Video debriefs - What's your excuse

[mikemill]

So this is what DIR has come to. A whole bunch of yakking about how everyone flunked out of the screening course and how to pass the screening course and don't feel bad because you failed the screening course and how to prepare for the screening course and what course would be the best to take for the screening course...

Sad.

Looks like you get to join Tom

Joke
-------
Tom's Head

 

[kathydee]

"I swear I usually dive a lot better..."

(heard on video debriefs at all levels)

I'm guilty of that one .

 

[rjack321]

And the folks who've finished their training and are doing the big dives only drop in to ScubaBoard to make snipey comments from time to time

I'm sure Brian will be posting video of our Canadian cave adventures (3 cave dives total, 44f water, max depth 31ft, 1km hike in from the 4wd road), our ~170ft wreck dive, and 125ft wreck dive shortly.

Here we are at the cave trailhead:

And the cave:

And gearing up:

Otherwise I agree with him, whining about how "difficult" fundies has become is really sad.

 

[nadwidny]

Brian, I suspect everybody posting here has passed Fundies. You probably didn't take it, because it wasn't required then.

I did and it wasn't. It became a requirement about a month or two later. So when I went to take Cave 1 a year after that I had to email the instructor to find out where I stood in the new system. I was told that in the new scheme he would judge me as a pass.

We all have memories of the class, and some of them are funny.

Not funny enough to revive a thread 10 months dead.

If you don't like to read them, don't do it.

I don't and I didn't.

Most of the DIR posting is about Fundies because there are far more people about to take, or taking, or just having taken Fundies than people who have done later classes. And the folks who've finished their training and are doing the big dives only drop in to ScubaBoard to make snipey comments from time to time

Well that wouldn't be me since I come to SB about once a day and check the DIR forum to see if there is anything new. But there isn't. It's pretty much always "DIRF this" and "DIRF that" and how hard the class was. There is so much more to DIR than a class that is basically a qualifier that one takes to get to the good stuff.

At the risk of sounding like an old man sitting in a rocking chair...I remember when DIR conversations were edgy and groundbreaking. I guess I'm still looking for that when I come to a DIR forum. My bad.

 

[TSandM]

Well, Brian, write a trip report! You and Richard were obviously doing some cool stuff.

Edgy and groundbreaking . . . maybe part of the problem is that DIR diving has become too accepted? Or too well defined?

 

[Scott L]

I got off easy. My fundies (class) instructor disliked me so much he simply said "whatever" when my footage appeared and fast forwarded the tape to the next diver. Painless debreifing. Very painfull class. :shocked2:

 

[danvolker]

I did and it wasn't. It became a requirement about a month or two later. So when I went to take Cave 1 a year after that I had to email the instructor to find out where I stood in the new system. I was told that in the new scheme he would judge me as a pass.



Not funny enough to revive a thread 10 months dead.



I don't and I didn't.



Well that wouldn't be me since I come to SB about once a day and check the DIR forum to see if there is anything new. But there isn't. It's pretty much always "DIRF this" and "DIRF that" and how hard the class was. There is so much more to DIR than a class that is basically a qualifier that one takes to get to the good stuff.

At the risk of sounding like an old man sitting in a rocking chair...I remember when DIR conversations were edgy and groundbreaking. I guess I'm still looking for that when I come to a DIR forum. My bad.

I have to agree. I have not been on scubaboard for quite a while now....on today's visit, I was really hoping for something..more...
How about we start slamming the proliferation of the new PADI concept ( ala Bruce Lee).."the art of instructing without instructing" Think about it..why train someone to dive well in 6 weeks, when you could have them need more instruction for their entire life!!!

My specific rant: Recently, I was out with my wife Sandra on one of her macro photography shoots ( hunting Great White Nudibranchs or something) at the Blue Heron Bridge....This is a dive site you drive your car to, and dive at high tide. It has become nearly as famous as the Lembea straits in Indonesia for macro photography and muck diving. Personally, I would be happier watching my fingernails grow, but to many divers, this is hot s$%t ...The problem beyond the low adrenalin numbers for this site, is the enormous volume of divers here that are absolutely without a clue about how to swim horizontally, how to achieve proper bouyancy, and how NOT to stir up the bottom. On this last day, there may have been hundreds swimming in the CLASSIC head up, feet down posture....close to a 30% angle, they would typically have their fins near the sand bottom, or hitting the bottom. The viz starts out at about 60 foot clear, and as it should ,if anything be getting better ( as more clear high tide gulf stream water is flowing in), instead, the "no diving" bastages pull the viz down to more like 15 foot viz. An hour after high tide, as the "dirty" tannen laden water from intracoastal starts flowing back out, viz should be getting much worse....but the reality, is that the no diving bastages have mostly run low on air ( depth here averages 10 feet to 13 feet by the way--meaning this should be a 2 hour dive, minimally) after the one hour of slack high tide , and now that they have left the water, the vis really comes up quite a bit on their departure.

