ehuber
Contributor
Sorry... didn't see an FAQ here... what is Hogarthian Diving?
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
karstdvr:Hogarthian is a concept by Bill Main (his middle name is Hogarth). Bill's obsessions are streamlining and minimalism. Hogarthian philosophy has it's strength in that anybody can challange the system to develop a better system,I know Bill well enough that he'd appreciate anybody coming up with an innovation. Many people compare DIR to Hogarthian. Even though Hogarthian was around first,and adopted by JJ,DIR encompasses other attributes besides gear and configurations. I think one of the strengths of Hogarthian vs DIR is the ability of everyone to improve upon the process;in DIR the system is only modified by a select few. I see frequently the Hogarthian philosophy on this forum is thought of as adopting a BP/W to your diving,but a normal BC can still made to be streamlined with minimalism.
Cave Diver: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.