Sorry Rich..I knew that.. I was just uh testing everybuddy! Yeah that's the ticket!
Perception of the DIR community?
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Rob Holman
- Avid Diver
- Posts: 59
- Joined: Thu Oct 05, 2006 10:32 am
Case study of why I like the DIR philosophy:
I was in a 5 day GUE class a couple years back. The first three days I was diving with a good buddy that I have done about 700 dives with over the past few years. He and I have a 6th sense with each other underwater and can often predict what the other is going to do before they do it. Observers have said it is creepy… As expected, we did fairly well over the first three days. On day 4 and 5 we had a newcomer join our class (he had not passed his class the first go around and was coming back to finish up). He was from Holland. His English skills were fair (leaps and bounds better than my Dutch I might add…) but detailed communication was challenging. Anyway, after spending the morning getting to know him on land, I was mildly worried that the advanced dives we were doing might be difficult seeing as we were to work as a three person team through some pretty challenging trials over the next two days. Within 2 minutes of being in the water, we were a synchronized 3 man team. Because we were configured the same way, reacted the same way, and communicated the same way, the integration of a third man into our team was a non-issue. Communications above the water was a bit more challenging, but in the water was cake. A three man team in GUE class is a suicide mission by-the-way, having three people for an instructor to throw failures at is a recipe for instructor based fun!
This “instant integration” has been my experience with EVERY GUE trained diver I have dove with. To a person.
Bottom line for me has been, I feel comfortable doing advanced dives with a GUE grad of the same level with very little pre-exposure. More or less a conversation is sufficient. I would go as far as to say I could jump in the water and drop to 170 feet with any GUE tech one grad with complete confidence. Could the same be said with other agency training? Don’t know but I doubt it.
I will do a recreation level dive with just about anyone, DIR/non DIR/Anti DIR, makes no difference to me. I do it all the time and have a great time. I do not see myself doing a technical dive with a non-DIR trained person. They may be skilled enough to make it down and back in complete safety, but given the different configs, procedures and communications that could come up over the course of a technical dive, it’s just not going to be in my play book. The risk of us having different procedures is too high for my risk acceptance level.
I was in a 5 day GUE class a couple years back. The first three days I was diving with a good buddy that I have done about 700 dives with over the past few years. He and I have a 6th sense with each other underwater and can often predict what the other is going to do before they do it. Observers have said it is creepy… As expected, we did fairly well over the first three days. On day 4 and 5 we had a newcomer join our class (he had not passed his class the first go around and was coming back to finish up). He was from Holland. His English skills were fair (leaps and bounds better than my Dutch I might add…) but detailed communication was challenging. Anyway, after spending the morning getting to know him on land, I was mildly worried that the advanced dives we were doing might be difficult seeing as we were to work as a three person team through some pretty challenging trials over the next two days. Within 2 minutes of being in the water, we were a synchronized 3 man team. Because we were configured the same way, reacted the same way, and communicated the same way, the integration of a third man into our team was a non-issue. Communications above the water was a bit more challenging, but in the water was cake. A three man team in GUE class is a suicide mission by-the-way, having three people for an instructor to throw failures at is a recipe for instructor based fun!
This “instant integration” has been my experience with EVERY GUE trained diver I have dove with. To a person.
Bottom line for me has been, I feel comfortable doing advanced dives with a GUE grad of the same level with very little pre-exposure. More or less a conversation is sufficient. I would go as far as to say I could jump in the water and drop to 170 feet with any GUE tech one grad with complete confidence. Could the same be said with other agency training? Don’t know but I doubt it.
I will do a recreation level dive with just about anyone, DIR/non DIR/Anti DIR, makes no difference to me. I do it all the time and have a great time. I do not see myself doing a technical dive with a non-DIR trained person. They may be skilled enough to make it down and back in complete safety, but given the different configs, procedures and communications that could come up over the course of a technical dive, it’s just not going to be in my play book. The risk of us having different procedures is too high for my risk acceptance level.
