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I have been lurking in the background on Techdiver since the beginning of the year and I feel about ready to make my first real contribution. I am a South African and I started Tech diving about a year ago and at about the same time as I subscribed to this list. I think that I must have fallen into every Stroke trap possible. I followed the lead of my instructor and fellow Tech divers. My gear looked just like the most horrible Christmas trees that have been posted on various web sites, I bought a set of quad 300 bar steels, a Transpac, Stuporwings and a whole bunch of clips that made me feel like an extremely Bad Ass Tech diver. The feeling lasted until I got in the water. I felt like a beached whale and looking back on it, I probably was about as elegant. As I began to hear about DIR on the Net and on this list, I began to get a growing sense on unease as to my gear and diving practices. Almost everything that I was doing put me squarely into the Stroke category (right down to the 80% deco mix). At first, I believed my instructor and fellow divers that somehow South Africa was different and that DIR was only for Florida Cave Diving. I tried to argue the DIR case (not very convincingly do to my lack of knowledge) and got nowhere. So I continued on my one one way journey to doom. It all changed one day when I actually met a UK DIR diver (David Shimell) while I was embarrassingly trying to kit up my rig and decide which hose went where and re-configure my set-up before the next dive. I think all David said was something like he saw a lot of scary stuff around and quietly left. A few months later, he convinced me to come for a dive with him and try out a DIR rig. I have never looked back. I immediately decided never again to dive with any of my Stroke gear and set about assembling a DIR rig. I recently completed a cave diving course, which I simply could not have done any with my previous rig. You only have to do one lights out, lost line drill to realise the importance of DIR as opposed to DIW. I can now do a cave dive one weekend, a wreck the next and a deep ocean dive the following and not change one single element of my set-up. What's more, I do all of the dives more efficiently, comfortably and safely than before. Since my conversion I have tried to spread the word and it is fascinating to witness peoples arguments, first hand. They are exactly the same, in the flesh, in South Africa, as they are on this list. What can I say, except I truly pity those poor souls who refuse to believe and continue bring up the same pathetic arguments time and time again. The hardest thing seems to be to get people to admit that they have been had, to get rid of the shiny clips and bungywings and to take a look at DIR without the sunk cost of their old gear screwing with their minds. I have seen perfectly reasonable people turn to babbling idiots when faced with this situation. So why am I writing this ? Firstly I wanted to express my gratitude to the DIR guys on this list for their time and patience, without it I would most likely still be Doing It Wrong. Secondly I wanted to try to send I message to those people who constantly find themselves on the other side of the DIR argument: go out and try it, I would be astounded if you could come up with one single coherent argument as to why any element of the system is not entirely perfect or needs any modification. If I sound like a born again evangelist, that I because I feel like one. Rise up! Rise up and feel the power! Caste away your Stroke gear! free yourself! Simon Murray. -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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