Carrying on from the other
thread about stowing the long hose after s-drills, now seen in context the change does seem to be just one example of increasing opportunities for building team awareness in a training scenario. That remains my only concern, i.e. that if you’re not going to carry this forward to real situations (and I still can’t see any need to, in fact the opposite), should you train for and continue to practice this skill any other way? Obviously I’m free to continue to practice s-drills (which I do) any way I like, but it makes even less sense to learn one way and then practice another?
I like the pockets idea too, though like Graham am struggling to think of an emergency scenario where I need to fish around in a buddy’s pockets. The reluctance does seem to be largely because it’s not what people are used to. For me, I’ve always put my SMB and spool in the left pocket, not because I’ve ever had a system for what “should” be left or right, I just simply have. Getting at it is not really an issue from what I’ve found. I agree with Gareth though, there are going to be a lot of people with DUI’s flat right hand pocket having copied the original WKPP spec. My first suit had this and it’s barely big enough to fit Wetnotes. Now for cave (which this setup was spec’d for - wreck it was always acknowledged that you might need bigger pockets on each side) the right pocket is going to have to have Wetnotes, spare mask and a 150ft safety spool, a physical impossibility with the neoprene pocket, whilst their cavernous cargo pocket will just have a couple of line arrows and markers (Cave 1) rattling around in it.
I’m still not convinced about the GUE EDGE thing. For one thing, from having ‘too many’ D’s to remember, I now foresee similar problems with the number of E’s in this one. I also rather liked SADDD for cave diving as all the D’s tended to be your limits for penetration and it made sense to me to review all these in the same breath (though I suppose you get there in the EDG bit too). I suppose my Cave 2 next April will be taught this way, so I’ll reserve judgement until then. Either way, I suspect this is one change that can only really be brought in either for the first time (at fundies) or via further training - the number of people forcing themselves to re-learn this off their own bat I suspect will be small.
In one of the earlier threads (before this became “official”
) someone raised the issue of how best this should be disseminated. Whilst the changes are posted on the website (and will inevitably make their way onto the forums), the website seems to indicate that “officially” the changes will be announced on Quest. I know that Quest is GUE’s baby, etc. but I don’t see that as necessarily being appropriate. Quest is neither exclusively DIR or for GUE trained people, in fact a large number of people appear to join to learn more precisely because they
haven’t had any GUE training or other exposure to DIR. Secondly not all GUE trained divers see the internet or e-mail lists as an extension of their diving nor are GUE members (and, aside from the discounts on apparel and the warm fuzzy feeling at supporting what you believe in, to be honest the only real ‘benefit’ of membership is the Quest list). I still think an e-mail now and then from GUE HQ to their database of ex-students wouldn’t go amiss, and would be more inclusive of the people who any changes are likely to benefit.
Joe