Well, I thought I was going to have to kick D's shins under the table when you were telling the story about being stuck in the kelp, and she asked if you'd considered a necklaced backup. My personal rule is "don't offer DIR advice unless directly asked about it" -- maybe I'm too "internet sensitive" from reading SB threads. I figure the last thing I need is to make people I'll be in the water with uncomfortable just before a dive...GillyWeed wrote: The only experiance that I have had with any DIR divers is with Ryan (rsdancy), Delaina (bubblemkr)
...
Did they try to convert me to the 'dark side'? No, they are all three really nice people. Like most divers out there.
glad no feathers were ruffled!Ryan
Re: Other reasons for DIR issues
I guess my overall point is that there are a lot of divers in the PNW going DIR who aren't going tech. I think the absolute link between DIR and tech is broken here, because "recreational dives" in 50 degree low vis soup has so smeared the difference between rec O/W diving and Tech diving. I think a lot of people are going DIR for rec diving simply because it's a better fit for our local conditions than PADI-standard O/W skills (which is no slam on PADI; I'm a card carrying PADI Rescue Diver, and their system got me off the couch and into the water, and for that I am both grateful and aware of the effectiveness of the marketing & the approach to training that worked so well for me and my family.)Dmitchell wrote: I'm fortunate enough to own my shop, but for the average diver and dive shop it's much more lucrative to have a diver move on to tech than not.
In a lot of other places, you probably don't go DIR unless you're going tech. But here, you might go DIR because it actually makes open water recreational diving more fun & safer.
I believe, based on observation (without quantifiable stats to back me up), that there are more and more people taking on at least some DIR principles, mostly BP/W, long hose, and can lights for PNW diving. And once they go that far, they likely change a lot of previous buying patterns. So that sale of a long hose on a reg maintenance order starts to look more and more to the LDS like "another lost customer".
Oddly, I think that if you showed brand new divers a BP/W, and virtually any modern BCD, and said "which is tech and which is for new divers", most would tag the BCD as the tech rig. Free of industry bias about what a BC is supposed to look like and do, the simplicity of a piece of metal, some webbing, and a simple inflatable bag looks like the rig you'd give an inexperienced new diver, while the BCD, dripping with clips, weight belts, D-Rings, colored lanyards, complex inflators, pockets, cumberbund, etc. looks like something a newbie would associate with "experienced diver".
I remember running into a local dive shop employee in mufti out enjoying a dive on a sunny day at Cove 2. He'd only been in the business for a short time. He saw me pulling my gear together on the ledge and remarked "diving old school I see!" His assumption was that my gear config was from some previous generation, because it looks so unevolved next to the gear he was being trained to sell every day.
I'll bet it hasn't really.I once had a manufactures rep tell me that shops the went "Tech" were shooting themselves in the foot and the average OW Student didn't need to see all that confusing stuff. SCUBA was foreign enough and tech just freaked them out. My reply was how can you take that stance when I have 5 regs on a tech dive. His response was it's 2% of the market.
That's all changed now and I'm sure his attitude has changed as well.
There was a rep from ScubaPro on SB a while ago who asked for suggestions for new products.
My comment to him was essentially:
Code: Select all
Right now, DIR divers are haunting eBay, buying jet fins. My local shops sell these fins for well over $100. After buying these fins, the people who get them then spend even more money adding spring straps to them. These fins remain essentially unchanged from their debut, several decades ago. Surely, in that time, there have been improvements that would make it possible to create a new fin that do what Jetfins do, but better.
There is massive competition for people who want neon-colored flippy fins for tropical diving. Companies that make fins for that market are just subdividing an existing group of customers into smaller and smaller slices of marketshare. Doesn't it make more sense to try and go after a business where you have really high brand equity, and a proven product people like, and make something that those people might consider buying?That attitude is endemic to the whole industry, from what I can tell. They've convinced themselves that the "real business of SCUBA" is selling stuff annually to warm-water tourists.
