londonsean69(Offline)

So, last night (Weds) I fired myself down to Wraysbury for the Yorkshire Divers (YD) meet, but mainly to have a chat and a bimble with GLOC.

I am keen to learn a little bit more about DIR in person, rather than just through the internet forums, before I commit to it. So, is DIR for me??

The short answer is I like what I saw, both of the system, and the attitude behind it. The long answer follows;

After a brief chat with Howard (Payne), I met Gloc, complete in his Thunderbirds outfit. We had a little chat about DIR, how he got into it, who with etc. and most importantly why.
We then proceeded to kit up (after finding poor old Scubees brand new single wing wouldn't fit her BP with an STA.)

Dive brief was simple, bimble around a bit then onto one of the platforms for some skills.
The bimble was pretty uneventful, although we found a couple of nice pike, then we got to one of the platfroms where GLOC demonstrated a shutdown to me.

*Disclaimer* I did Adv. Nitrox about 3 years ago, and haven't been in a twinset and wing since then till this month!**

My turn - bu**er, can't reach the left post at all, no matter how I contorted myself, even though I could get to the right one

Surface and exit, quick coffee and a chat, then GLOC gave me a dry run on the shutdown, and out of air drill.

Back in, down to the platform, and this time I can't reach either valve
The out of air goes OK, so we start making our way back to the exit, when the cheeky chimp throws me an out of air in about 3m of water, with 3ft of silt under us!!

I am told afterwards that the out of air's were OK, chuffed with that, as it is the first time I have really donated the long hose whilst breathing it. But it was bl00dy hard keeping trim and dumping whilst making sure my OOG diver is OK.

Back in the car park and we have a look at the suit and harness.
The suit (procean) has always been a little tight for me (I need to move the boots down a touch to help with the length), but we had a look at it and it has a seam
running right inside the bend of the elbow, so that and my quite bulky undersuit made it difficult to get the range of motion I required.
The plate was far too low, so I have some more fettling to do before I get back in again.
And, my knobs are too small:D The twins have the original MDE knobs on them, which were quite hard to grip with 5mm gloves, so I feel an e-mail to knackers coming on for some of his soft knobs

So to summarise;

• Couple of nice dives with nice people
• Vis was the best I have had in Wraysbury, at 5-6m in places
• Saw pike and carp (last time I was there I saw one Perch!)

Things to change;

• New suit, but will have to wait till after the summer holiday
• New undersuit, ditto
• Harness adjustments

It was nice to meet a few of the others off here, Howard and Ian, but a massive thanks go to GLOC for running through the skills with me.

It has helped me make up my mind to definitely do fundies, although again, it will have to wait till after the holiday.

I'll be down there next Weds, with a freshly adjusted harness, to have another go at those pesky valves, although the suit will have to go at some point, as this morning I have a nice bruise on the inside of my elbow from where the suit and undersuit were bunching up on the valve drills

Sean

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Sean
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neilh(Offline)

Nice write up Sean - and good luck

GLOC (Online)

Thanks Sean. It was a pleasure and see you down there next week.

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Gareth

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