The Diveblog

What is DIR?

Well, while I could probably write pages of material on this......I don't need to because the proponents and pioneers of this integrated approach to diving have been very prolific in sharing their philosophy online and many of those articles and gear configuration illustrations are still available online.  So this will be a link-rich post.

History

Much of the innovation and experimentation in dive equipment configurations can be traced to the cave diving pioneers of the 1980s.  Particularly, Sheck Exley, Bill Hogarth Main and Bill Gavin.  This is where the "Hogarthian" system comes from.  In short the Hogarthian system is about minimalism and functionality, "If you don't need it, don't bring it."  For a more complete discussion of the Hogarthian system, please read this Jarrod Jablonsky article from several years ago.

From this foundation, the next generation of deep cave explorers, led by the guys at the WKPP, took this philosophy and refined it to what is today called "Doing It Right", or DIR for short.  Frustrated by what they perceived to be a dangerous focus on "card collecting" in the dive training industry and a general lack of experience among "technical divers", they formed a new dive training organization, Global Underwater Explorers ("GUE").  From the mid-1990s to the early-2000s, George Irvine, Director of WKPP was prolific, vocal and confrontational in spreading the DIR philosophy online.  If you want to get a feel for this, just do a quick search on "Irvine" in the techdiver listserv archives.  This is where I was first exposed to DIR.  Now through GUE, they have the ability to formally mold divers in their image.  Please fully explore the GUE and WKPP sites for more information.

Links

George Irvine article on DIR gear configuration

George's gear configuration photos

Specific gear configuration information from GUE

Application of DIR principals to recreational diving

Firsthand account of a Fundamentals of DIR class

What is Technical Diving?

There's no easy answer to this, as the limits of "recreational" diving have changed over time.  You definitely can't use breathing gas as the determining factor anymore.

"Technical diving" used to refer to any dive with a gas other than air.  Therefore a 230 foot dive on air to the Andrea Doria wasn't a technical dive.  Narced out of your skull crazy....but not technical.  However, a 60 foot reef dive on nitrox was considered technical.  This mostly stemmed from a long held belief in the mainstream diving community that blended gases were some sort of "voodoo."  Well, through the persistence of a small group of advocates, nitrox is now ubiquitous among recreational divers and a light helium mixture, called triox, may soon be joining nitrox among the gases readily available to properly trained recreational divers.

To keep this simple, I will define a technical dive as one in which it is planned that a direct controlled emergency swimming ascent to the surface is impossible.  This can occur either because you have placed a physical barrier between yourself and the surface (wreck, cavern or cave) or incur a staged decompression obligation. 

"But wait," you say, "I've been inside wrecks on a recreational dive......and my computer has made me do deco stops after a few dives!" 

Well, the operative word in my definition above is "planned."  The primary difference between an idiotic recreational dive and a technical dive is planning.  Just because you've pushed the limits of recreational diving out of arrogance or stupidity, doesn't make you a technical diver.

Coming soon: What does it take to be a technical diver?