If ScubaPro made JetFin II, out of lighter weight materials, with modern design to improve all the things we like about them (ability to do back kicks & helicopter turns), with a better designed foot pocket, off the shelf spring straps, and who knows what other improvements they could engineer, they wouldn't be selling to the handful of people who buy new JetFins every year -- they'd be selling to all the people who have been using them (and re-using them) for decades!
Manufacturers who make BCDs don't want to see shops go tech, because they know that BP/W sales kill BCD sales. Manufacturers who make a wide range of regs don't want to see a shop go tech because they know that tech divers prefer a small subset of regs -- and often the regs without all the bells and whistles. Manufacturers who make masks, snorkels, and fins don't want shops to go tech, because tech divers usually find a mask and stick with it for a long period of time, don't use snorkels, and tend to use fins that can be purchased second-hand for a fraction of the price of new fins.
An industry that has configured itself to make money by selling new, more complicated stuff every year is going to have a hard time figuring out what to do with a community of divers who change their purchasing habits into a model that is wildly different than the industry's expectations. So it's much easier to try to keep retailers "on the ranch" than to reconfigure an entire industry's outlook, production process, and marketing assumptions.
We appear to be living in interesting times.
Ryan
I had never considered the perspective of the standard shop in the equation. Ryan, I do think you are on to something. Another part of this is that most of the local shops (with the exception of two that I am aware of in the greater Seattle area) don't cater to DIR or tech divers. I agree that the line between DIR and recreational divers is blurred, and that DIR does not necessarily equal "tech" anymore, but it still looks that way from the outside, I suppose. Heck, I dive doubles at Cove 2 regularly not because I am going into deco but because I want to build experience in them for the future when I am ready for those dives.
As a result, if a recreationally oriented shop sees someone either going towards tech or towards DIR, they are likely thinking that is a lost customer by the simple virtue of not having what that diver is looking for . . . I do think dive shops are rightfully territorial regarding their customers, and I imagine it is a traumatic experience for a customer to be lost.
I think we've covered the bases nicely, talked about various perceptions, the source of those perceptions, wrestled with the definition of DIR, Lamont's geekiness, and even made some dive plans.
I'm proud of this thread, and I think it is cool how everyone has participated.
As a result, if a recreationally oriented shop sees someone either going towards tech or towards DIR, they are likely thinking that is a lost customer by the simple virtue of not having what that diver is looking for . . . I do think dive shops are rightfully territorial regarding their customers, and I imagine it is a traumatic experience for a customer to be lost.
I think we've covered the bases nicely, talked about various perceptions, the source of those perceptions, wrestled with the definition of DIR, Lamont's geekiness, and even made some dive plans.
I'm proud of this thread, and I think it is cool how everyone has participated.
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Grateful Diver
- I've Got Gills
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Re: Other reasons for DIR issues
You mean like these ... http://www.omsdive.com/fin.html ???RSdancey wrote:If ScubaPro made JetFin II, out of lighter weight materials, with modern design to improve all the things we like about them (ability to do back kicks & helicopter turns), with a better designed foot pocket, off the shelf spring straps, and who knows what other improvements they could engineer, they wouldn't be selling to the handful of people who buy new JetFins every year -- they'd be selling to all the people who have been using them (and re-using them) for decades!
Dunno about anyone else, but I'm planning to try a pair ...
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
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Joshua Smith
- I've Got Gills
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Re: Other reasons for DIR issues
Those are intriguing! Where can I buy a pair? Doesn't look like they sell direct, from the looks of the site.Grateful Diver wrote:You mean like these ... http://www.omsdive.com/fin.html ???RSdancey wrote:If ScubaPro made JetFin II, out of lighter weight materials, with modern design to improve all the things we like about them (ability to do back kicks & helicopter turns), with a better designed foot pocket, off the shelf spring straps, and who knows what other improvements they could engineer, they wouldn't be selling to the handful of people who buy new JetFins every year -- they'd be selling to all the people who have been using them (and re-using them) for decades!
