Part of the DIR philosophy is about the equipment that's used. A few good sites to look at include

Gas Diving
GUE's website
Bitz - useful guide
US DIR dive shop

These should give a lot of pointers about what is the sort of equipment is best to use.

Some more specific ones:
Hose routing for apeks
Hose routing for scubapro

My equpment includes
- Halcyon Eclipse 30 for single tank diving
- Halcyon Explorer 40 for twinset diving (UK 2x12's)

Both types of wings are appropriately sized for the task and are free from bungees. This is to aid streamlining, prevent gas trapping and reduce the chance of a bungee catching something.


- Halcyon harness and stainless steel backplate
The harness is a one piece harness i.e. made from a single piece of webbing without any breaks. A number of d-rings and tri-glides are used to position the attachment points in the right place.

- Worthington Heiser 2 x 12L twinsets (equivalent to steel 85's?)
I'm a big fan of the Heiser cylinders which are taller than Faber 12L cylinders (more common in the uk). The bonus of this is they provide better distribution of weight down your back which promotes a more horizontal position.


- AL80 stage cylinders.
These make very nice stages cylinders. They are alumunium and equivalent to an 11L cylinder in UK terms. This makes them good for either a bottom stage or a 50% bottle. On my Tech-1 course the instructor specified a minimum of a 7L (european terms) equivalent to aprox 55cf.


- 6Cf Argon bottle
I've actually got this US spec cylinder as it is fairly neat and practical for the sort of wreck diving I do in the UK. It is DOT stamped not IDEST so I can get it directly filled in the UK. I've bought a decanting whip and use a 15L cylinder to top it up.

- Salvo 18W 9A HID light
The Salvo HID lights are nice lights and I've done about 100 dives with mine and been very pleased with it.

- DUI CF200 drysuit & TLS350
I've currently got two suits. The TLS is just a stunning drysuit. No loss of flexibility, very comfortable and a "dry" suit.

- 400gram DUI type B thinsulate
Type B thinsulate is highly recommended as it's properties keep your warm even in the event of a suit flood. I've been happy with it and it's kept me warm despite a number of minor leaks.

- Halcyon spools 30m
Can be used to deploy an SMB or act as a safety line.

- Apeks DS4 first stages
I use the DS4's for back gas regs and for my argon bottle. They are compact and reliable. See the top of the article for some info on hose routing.

- Scubapro MK25 first stage for stage regulator
The MK25's were bought before I went DIR but I do find them useful on stage bottles. The turret lets the hose rotate so it's routed a little neater when delpoyed.

- DIR Zone wetnotes
- Scubapro framless mask
- Beaver Atomic mask
- Scubapro R380 2nd stages
- Apeks ATX40 2nd stages