Doing It Right (scuba diving)
DIR proponents maintain that through these elements, safety is improved by standardizing equipment configuration and dive-team procedures for preventing and dealing with emergencies.
[1] DIR evolved out of the efforts of divers involved in the Woodville Karst Plain Project (WKPP) during the 1990s, who were seeking ways of reducing the fatality rate in those cave systems.
[5] Irvine and Jarrod Jablonski eventually formalized and popularized this approach as DIR, promoting its practices for all forms of scuba diving.
[citation needed] Doing It Right is about diving safely for personal enjoyment of the underwater environment[9] The principle of buddy support and teamwork using basic, well practiced, familiar and standardised safety procedures is central to the philosophy.
Use of simple, reliable, well matched and rugged equipment that is versatile in its application, and familiar to all team members is seen as the logical way to achieve the highest levels of teamwork and as a means of minimizing task loading on the divers by reducing drag, and allowing good trim and buoyancy control, maneuverability and freedom of movement and low risk of entanglement.
[11] DIR is a system and as such equipment configuration should be considered within the context of the whole philosophy, and the ultimate aims of ensuring safety, efficiency and enjoyment.
Course training does not generally provide sufficient time to hone skills and develop the optimum level of knowledge, and therefore additional review and practice are usually necessary.
[2] The DIR rig is carefully weighted to ensure that the diver is not overweight but is able to maintain accurate depth and trim at any decompression stop.
[2] The choice of cylinder size and material must be made with due consideration of the effects on buoyancy and trim in conjunction with the selection of dive suit[10] The parameters for gas use recommended by DIR are relatively conservative.
Lack of proper buoyancy control is likely to disturb or damage the surroundings, and is a source of additional and unnecessary physical effort to maintain precise depth, which also increases stress.
[32] DIR divers must be completely dedicated to the buddy system, primarily in the interest of safety, but also because failure to follow the expected procedures is likely to compromise the dive plan.
[34] Familiarity and comfort with equipment are considered important, as the diver should be able to perform necessary procedures quickly and effectively both for efficiency in normal diving, and for safety in emergencies, where any delay can increase the risk of escalation.
DIR proponents indicate that poor equipment handling skills are often due to shortcomings in training programmes, but can also be a result of inherently sub-optimal configurations.
In this context, streamlining includes the aspect of reducing hydrodynamic drag when swimming, but more importantly, the reduction of entanglement and entrapment hazards due to equipment components to a minimum.
[43][44][45][46] The webbing must be adjustable and is secured with a single stainless steel buckle located on the diver's right waist,[47] this position lessens the potential of accidental opening by the crotch strap.
[44] The left side waist “D” ring is used to attach the back gas SPG, stage bottles, and other gear that may be required for a particular dive.
[51] The corrugated hose of the inflator assembly should be long enough to easily dump air from the bladder and no longer, as unnecessary length makes it difficult to streamline.
[50] The inflator mechanism must not be a high flow type as these use a non-standard connector, and can fill the wing dangerously quickly if the valve sticks open.
[citation needed] The long hose(5 to 7 ft, depending on diver height) is required in overhead and decompression diving as it simplifies air sharing, thus reducing risk.
[53] It is optional in shallow, open water diving where there is direct access to the surface and no requirement to travel any considerable distance while sharing gas.
This implies a hose just long enough to reach the waist belt D-ring on the left hip, where it is clipped, and no additional instruments in a console to increase bulk.
Cylinder or manifold valve knob extension operators (slobwinders) can be stiff, can trail and snag on things, and can be difficult to find when needed.
The approved valve knob is hard rubber or non-brittle plastic, which flexes to absorb much of the impact energy, with a metal insert, so the connection to the spindle is less likely to strip.
In overhead diving they are considered a significant entanglement hazard and are not worn on the mask strap while underwater, as this could interfere with deployment of the long hose in an emergency.
[65][50] The knife is carried in an open sheath[clarification needed] on the waist belt to the left of the crotch strap where it can be reached by either hand and is unlikely to snag.
[75] Although DIR system became well known in the field of long range, mixed gas, cave diving, it is claimed that its philosophy makes it both efficient and effective in different environments.
"[14] ".... divers have begun to realize that in terms of wasted energy and effort there is a significant penalty for stubbornly seeking to maintain an individual “style.” Why reinvent the wheel alone when there is a proven system that ensures safety, efficiency and success in the water?"
[120] Jarrod Jablonski Bret Gilliam, Robert Von Maier "If the 'perfect' system is not suitable for your environment, modify it until it is, while maintaining the basic safety elements of the original idea.
However, there is a certain degree of legitimate tension generated by imprudent advocates of DIR, who, having personally benefited from the system, become evangelical in promoting what they understand of its tenets.
While most training agencies preach the maximising of equipment redundancy,[citation needed] in certain areas DIR opposes equipment redundancy; for example, the DIR approach is against dual bladder buoyancy compensators for reasons of complexity, task loading, increased number of critical failure modes, and consequent risk increase.