Dunno about anyone else, but I'm planning to try a pair ...
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
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Grateful Diver
- I've Got Gills
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Well, at 7 lbs, Jet fins put a serious dent in the 35 lb. luggage limit I'm gonna have to deal with on my Indonesia trip next March. I've been very happy with my Jets ... but they're definitely NOT the best travel fins ever invented. And, in fact, they make you fairly foot-heavy in a 3 mil wetsuit and AL plate ...CaptnJack wrote:The fact the jets are negative is nice for me. I don't want them lighter, if they were I'd need a AL plate around here instead of my SS one. Why they don't just make them with spring staps and in common sense sizes I'll never understand.
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
I've not had a bad experience with 99% of the Seattle DIR divers. We have something in common in the concept that we dive as much as our lives allow, and that we are thoughtful in how we approach a dive from beginning to end.
From time to time a new kid on the block decides to be a bit more vocally enthusiastic, but it's rare.
Since our shop is one of those shops where backplates are a popular item, we fill doubles regularly, and all the core group at the shop dives in wing setups and own multiple sets of doubles, our LDS haven't had any problem bridging the "techreational" gap as it were.
BPs are a gateway drug. Once you go plate, then you end up with multiple brands/styles, several different wings, single and double setups, better/brighter lights, newer dive computer, and of course the quest for the perfect baselayer to keep one warm while floating for an hour and half, the warmest gloves, and of course the warmest hood.
From time to time a new kid on the block decides to be a bit more vocally enthusiastic, but it's rare.
Since our shop is one of those shops where backplates are a popular item, we fill doubles regularly, and all the core group at the shop dives in wing setups and own multiple sets of doubles, our LDS haven't had any problem bridging the "techreational" gap as it were.
BPs are a gateway drug. Once you go plate, then you end up with multiple brands/styles, several different wings, single and double setups, better/brighter lights, newer dive computer, and of course the quest for the perfect baselayer to keep one warm while floating for an hour and half, the warmest gloves, and of course the warmest hood.
I guess ignorance is bliss, because I would have actually had to know what she was talking about and I really didn't. Like I said I hadn't heard of DIR before that dive.. So no way to get ruffled.. I don't really remember her saying that.. Which isn't saying much as I am getting older I find I remember less.. hee hee.. But I do remember the dive with the kelp attacking me and the only reason that it was a problem was because I was diving with someone that I wont dive with again. And by trying to keep up with him, I couldn't pay attention to what I needed to.. Anyway it's a long story.. But it is really hard to ruffle my feathers and even harder to ruffle them when I am oblivious.. =) so no worries.. You can offer what ever advice you like..Well, I thought I was going to have to kick D's shins under the table when you were telling the story about being stuck in the kelp, and she asked if you'd considered a necklaced backup. My personal rule is "don't offer DIR advice unless directly asked about it" -- maybe I'm too "internet sensitive" from reading SB threads. I figure the last thing I need is to make people I'll be in the water with uncomfortable just before a dive...
One of the main reasons I try to read every thread on this board is because I know I don't know it all.. But I want to always be learning. So I will always listen to someone else's philosophy about diving. I might not agree with it but I might, eventually after I have processed all the info I make my own decisions.. Some times I try something out to see if it will work for me or not.. I did that with Bob (GD) he let me try his slung pony out because I didn't know what style I wanted. I still don't because I haven't tried out the bracket style yet.. But I will some day make a decision on it. If I ever get the scuba units to afford the reg for my pony.. sigh.
"Well I, I wont go down by myself, but I'll go down with my friends!"
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Rob Holman
- Avid Diver
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- Joined: Thu Oct 05, 2006 10:32 am
I love my turtles. They are great fins (Turtles are jets on steroids for those of us with larger feet). However next year when I goto Florida for my annual spearfishing trip, I'm leaving them at home and buying a pair of the long free diver fins.
