Whatever happened to the rules of DIR diving?

[FW]

I’ll just be over here with the rest of the DIR Rules Preservation Society members.

DIRRPS?

[jbdvr]

I first met George and JJ back in 1996. George was always a pretty good guy in person. As far as the derivation of the term "stroke", I believe it was taken by George from Parker Turner, one of the first WKPP divers that stated that some of the divers that showed up and wanted to dive with the WKPP would try to impress Parker by bragging on all their dive certs, all the incredible dives that hey had accomplished etc,etc, or in other words Parker said he was being 'stroked" by these newbes.

[allen]

So how many people actually know the derivation of the term stroke?

I don't even know the definition.

[chrpai]

I don't even know the definition.

An unsafe diver.

The "rules" were basically:

1. Don't dive with unsafe divers
2. Don't listen to unsafe divers
3. Nothing is worth dying for
4. Always analyze your gas before every dive
5. Don't dive a rebreather unless you need it
6. Always look cool. (Be squared away with your skills and your equipment)

and option 1 ... any diver can thumb a dive for any reason

The rules still make sense to me. People will disagree with who is safe and not safe and some people dive rebreathers all the time but otherwise I think it's all good advice albeit was delivered in a very rude and mean way.

I was in rec.scuba 20 years ago and I was on the other side of arguments back then. Today I just try to be the safest diver I can be and the older I get the more rule 3 applies.

[jbdvr]

The first 4 rules are just common sense for any diver doing any dives whether caves or shallow reefs.

[Txaggie08]

Lots public safety guys need that third one tattooed on the inside of both eyelids, and the back of their hands

[Nitrogenius]

I first met George and JJ back in 1996. George was always a pretty good guy in person. As far as the derivation of the term "stroke", I believe it was taken by George from Parker Turner, one of the first WKPP divers that stated that some of the divers that showed up and wanted to dive with the WKPP would try to impress Parker by bragging on all their dive certs, all the incredible dives that hey had accomplished etc,etc, or in other words Parker said he was being 'stroked" by these newbes.

Thanks for the insight
That's some cool background on the genesis of the term..
As for folks being a lot different in real life than appearing in written exchange in online groups and such..
Well there is just a lot of that.. I mean look at CDF there is I would say at least 30% of the folks posting here frequently which do not really appear to be very pleasant, diplomatic or even appear rude and opinionated (including probably myself to some of the readers) but are actually nice civil folks in real life..
I mean even bent and I got along well when we met in person
Written exchange is always difficult, then paired with some alpha on a topic one is passionate about.. it easily drags to conversations that start to hit low quite fast.. It is what it is.. You always have to take it with a grain of salt.. And I bet 90% of the readers that looked at GI3s rants did recognize that..
It is the ability to look past the obvious and catch what actually has value and sense to oneself..

5. Don't dive a rebreather unless you need it

If anybody these days disagrees with 1-4 such individual really is an unsafe diver if not past that and somewhat mentally challenged..
5 for sure is very arguable.. The argument for using a Rebreather on any dive is to keep your skills up and at best for the challenging dives.. of course there is always an inherent risk with using it being the argument for the school only use it when you need it.. if you do that though, we are talking about the most extremist dives such diver is doing.. Is it then really usefull to use gear that one is less familiar with because only used when needed??
How do you maintain a safe skillset which you should have for big dives, when you only use it when you need it??
Never made sense to me..
I personally have it that if I can do a "big dive" that I want to do in OC in OC I will do that, but as I also want to keep up my skills I tend to do "small" dives more often with the CCR than with OC exactly for the purpose to be prepped for the big dives on CCR...

[Panther1880]

I think #5 translates to applying the tool. Not the training part.

[Nitrogenius]

I think #5 translates to applying the tool. Not the training part.

Sure that, but where do you draw the line between a training dive and no training dive?

[Panther1880]

As a OC diver in a mixed team:
I'd say until you have reached a chosen level on CC and need to dive the other configuration(s) you choose to dive at a chosen level to avoid losing proficiency there.

I'm making the assumption here that the chosen levels of proficiency are beyond minimal requirements for the diving that you choose to do.

So if we're talking about wanting to comply with these rules I think it still allows for a very fluid situation.