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At 09:54  10/07/00 , KRussellTX@ao*.co* wrote:
>From: "wombat" wwombat@bi*.co* 
>Date: Wed, Jul 5, 2000 11:54 PM
>Message-id: <jWV85.6928$c5.18659@ne*.bi*.co*>
>
>The DIR thing hasn't caught on well here in the land Down Under.  Last
>weekend I and a few (8) others attended a demo at Cronulla , a suburb of
>Sydney the first here in Australia to my knowledge. Roger Sims was the poor
>guys name. He gave us a classroom style walk through the principles behind
>the DIR configuration and then a boat dive / try out of some gear. All was
>fine until we were getting back on the boat. Roger slipped as he was
>climbing up the ladder and as he fell his arm got caught between the boat
>and the ladder and his body ended up through the ladder pinning his arm with
>his body weight.

KRussel, thanks for the heads up on this.

If this Roger Sims guy was diving with wombat and the Cronulla
strokes, he was breaking rule No. 1 and therefore wasn't diving
or demoing DIR.

Instead, he might have been just demoing the gear. In which case
he probably made the mistake most people make on first contact with
the one-piece webbing harness and had the shoulder straps too
tight. The waist strap and the crotch strap provide the security
and stability on the DIR/Hogarth rig.

Personally, I'd waiting for JJ, George, Robert or Andrew to demo
the whole DIR system. 

As far as acceptance of DIR goes, wombat's wrong. There are a group 
of us in Aus who are getting our shit together in a major way with 
DIR.  - I think we're about the second biggest group doing regular 
dives in Sydney.

For the moment we're just enjoying the fun and freedom of 100% 
stroke-free diving. It's great to be with a boatload of divers and
not to have to worry about the usual stroke disasters like:

some overweighted stroke getting pinned to the bottom as happened
on one famous stroke-instruction dive.

someone's plastic snap buckles breaking and dumping their gear.

or (as happened right in front of me) the stroke's velcro bands 
holding twin indies to his zeagle let go and one cylinder 
drifted one way and one went the other. It was a scream - a 
technical diver literally disintegrating in front of me! I had to 
swim over and 'capture' his cylinders and try to velcro him back
together. The interesting part was, none of his stroke 'buddies' 
noticed his peril or came over to help. He wasn't even from our 
boat, he was from a stroke boat that couldn't get on to the wreck
so tied up to our boat instead.

Believe me, it's a relief not to have to dive in a blizzard of
idiocy and near misses.

If anyone in Sydney wants to try DIR diving, contact me - 
billy@bd*.co*.au*. I'm happy to introduce you to our group.

KRussel - would you mind forwarding this post to the forum
on which you found wombat's post?

thanks & rgrds billyw


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