I never thought I would ditch my turtles/jets under any circumstances, however The Florida folks were kicking my tail spearing due to the speed they can get out of them. It would take me 5 kicks to get up to speed and I was burning three kicks to their one kick to keep up. They are useless for anything other than moving forward, but in spearing where you are trying to catch up to a speared fish as fast as you can, forward speed trumps maneuverability.
I never thought I would ditch my turtles/jets under any circumstances, however The Florida folks were kicking my tail spearing due to the speed they can get out of them. It would take me 5 kicks to get up to speed and I was burning three kicks to their one kick to keep up. They are useless for anything other than moving forward, but in spearing where you are trying to catch up to a speared fish as fast as you can, forward speed trumps maneuverability.
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Jeff Kruse
- Compulsive Diver
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You will also need those long fins for free diving spear fishing in Puerto Rico. How will we practice valve drills free diving? 
What I see is to many of you are focusing on equipment. Equipment is such a small part of DIR.
Being able to function as a team makes diving unbelievably easier. I cant stress this enough. Rob's example of cave diving (with failures thrown at us) with someone we never met before basically sums up why we like GUE so much.
Before I drank the cool aid I felt the same way as a lot of you did. I disagreed with so much that GUE had to say. Then I took a class and it all made sense. In the beginning I was a DIR zealot (but I would still dive with strokes Rather than try to preach DIR to everyone I now only try to help people who take interest and want to learn more about it.
What I see is to many of you are focusing on equipment. Equipment is such a small part of DIR.
Being able to function as a team makes diving unbelievably easier. I cant stress this enough. Rob's example of cave diving (with failures thrown at us) with someone we never met before basically sums up why we like GUE so much.
Before I drank the cool aid
I felt the same way as a lot of you did. I disagreed with so much that GUE had to say. Then I took a class and it all made sense. In the beginning I was a DIR zealot (but I would still dive with strokes Rather than try to preach DIR to everyone I now only try to help people who take interest and want to learn more about it.I don't think GUE/DIR has the market on diving as a team. I dive with 2 guys pretty regularly and we are a great team. We have some of our own ways of communicating with each other that maybe others wouldn't know. We made some things up as we found the need and didn't have a reference.. But we don't even need to signal most of the time because we just know...spooky... And it is just a lot of fun. However, being a team with someone is no substitute for going over the dive plan and communication before the dive. We always try to review our signals and game plan before every dive. And when we dive with other people, we are then in the habit of reviewing their system of communication so that everyone gets on the same page.Being able to function as a team makes diving unbelievably easier. I cant stress this enough. Rob's example of cave diving (with failures thrown at us) with someone we never met before basically sums up why we like GUE so much.
Again, I am just trying to understand and I don't know enough about it..
"Well I, I wont go down by myself, but I'll go down with my friends!"
Re: Other reasons for DIR issues
Try Matt at NWSD, he's ordering a pair for Bob and I to use as "travel" fins. I'll let you know what I think after Maui . . .Nailer99 wrote:
Those are intriguing! Where can I buy a pair? Doesn't look like they sell direct, from the looks of the site.
Word has it they are about a pound a fin, add a half pound for the spring straps, and they are about half the weight of jets. Perfect for traveling.
GUE and the DIR approach certainly don't have a monopoly on team diving, but I think the unique thing about this style of diving is the standardization. I've been on dives with DIR trained divers where we were instantly on the same page. I've only made one dive with BDub, for instance (by his own admission not DIR, but he has gone through Joe Talavera's essentials class, iirc), and we clicked pretty good for having never dived together before.GillyWeed wrote:
I don't think GUE/DIR has the market on diving as a team. I dive with 2 guys pretty regularly and we are a great team. We have some of our own ways of communicating with each other that maybe others wouldn't know. We made some things up as we found the need and didn't have a reference.. But we don't even need to signal most of the time because we just know...spooky... And it is just a lot of fun. However, being a team with someone is no substitute for going over the dive plan and communication before the dive. We always try to review our signals and game plan before every dive. And when we dive with other people, we are then in the habit of reviewing their system of communication so that everyone gets on the same page.
