What the Heck is DIR?

[shamre]

???New to the board but not to diving. Just had to ask because i am not sure what this acronym means, what does DIR stand for?

[DRE]

Shamre,

welcome to the board!

DIR stands for Doing It Right. It is a holistic aproach to diving, which looks at every single component (gear, team, fitness, gasses, decompression, S&P) and tries to integrate them into a unified system. DIR originated in the Florida caves, especially with a group of divers known as the Wakulla Karst Plains Project, which until recently was led by George Irvine. They encountered pretty big obstacles in their exploration pushes (such as doing dives 18,000ft long at an average depth of 300ft) so they had a to device a system that could do this safely. They merged certain ideas of earlier cave explorers, came up with some radical thoughts on decompression and devised the strictest safety protocols to conduct those (and any) dives.
In the late 90's, Jarrod Jablonski, another lead diver in the WKPP, formed a training organization, called Global Underwater Explorers, which incorporated the DIR philosophy in its training.
For further information I'd highly recommend checking out , , , , . Once you start doing some internet searches, you'll find a ton of great info.

Hope this helps,
David

[Freedive WI]

I see that they water polo thread was moved and I don't think that it should have been. A big part of DIR, that everyone glosses over because they are too hung up on Halcyon gear, is keeping properly fit.

DIR divers do not smoke and work out on a regular basis. THis sets them apart form sdome of the other fat slobs I see on the dive boats who call themselves dive instructors. When the crap hits the fan the blimps can't even swim back to the boat themselves, let alone rescue someone else.

As a deck hand who has had to swim for way more than my fair share of divers I can tell you that playing a little water polo will make you a better buddy in one of those situations.

One topics that gets covered all the time on the Quest list is proper workouts for diving. There are lots of threads on biking, swimming, running, weight lifiting, diet, heart rate monitors, ect. It almost reminds me of many of the freediving threads I read in other forums.

One DIR specific club that I belonged to, DEEP midwest, had fiteness guidelines for all of it's members. You couldn't smoke, had to work out a few dyas a week, and had to enter at least one fitenss event, like a fun run or bike ride, per year to stay current. this was besides all of the gear, gas, and buddy requirements. As a result I felt very comfortable doing any kind of dive with any of the members.

Now, I know that there are others divers who may stay in shape, but DIR is the only system that builds a good part of it's foundation upon it. When it somes to other divers i have always found it to be pretty hit or miss.

We can get into other discussioons about DIR in another thread, like why I think a tec instructor should actually be able to dress themselves for a tec dive if they are going to charge somebody to take a class from them, but fitness and DIR is a good place to start for now.

Jon

[DRE]

To give a reference to complement Jon's post - if you're interested in starting, supplementing or increasing a workout schedule, check out . It is maintained by Cameron Martz, who is a personal trainer and fitness consultant to the WKPP.

[cbc]

Hey Jon,
Back off the fat slob and blimp comments. Nothing people hate more than an elitest. I am overweight and I swim 5 times a week and am in very good shape. I don't appreciate the fatty hatin.

[Freedive WI]

What about the guy who smokes a pack of cig's on the way to the dive site, or cigars afterwards, and then is so overweight he can't get into his own gear?

This is one reason I am a big advocate or regular testing of instructors. Sure, somebody might have been great in the water when they first started, but they let themselves go over time and yet they still have people's lives in their hands- but can no longer meet the basic requirements for the orginization they certified with. This becomes a problem when there's a situation in the water and they don't have a fresh "divemaster" candidate to do the rescues for them.

I have seen more "instructors" like this than you can imagine. Being overweight also effects your off gassing for deco.

Congrats on swimming 5 days a week. You are doing more, 5 times as much, as the divers I am talking about. It sounds like you would fit right in, even if the waist line is bigger than you want.

If DIR is a process, then you can be working on it at a variety of levels. Swimming 5 days a week shows that someone is working at it.


Jon