Chuck wrote:


> > > You have to show up with dbl tanks and bungee wings first.
> > > And bungee the LH. And, and, and. Hey, it ain't all that easy being a
> > > stroke, either. You gotta make a conscious effort first.
> >
> > It's a shame not everybody agrees with you.  There would have been a lot
> > fewer arguments and a lot less hard feelings over the years if they did.
> >
> LOL.  I remember a dive on the Seahorse out of Pompano Beach.  As I
> understand it, lots of tech divers use it.  3 dive trip.  Another DM from
> the Deeper and I showed up with 3 100 cu foot tanks.  The other three
divers
> each had 6 120s and 3 40s (pony bottles.)  Dive 1 was on the Capt Dan -
> about 100 feet dive 2 on the Copenhagen, and dive 3 under the balls (about
> 20 feet of water.)  On all 3 dives the burned up all of the air in all of
> their tanks including the ponys.  On none of the dives did we even get
close
> to half way.  They had all of the requisite DIR gear, just not the skills
or
> fitness to use them.

We see similar things all the time.  There's a big push locally to be DIR.
Now, there's nothing wrong with being DIR, but there is a lot wrong with the
presumption that it will automatically make you a great diver.  In fact, the
number one risk most of us find with the DIR concepts as presented here in
the U.S. is that far too many people who lack the knowledge and experience
to recognize and deal with even common problems, believe they are ready to
do deep, staged, accelerated decompression dives safely just because
somebody that may, in fact, be competent to do them, showed them how.  Some
of these guys are so bad and so badly misled, that it's downright scary.
When Strike finishes his courses, he'll certainly be a good diver.  Then
again, Strike was a good diver before he took the first course in the
series.  Not everybody is.

I'm betting you ran into one of the DIR training courses they hold down here
from time to time.  They used to use Seahorse pretty regularly.  Last time I
ran into one of these courses, they were using a boat that docks behind
Brownies Southport, a DIR/GUE/EE/Halcyon affiliated dive shop.  Everybody
was all dressed up in drysuits, mostly ill fitting, to do a training dive to
similar depths, in clear, 84 degree water.  It was most amusing to those of
us having a few beers at the Southport Raw Bar next door.

Lee