Again, I am just trying to understand and I don't know enough about it..
Likewise, I've dived with one of Lamont's regular buddies a few times. Our first dive together was on a pinnacle in Sechelt, and at the time (around my 60th dive) it was the most relaxing, enjoyable dive to date. Procedurally, we were on the same page, and we both had a similar approach to enjoying the dive (a highlight was gently tapping a rock covered in brittle stars and watching them "walk" away from the source of the vibrations).
My first dive with CaptnJack on this board was similarly relaxing. He took me to the monolith on a dark night this last October, and I got out of the water grinning because there was so little team-induced stress (such as poor positioning, communication, and planning). We seemed to just "click" from the get-go. The dive itself was remarkable, we saw skates, octos, ratfish galore, gunnels in the shallows, stubby squid, you name it, it was out in Cove 1 that night.
So, imagine the familiarity you have with your regular dive buddies being a regular occurrance with new dive buddies. For the most part, that is what it is like for DIR divers first diving with each other.
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Rob Holman
- Avid Diver
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- Joined: Thu Oct 05, 2006 10:32 am
I don’t think anyone said that DIR/GUE owns the market on team diving. But that is their mainstay and primary focus as a training organization.
The point I was making was that for me, the biggest value that GUE brings to me, is the consistent delivery of graduates that come out. The communication of the teams is so consistent that it crosses language barriers-even when doing and out of gas, lights off exit from a cave with no prior diving experience as a team. Another primary goal of GUE that has been re-iterated in every class I have taken, it that diving should be fun. By having your skills nailed, and communications/team work/gear configs consistent, you are able to concentrate on enjoying the dive rather than worrying about where your buddy has wandered off to, what he/she is trying to say, and trying to keep from silting out what you want to see.
Can other orgs deliver this kind of student? Sure. Do they do it consistently? Not in my experience. As it has been said here, the quality of the instruction depends on the instructor, not the agency. I find GUE to be the exception to that statement. People may not like personalities of some of the instructors out of GUE, but I see a very consistent product delivered internationally.
The point I was making was that for me, the biggest value that GUE brings to me, is the consistent delivery of graduates that come out. The communication of the teams is so consistent that it crosses language barriers-even when doing and out of gas, lights off exit from a cave with no prior diving experience as a team. Another primary goal of GUE that has been re-iterated in every class I have taken, it that diving should be fun. By having your skills nailed, and communications/team work/gear configs consistent, you are able to concentrate on enjoying the dive rather than worrying about where your buddy has wandered off to, what he/she is trying to say, and trying to keep from silting out what you want to see.
Can other orgs deliver this kind of student? Sure. Do they do it consistently? Not in my experience. As it has been said here, the quality of the instruction depends on the instructor, not the agency. I find GUE to be the exception to that statement. People may not like personalities of some of the instructors out of GUE, but I see a very consistent product delivered internationally.
I'll add another voice to the chorus, that the team diving emphasis from GUE means you can get in the water with a stranger and operate as though you've been diving together forever. I've had that experience in Maui and in Monterey, as well as locally. And I had a wonderful experience doing cavern dives in Mexico with a Monterey diver and a GUE instructor, where we all knew what we were supposed to do and how to do it, within the limits of our skills, and it made the whole tour so much more fun.
DIR really isn't about gear, although that's what everybody focuses on. I was having a conversation yesterday with somebody who was saying he wasn't DIR because he had this thing and that thing someplace different from what they teach. That's minor. What's not is a heavy emphasis on a high standard of skills, constant practice of emergency procedures, and an intense insistence on constantly broadening one's awareness and keeping the brain engaged underwater.
As was said above, I don't try to proselytize. But I share what I'm happy with about the system with people who are interested.
