are doing. This facilitates responses in an emergency as a diver will always know exactly where not only their gear is, but where the gear of their buddy is as well. Consistency is the key here. The minimalist approach with optimal placement and function is at the heart of the DIR equipment configuration.

I bolded some of the sections in the description. My thoughts on this, are that I believe that it is missing a vital point of DIR and in doing so, it provides an outlook that does a disservice to DIR (and is one of the points of contention for the non-DIR diver.)

The point that is missed is that the Gear Configuration for DIR was not picked because it was the most optimal, best, safest...etc etc. It was picked because it was the safest consistent setup across a large cross section of diving. This does not mean that other setups are inherently dangerous (thats usually the leap of faith that the anti-DIR crowd takes though, and is the mistake that the DIR "lemming" makes.)

Here's another way of describing what I mean (just in case I haven't confused you enough)

Take the most extreme diving (and the equipment setup to do it), and go backwards in time through a divers career until he gets to his OW.

Design a configuration where by as the diver steps through the different steps of OW -> Extreme Diving and for each step there is an minor addition to the gear configuration due to the requirements of the "new level".

(and here, because of the quirky nature of history. Extreme Diving would be 19,000ft back in a cave in Wakalla using an RB80 rebreather.)

So....Does this means the BP/W is better than the standard jacket BCD? No. They are both bags of gas that displace water. Nothing special there.

But the strength of the BP/W comes in when the diver transitions to a technical environment (Where a BP/W is clearly a Superior tool for the job). The user of the BP/W would have less growing pains and thereby could concentrate on learning new techniques (instead of re-learning the fundamental skills)


Thoughts? Discussion?

Note: I am not a GUE instructor. and I don't play one on TV. Anything wrong about what I have typed has added to the ever growing misconception of DIR

 

[do it easy]

wth??? Who left the door open?

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I would agree with that! :11: By definition, I think that most of the diving that goes on is not xtreme, heck it's not even old fashioned extreme.

 

[JeffG]

wth???

Do you have a point to make DIE?

 

[do it easy]

Do you have a point to make DIE?

yup, after the intial shock wore off, I did an edit to add some value.

Personally, at each level of diving, I've adjusted or added to my gear based on what made sense at the time. Ironically, most of the additions were from the DIR list. For example, when I first got my doubles, I had one SL4 as a backup light. I wasn't doing any hard overheads and mostly diving in daylight, so having two backups wasn't necessary for me and the diving that I was doing. Fast forward a bit and now I have two Photon Torpedos which have the redundancy and the burntime that are needed to make some of the dives I do safer.

Are you saying that the point and end goal of DIR is exploratory diving?

Is there a difference between making exploratory diving safer and making recreational/fun diving safer?

 

[Ben_ca]

Are you saying that the point and end goal of DIR is exploratory diving?

Is there a difference between making exploratory diving safer and making recreational/fun diving safer?

I think that "exploratory" diving something most divers are looking forward too.... not in the true meaning of the word but in a "it's new to me" kind off exploration...

As far as a gear I look at it at the perspective of the least amount of money to get to the end goal.... If I start buying stuff out of OW and I go with the DIR config I should not have to Ebay anything

I like the chart on the Bitz Scuba website

Who's good at Graphics? Can someone make a chart like this adding on BP&W, Lights tanks ect...

 

[JeffG]

Are you saying that the point and end goal of DIR is exploratory diving?

No.

DIR is simply to make diving safer, but it stands on the shoulders of explorer's that have learned the lessons (sometimes the hard way).

Is there a difference between making exploratory diving safer and making recreational/fun diving safer?

Absolutely.

There is no way you can compare the procedures and the gear requirements to make a Recreational dive safer vs what most would consider an exploration dive.

The procedure's and gear requirements for a DIR recreational dive are not very onerous.

Compare the gear and planning for a 60 ft warm water DIR dive vs JJ's and Casey's last push for the WKPP.

Even though the process has the same roots (ie SADDDDDDDDDDDDD or GUE EDGE or whatever the flavor of the month is these days , the actually execution and attention to detail is different.

 

[JeffG]

If I start buying stuff out of OW and I go with the DIR config I should not have to Ebay anything

and to add to this point.

It also helps with the issue of buying gear to compensate for a previous gear purchase.


an example of that would be something like.

Oh...I bought these steel 63's and I can now use them for deco bottles. Oops...they are quite negative, so I better get a big wing to help me. My god, if I get a hole in the wing, I am $%^$%^$%^. Better buy a dual wing.

Now, I know that last statement will more than likely piss some people off because it will descibe their setup to the T. But the truth of it is that the chance of this setup actually killing you would still be close to 0.

Much of the talk of safety of gear is theoretical in nature. It sounds good on the internet....may have some basis under some laboratory conditions, but the truth is that divers are not dieing in droves due to their gear configuration.

It would be nice to get an Idea of "close calls" though.

 

[TSandM]

Jeff, I think that's a great post, and gets back to something which I think is central to DIR in general. It's not that there's only one way to do things -- Often there are several ways, and each has its advantages and disadvantages. Because of the experiences the guys who developed the system had had, they made choices among the options, and they have reasons for making the choices they did.

One of the basic principles is that you begin as you mean to go on; there are no major changes you have to make as you tackle more complicated or involved diving, just additions.

The gear is kind of like the GUE MDLs . . . Reverse engineered from the end product.

Good post.

 

[jeckyll]

Jeff: I don't' think your description will stir things all that much... but I may be biased.

When we had some "Why don't we do it this way" discussions during Fundies, our instructor often came back to "We want to be able to draw upon what you learn here in other courses, so you don't have to re learn ways of doing things".

I believe that goes for both skills and gear. Take the commercial diver who's never worried about trim and put him in a fundies class. Take a much less experienced diver who's been trying to develop trim and buoyancy right from the start. Who will have an easier time? Same with equipment especially if the equipment is part of performing the skill... Ex. Learning donation using a BP/W with long hose vs using an octo and jacket BCD. Or keeping an SMB in the left pocket with your wetnotes...

 

[JeffG]

Jeff: I don't' think your description will stir things all that much... but I may be biased.

Well, I was at least trying to generate some conversation other than "Is my green snorkle DIR?"


Back to the drawing board I guess. LOL