New to Doubles

[matt t.]

The guy you saw was probably George Irvine. While most divers DIR or not like to jump on the "trash Trey"  bandwagon, he has been there and done that before retiring a few years ago. He is the old face of DIR. The new attitudes are more civilized. Whether you subscribe to the ideas or not, they do work in all conditions. Is diving to DIR standards the only way to dive? Of course not. The DIR approach to diving is team oriented. Keep things as simple as possible, only take what you need for the job, dive standard gasses, practice standard procedures, and standard gear configurations that are the same for all team members to avoid any confusion. If nothing else you should buy or borrow the DIR Fundamentals book to get a feel for things. It was written by Jarrod Jablonski, the founder of GUE and owner of Halcyon. If nothing else it is an interesting read on a winter afternoon. Our group is not strictly DIR, but we do incorporate a lot of the ideas and planning taught by GUE. No, you don't have to own Halcyon gear, or a DUI suit, or SP regs, or a scooter, or even cave dive. So far it has worked out well for us. YMMV.