the Unknown Buddy

[Uncle Pug]

You arrive at the dive site....
It is a cold, windy and rainy night....
You've arrainged to meet someone via email....
You dove with this guy before but it was a long time ago....

He is not alone, there is a group of five and you make six....
After introductions you are paired off with someone....
You have never met this person before tonight....
In fact it is so dark you can't see his face....

You exchange a few brief words to plan your dive....
You check each others gas supply and look for bubbles....
Everything seems ok so you descend to find poor visibility....
And you proceed to do the dive with the unknown buddy....

Would you feel comfortable with the above scenario???

Jeff had just finished a DIRF and it was his first time to this dive site.
It was not exactly like diving with Shane.... but it was close!
Light beams provided passive communication and we both spoke the same language.
What visibility there was didn't get destroyed by careless finning.
The dive was uneventful and we were against the current part of the time and with it at others.
Interestingly we both used exactly the same amount of EAN32 from our indentical single LP104s.
And I look forward to diving with Jeff again.
That is the beauty of DIR.

 

[Zept]

The beauty of DIR, or just the virtue of similarity? I like to dive with people who were trained by the people who trained me. I find we have similar expectations and follow the same procedures. Nobody would mistake us for DIR divers, though.


Zept

 

[Jonathan]

excellent point Zept......

 

[Hawk]

UP, nice way to give an example to the rest of us who do not have a clue, except that you wear a metal plate and have hoses that are longer than all of mine put end to end. I think that a lot of us portray in our minds that DIR means diving deep all the time and going to extremes. This is a good way to show one of the benefits of this style.

Leave it to the DIR cult people to try to be nice to us, show us good things, and try to lure us in! (LOL! just kidding)


Later, Hawk.

 

[Rick Murchison]

Originally posted by Uncle Pug
That is the beauty of DIR.

It is the beauty of standardization, one of the aspects of DIR, but also an aspect of any good advanced training (and I mean advanced training, not PADI AOW.)
You'd have been just as comfy with any intro-to-cave level IANTD diver, if you were also an IANTD intro-to-cave qualified diver.
Rick

 

[budgy]

Hi Uncle Pug,
I regularly dive with strangers, when I dive with dedicated amatuer divers who are in the water on a regular basis I don't normally have many problems. I occasionaly get a hawk who likes to hover two metres higher and two metres back, a right pain in the neck to keep track of, not so bad now I have a latex neck seal but I used to get a shot of cold water down my neck when I had a neoprene. Speedy is always a problem, it does not matter if he is leading or not, as he has a compulsion to out fin you, he takes off finning like a torpedo and flashing lights to get his attention seem to make him go faster, any hand signals to slow down are never seen as he looks neither left nor right. In many ways as buddys they were made for one another.

 

[neil]

It's a dark and foggy morning in Ventura Harbor. The smell of the mushroom farm a few miles away is almost overpowering.
You arrive at the dive boat. You've arranged to dive with six people you barely know, and have never been in the ocean with.
You share a few sips of coffee and begin to plan your dives...
You watch as the buddy teams check each other's gear and air supply...
You start the dive to find moderate visibility..
And you proceed to dive with the six folks you barely know...

I am SO comfortable with this scenario. Heck, I can even spell scenario correctly!!!

All six had just finished the class and pool sessions of an OW course, and these were their first dives in the ocean. It wasn't anywhere NEAR like diving with my wife..but there it was....
Hand signals provided passive communication. We all used the exact same signals.
Everybody stayed clear of the bottom, and when not swimming hovered motionless, horizontally.
The dive was VERY eventful: we were dive-bombed by playful sea lions, and saw all kinds of intersting wildlife.
We dove against the current for the first part of the dive, and with it on the way back.
The teams monitored each other's air supply and nobody forgot to tell me when they had the agreed upon air supply left (half, we were in 30 fsw).
Everybody had identical, standardized gear: single tanks, BC's, with gauges and octos secured against their bodies in the same places. No danglies.

I look forward to diving with these people again, and again. Why?
Because I taught them to dive, and it was fun. They all dive just like me! So comfy. So safe. That's the beauty of DWN (diving with Neil).

Love ya Pug, what exactly was your point?
Peace,
Neil

 

[Uncle Pug]

Originally posted by neil
Love ya Pug, what exactly was your point?
Peace,
Neil

Same as yours....
Standardization pays....
And Uncle Pug loves you too, Neil

 

[neil]

Originally posted by Uncle Pug

Same as yours....
Standardization pays....
And Uncle Pug loves you too, Neil

Actually my original intent was to do a humorous and good-natured parody of your post. I hope you took it that way I was going to try and make a photo of a diver with a paper bag over his head (get it? the UNKNOWN diver?) but my Photoshop skills are non-existent.

But yes, standardization is the way to go. And may you have many more smooth dives like that.

Neil

 

[The Chairman]

My best buddy, who I love to dive with is out diving with someone that habitually runs out of air at depth. I was invited, but I choose not to go. I appreciate your points Pugster... Good insight into why you choose DIR.