I think Steve had more or less 'gotten over DIR' long before developing the Razor.
From the marketing standpoint I thing he had thought about cooperating with UTD first, when they came to him for teaching and probably brought that up.
But after them releasing a directly competing system (with some parts he would not approve of, in my opinion) he probably got a bit irritated.
I do not presume to know Steves thinking myself, but I do not see the strategy as faulty.
Razorista, you really do need to stop. Remember my comment about you being an internet diver and "the partially sighted leading the blind"? You're still living up to that standard.
This is straight from the horse's mouth: There was no intention to cooperate with UTD. Bogaerts taught 2 cave instructors affiliated with UTD how to sidemount who then showed AG. A few months later the UTD rig appeared and it was a direct copy of the Razor. The 2 instructors involved denied having anything to do with it, but the visual evidence is compelling. The wing, according to Steve, was a design that he threw away because he saw the flaws in it. The funnier thing is, Hollis decides to copy that wing (and harness) for their SMS50.
Perhaps I'm a little biased towards Hollis because of that. They've copied 2 flawed designs from others. Nothing original and nothing to improve the flaws until a third party modded one to be like the Armadillo.
Sidemount diving is big business in the Yucatan. When I started, it was rare to see other sidemount divers. Now, unless you're GUE, it's rare to see back mount divers. Most of the new caves being opened up for the public are "sidemount only" because of the tight restrictions. There are 3 groups that dive the SMS50. Those that don't know any better. Those that find it to be a cheap alternative (some guides asked us about it because they saw they were on sale at divegearexpress). And those involved with the gentleman changing the lines down there. He can't support the Razor or Stealth, but needs to offer something to jump on the bandwagon. Perhaps this gentleman was testing me, because he started asking me to explain how to sidemount to him...I didn't bite.
DJ, I think you're on the right track regarding the financial side of it. But there's also the politics. The Florida cave community is like a rebreather - it's closed circuit. I see that in the politics of the cave organizations. You either need to be "one of the boys" or have one of them vouch for you. I think one of the reasons you see a resistance to the Razor and Stealth is the "foreigner" aspect (even though the Razor is manufactured in the States). The acceptance of the SMS50 is evidence of that.