DIR really isn't about gear, although that's what everybody focuses on. I was having a conversation yesterday with somebody who was saying he wasn't DIR because he had this thing and that thing someplace different from what they teach. That's minor. What's not is a heavy emphasis on a high standard of skills, constant practice of emergency procedures, and an intense insistence on constantly broadening one's awareness and keeping the brain engaged underwater.
As was said above, I don't try to proselytize. But I share what I'm happy with about the system with people who are interested.
"Sometimes, when your world is going sideways, the second best thing to everything working out right, is knowing you are loved..." ljjames
Thus the problem.
Example from above:
I'm the one who suggested that a pistol grip light is a less than optimal choice. For me, I don't want to dive with someone who's light is flashing all over the place. I am trying to cultivate "light awareness" and both active and passive light communication into my diving.
I was aware of light signals and used my primary 10W for signalling before getting cave trained. Since that time I realized how truly sloppy my light usage has been. So I am trying to use my light as a passive communication tool much more on everyday dives. Anything more than a slow tourista sweep across my vision and I'm checking my buddy out. LOA? Stressed? Narced? Equipment issue? This also goes for the absence of the light for more than a few seconds.
If I were to dive with someone who is not interested or focused on active and passive light communication that would be frustrating and "desensitizing". A dangling pistol grip flashing with no emergency behind it is "crying wolf" to me. I want to heighten my awareness of subtle changes in light usage, not numb myself out. This is a personal choice I have made in my diving.
If you chose to dive otherwise, that's fine. I have no problem with that. I'm not saying you're a bad diver, just someone who's not after the same things I'm after. I imagine there are RB divers, spearfishers, and freedivers all out there doing there things. I'm not interested in those things so I really never join them.
But if you come on a board and ask for light advice I will tell you pistol grips (cause people let them dangle sometimes) generate poor light habits in my opinion. I'm not trying to be a DIR god or anything. But I don't like to dive with people who have poor light habits since I'm still trying to cultivate "perfect" active and passive light communication into my own diving.
This is where DIR gets a bad rap. Your choice of dive habits are fine with me. But your habits may impact my dive. And thus we may chose not to dive together which is not a statement on anyone's abilities, "DIW", death wishes or anything else. Its like going to a Chinese restaurant when you wanted pizza.
Respectfully,
Richard
Example from above:
I'm the one who suggested that a pistol grip light is a less than optimal choice. For me, I don't want to dive with someone who's light is flashing all over the place. I am trying to cultivate "light awareness" and both active and passive light communication into my diving.
I was aware of light signals and used my primary 10W for signalling before getting cave trained. Since that time I realized how truly sloppy my light usage has been. So I am trying to use my light as a passive communication tool much more on everyday dives. Anything more than a slow tourista sweep across my vision and I'm checking my buddy out. LOA? Stressed? Narced? Equipment issue? This also goes for the absence of the light for more than a few seconds.
If I were to dive with someone who is not interested or focused on active and passive light communication that would be frustrating and "desensitizing". A dangling pistol grip flashing with no emergency behind it is "crying wolf" to me. I want to heighten my awareness of subtle changes in light usage, not numb myself out. This is a personal choice I have made in my diving.
If you chose to dive otherwise, that's fine. I have no problem with that. I'm not saying you're a bad diver, just someone who's not after the same things I'm after. I imagine there are RB divers, spearfishers, and freedivers all out there doing there things. I'm not interested in those things so I really never join them.
But if you come on a board and ask for light advice I will tell you pistol grips (cause people let them dangle sometimes) generate poor light habits in my opinion. I'm not trying to be a DIR god or anything. But I don't like to dive with people who have poor light habits since I'm still trying to cultivate "perfect" active and passive light communication into my own diving.
This is where DIR gets a bad rap. Your choice of dive habits are fine with me. But your habits may impact my dive. And thus we may chose not to dive together which is not a statement on anyone's abilities, "DIW", death wishes or anything else. Its like going to a Chinese restaurant when you wanted pizza.
Respectfully,
Richard