Let's start blaming people for this!
I'll blame instructors for not teaching buoyancy and trim. I'll blame instructors for not recognizing or knowing buoyancy and trim. I'll blame instructors for not mandating perfect weighting for EACH STUDENT. I'll blame dive stores for selling those huge monstrous BC's to the students that cause the bastages to move through the water like inflated puffer fish. I'll blame the bastages themselves, for not recognizing the mediocrity or negligence in their instructors, and in not seeing the obvious failure to move around properly in all their fellow students, and then not doing or saying anything about it....

DanV

 

[TSandM]

Dan, not only do I agree with you (and many others here do as well) but there are many of us working quietly (or not so quietly) and doggedly to try to change things. Not only are we trying to train divers with better skills from the get-go (and putting them in gear that facilitates good diving) but people like Boulderjohn are working within the system to try to make fundamental changes.

One of the things Jarrod talks about in his second essay on the GUE site is the diffusion of DIR diving ideas. If you visited dive sites here in the PNW, you would see a LOT of backplates and long hoses, and find quite a few divers with better trim and better swimming techniques. We're still outnumbered, but the information IS getting out there, and divers are realizing there's more to know.

The dive instructional industry is a behemoth, and it's not going to change overnight.

 

[ucfdiver]

Well, Brian, write a trip report!

Several of us in Florida do, and I hope it inspires divers to get out and expand their horizons...but I still yawn a bit when 99% of this forum consists of already answered questions.

 

[Lobzilla]

I have to agree. I have not been on scubaboard for quite a while now....on today's visit, I was really hoping for something..more...
How about we start slamming the proliferation of the new PADI concept ( ala Bruce Lee).."the art of instructing without instructing" Think about it..why train someone to dive well in 6 weeks, when you could have them need more instruction for their entire life!!!

My specific rant: Recently, I was out with my wife Sandra on one of her macro photography shoots ( hunting Great White Nudibranchs or something) at the Blue Heron Bridge....This is a dive site you drive your car to, and dive at high tide. It has become nearly as famous as the Lembea straits in Indonesia for macro photography and muck diving. Personally, I would be happier watching my fingernails grow, but to many divers, this is hot s$%t ...The problem beyond the low adrenalin numbers for this site, is the enormous volume of divers here that are absolutely without a clue about how to swim horizontally, how to achieve proper bouyancy, and how NOT to stir up the bottom. On this last day, there may have been hundreds swimming in the CLASSIC head up, feet down posture....close to a 30% angle, they would typically have their fins near the sand bottom, or hitting the bottom. The viz starts out at about 60 foot clear, and as it should ,if anything be getting better ( as more clear high tide gulf stream water is flowing in), instead, the "no diving" bastages pull the viz down to more like 15 foot viz. An hour after high tide, as the "dirty" tannen laden water from intracoastal starts flowing back out, viz should be getting much worse....but the reality, is that the no diving bastages have mostly run low on air ( depth here averages 10 feet to 13 feet by the way--meaning this should be a 2 hour dive, minimally) after the one hour of slack high tide , and now that they have left the water, the vis really comes up quite a bit on their departure.

Let's start blaming people for this!
I'll blame instructors for not teaching buoyancy and trim. I'll blame instructors for not recognizing or knowing buoyancy and trim. I'll blame instructors for not mandating perfect weighting for EACH STUDENT. I'll blame dive stores for selling those huge monstrous BC's to the students that cause the bastages to move through the water like inflated puffer fish. I'll blame the bastages themselves, for not recognizing the mediocrity or negligence in their instructors, and in not seeing the obvious failure to move around properly in all their fellow students, and then not doing or saying anything about it....

DanV

And what are the 'bastages' supposed to do against the nationwide conspiracy to raise more laughing stock for all you cool and experienced divers? Seriously, AFAIK GUE does not offer any courses below Fundies in my neck of the woods (Boston) and even if you wanted to spend $600/day for a 1 one 1 you cannot get a hold of the few instructors that are worth this investment.

Any pointers in the right direction would be appreciated.