November 15th through 17th at the Blue Hole in Santa Rosa, New Mexico.
Are
you a recreational diver or underwater photographer that wants to finely
hone your skills and equipment to make diving easier, safer and more fun?
Or a technical or budding technical diver that wants to make sure that
your technical skills are honed to the point that you can handle severe
task loading with a minimum of effort and a maximum of safety? If
so, you should consider this course.
DIR is the acronym for “Do It Right”, a SCUBA diving approach that encompasses many facets including diving equipment, skills, fitness, methodologies and buddy awareness that improve a diver’s safety and enjoyment of the sport. The Woodville Karst Plain Project (WKPP) is credited with pulling together and refining existing diving techniques and approaches to make up the cohesive DIR philosophy required to accomplish their cave exploration that currently stands at a three mile penetration into Wakulla Spring in Florida at a depth of 300 feet.
Though DIR’s roots lie in the technical cave community, it can be applied seamlessly to recreational diving as well. You needn’t dive double cylinders and a canister light in order to enjoy the benefits of the DIR approach to diving. Though the equipment aspect of DIR is clearly the most visible, like an iceberg, the equipment is only the most noticeable component of the DIR system.
The class size and teacher/student ratio is small and training is tailored to each and every diver. Skills taught and focused on depend on each diver’s skill level, goals and equipment. Equipment configuration, manipulation and problem solving will be practiced in order to improve the diver’s skill set, from a recreational diver’s single AL80 to a caver’s or decompression diver’s twin steel 104s, canister light and reels/spools. All divers will be videotaped and critiqued later to afford immediate feedback to accelerate learning and skill acquisition.
The DIR Fundamentals course is offered through Global Underwater Explorers (GUE), the only agency actively and exclusively teaching the DIR system. GUE Training Director Andrew Georgitsis will be teaching the course accompanied by GUE instructors Michel Kane and Sonya Tittle.
Cost of the course is $300; a $100 deposit is required with the balance due October 15th. For more information contact Roger Oakey (719-332-9085/roakey@underctek.com) or Sonya Tittle (888-854-3483/ sonya@fifthd.com) or see the links below. To sign up for the course please contact Roger Oakey.
Please note that the DIRF course is a prerequisite to taking any GUE cave or technical class.
About DIR and more cave oriented DIR.
Course outline and requirements from GUE and Fifth Dimension.
DIRF course discussion on the web in Massachusetts, in Texas, in North Carolina and in Michigan.
This document is available in word format at: http://www.underctek.com/open/DIRF/dirf.doc