Your brand of DIR assumes that you will always somehow be attached to the wreck on ascent. Your brand assumes that nothing will ever go wrong to change that. My brand recognizes that a floating deco is always a possibility.
Your brand can handle those conditions only if things go right. My brand thinks beyond that.
I am not assuming that the deco can always be done tied in to the wreck. It is entirely possible on some wrecks and with big swells that even a heavy up line could become cut or broken (although proper placement will prevent that 99% of the time.) In that case, I still have the option of doing a floating deco.
What I am recognizing and advocating is that there are some entirely divable places where it is very unhealthy to do floating deco and where the boat captain, due to his or her vast experience on those same wrecks will prefer to stay tied into the wreck until everyone is back aboard or, in the event he or she has to pull the hook for what ever reason, that you still be tied into the wreck so he or she can find you rather than chasing divers all over the north Atlantic in large swells, fickle currents and potentially poor visibility. People have been lost for hours and even died due to floating deco under those conditions.
A good example would be where one or two teams were on the line doing deco when the hook pulls loose with one or two teams still on the wreck. The teams on the line do drift deco with the boat. The other teams discover the hook is gone, shoot a bag and do their deco on the wreck. When the deco is complete the divers on the line reboard the boat, the boat returns to the numbers for the wreck and recovers the other divers still tied in there. The boat can find them even if surface visibility is down to near zero in fog as they are still on the GPS numbers that the boat can return to every time.
The much less desirable alternative is for the divers who start deco after the hook came loose to do drifting deco. With any difference in wind and current direction (very common), the two drifting parties (boat and drifting divers) will drift at different rates and in different directions and those rates and directions potentially change as the deco'ing divers ascend through different layers in the water column. What is more, the two teams left on the wreck may start deco at different times and with different bottom times and schedules. That leaves the boat potentially searching for 2 lost groups of divers spread over several square miles of ocean in potentially no visibility and in rough seas.
With those choices - screw whatever GUE says - I know exactly where I want to be doing my deco because the boat is going to know exactly where my pink water logged butt is gonna be when I am done. Very nice when the water temps is also in the 50's. If I have to do a drifting deco it is because something bad happened and I am on a contingency plan - it is not my first choice, but rather the last option.
Now, I could use a spool to hang on the line and be compliant with the right wing version of "DIR", but that leaves me hanging on a piece of 24, 36 or 48 line being rubbed up and down an anchor line encrusted with all kinds of salt water nasties. The odds if it lasting 60 minutes of deco in rough seas and a 2 or 3 kt current is pretty minimal. A Jon line made from 1" tubular webbing will survive that treatment all season.
I agree with Jeff G (and I find I tend to agree with Jeff more often than not) that all things considered, it makes more sense to carry one piece of equipment that will get the job done. But that is premised on that one piece of equipment getting that critical job done right and when that is in doubt; it is time to bring out the specialized equipment.
So...with all that in mind, which one do you want to trust your life to - the do lots of things spool or the actually will get it done right Jon line? If a diver is choosing the spool under those circumstances, he or she is either an idiot, is excessively rule bound and inflexible, or has just not thought it through.
Alternatively, a diver can just cancel the dive at the dock and plan to not dive much at all if ever in what are very common north Atlantic conditions. Standing by your convictions in that case means eating the charter fee because the boat is still going to go. Weakening in your resolve and then relying on your spool on the other hand, means you come loose during deco and if you are lucky get picked up by a very irritated captain and crew who most likely will not take you out again or even let you off the boat for dive # 2. In the real world, if you have a brain and know how to use it you'll be using a Job Line when the situation calls for it and all the internet posturing and preaching about the merits of GUE and or your brand of DIR won't change that.
It frankly irritates me that the ultra right wing kool-aid drinking segment of what they narrowly define as "DIR" keeps trying to assert ownership to the whole DIR forum. Then they make it worse by whining when the more centered and balanced DIR divers who have the experience and wisdom to adapt non GUE approved equipment or techniques that really work in local conditions do not agree with their version of the party line.
That right wing element may want to consider asking for their very own GUE only forum or changing the name and sticky on this one if that is how they want to define "DIR". If you get it done, I promise I will NEVER post in it.
