Dive Blog

Do I really dive? Go to my dive report blog by clicking the link to see the last time I was in the water.

http://tiswango.com/divelog

My first Photo Contest win!

http://www.co.miami-dade.fl.us/derm/reefs/contest_winner.asp

Matthew's Dive History

My first dive rig, purchased in 1998. I remember only wanting the Dacor Flytpack with 4 D-rings, but I found a Dacor Rig 2000 large on special in a dive shop in Minneapolis. Who could say no to all those D-rings and 55lbs of lift in the wings?

Dacor mask, snorkel, and Pursuit Fins $300 from the Scuba Shack, Sioux City Iowa

Oceanic Delta 2 Primary and slimline octo

Oceanic Dataplus Nitrox computer

I still remember boarding the dive boat "Ibis" in Fort Lauderdale and hearing the captian say to me, "Well don't you just look like a Burdines Model for diving!"

DIR "Doing it Right"

"The ONLY tenant of DIR I can argue with right now is the idea that
 DIR is the one and only true, safe way to dive for ALL diving."

--Internet Diver

That mythical argument is defied only by the lack of merits to the argument.
No one in the DIR movement is suggesting in any way, shape or form that DIR
is the "ONLY" way to dive.  We fully recognize many other styles of diving,
solo diving, same ocean buddy system, deep air, et. al.,  Those of us that
have decided to adopt the DIR philosophy believe that, when implemented in
total, the DIR system offers us the safest and most efficient manner for us
to enjoy our dive.  At the end of the day, diving is all about having fun.
For those of us that have adopted the DIR system we have found that our
enjoyment level and our fun level has increased substantially as a result of
improved skill(s), as a result of diving in a unified team, as a result of
standardizing our configuration amongst the team, as a result of taking only
what is needed and so on and so forth.  We fully respect anyone's right to
dive in any alternative dive style they so choose, but we just have a
differing point of view and we hope you will respect our point of view and
our decision to dive in DIR style just as we respect to dive any way you see
fit." --- Michael Kane GUE Instructor

DIR- The Journey, Not the C-card

DIR has been a long road for me and I'm only getting started. I first heard of DIR from Dan Volker giving a presentation to the CUDA dive club in West Palm Beach. I mentioned it with my diving mentor and man responsible for me taking the plunge, Mike Hageman, and he said that it was a great way to dive. He was going to take a cave class from a a new agency, Global Underwater Explorers (GUE) and that I should start learning about DIR.  

At another CUDA meeting I heard a presentation about the Palm Beach County Reef Research Team (PBCRRT). They had a grant to monitor artificial reefs. I walked right up to Tim Fernan after the presentation and said that I wanted to join and be a fish counter.

At my first PBCRRT meeting Thomas Tucker gave a full presentation of the DIR diving rig and offered to take anyone who wanted a "Test Dive" in the equipment. Several weeks later a scheduled a test dive with Thomans. He blew me off saying that he had to "stay clean" for a tech dive later that afternoon, so Rocky at Brownies would take me and my friend Reeny out for the dive. After the dive, Reeny took off, but I had fallen in love. I baught a set of gear and a hose kit and spent the next hour with Rocky getting my gear switched over. At dive number 100 I started to switch.

Didn't get it

I discovered other passions, fish surveying, photography, and lobstering. I tried desperatly to figure our the most streamline way to accomplish all my underwater goals on every dive. George Irvine III said in regards to DIR diving, "There's get it and don't get it." Below is an example of "doesn't get it."

GUE Cave 1 November 2001

Then I learned to dive all over again. I had heard stories regarding how hard GUE classed were and how this agency had no problem taking your money and not giving you a card.

My friend from Iowa State, Don Perella, flew down and we drove up to High Springs to take GUE Cave 1 with Tamara Kendal and Ted Cole. It was like learning to dive again for the first time, only you know you were going to love it. This was my first time diving doubles and it took me a full day to get the hang of getting enough gas in the wing to keep me off the floor of the cave. I still remember how much the very tips of my fingers hurt from pulling myself into the Devils Ear and Ginnie and ungracefully being spit out on the exit.

It was the toughest thing I had ever done. Don and I were a great motivators of each other. I would not have passed the class by taking it with a stranger. Don and I pushed ourselves through the class. After finishing the final exam, Ted Cole handed us our certification cards.

http://www.gue.com

It was 5 months later I got back to cave country to dive with Chris Richardson. I realized I needed to get into better shape after climbing out of Olsen Sink in the Peacock cave system.

September 2002 Global Underwater Explorers hosted a clean up and conference at Hutchenson Island. I had heard of this legendary cave diver named William Anzueto who was passionate about DIR and he had just moved from Dive Outpost in the heart of cave country to West Palm Beach. Via the internet, I made arrangements to sleep at his place and and attend the conference.

I remember meeting William Friday night and thinking, "He's much taller on the internet?" He went to hear George Irvine speak at the opening comments and William shook George's hand afterwards. He refused to wash his hand that night. That night, while watching WKPP cave videos, William and I discussed an idea he had with another new DIR diver who just moved down to WPB from Ohio, Roy White.

SFL-DIR

The next day, after the clean up, William and I spoke to Jarrod Jablonski about setting up a DIR dive club. There several clubs set up in Califoria, but besides the WKPP, there wasn't a group of DIR divers diving recreationaly together. Jarrod thought it was a great idea and that night we brainstormed how we would form a dive club based on the 4 principals of DIR. That next month South Florida DIR was formed.

http://www.sfl-dir.com

Got it

I had lots of local research diving to do. I helped William with the club to suck up to him and get him to take me cave diving. I had little cave experience and really wanted to get some experience in the caves. After numerous openwater ocean dives from beach and boat, we finally got our schedules together for a cave trip. My previous cave diving teams were really just buddys in the same gear trained in the same proccedures. It was a step up, but some of my "fun" was diverted to worrying about the other person. It felt like every minute or so I had to stop my penetration to find their light and "know" they were behind me. Several times I could hide my light for minutes at a time with no one looking back to see if I was still there.

After a few dives with William we gave each other a lot of feeback and worked each dive to get synched up into a solid team. The fourth dive of the day at Orange Grove it worked. Our lights, minds, and bodies moved in harmony. It was the most fun, relaxing cave dive I had ever done. Instead of checking to see if my team member was or wasn't there, I knew eactly when my team member wasnt' focused on me and moving ahead. After that dive, we beached ourselves on the stairs at Orangegrove and looked at each other with big smiles, "We got it!" This was the level of diving I would aspire to at all times.

Once you start down the road, you have to find team members to dive with or you'll never truly get it. Here is a before and after photo of one of my favorite dive team members, Charlie Gamba. It took 3 months of diving with Charlie before he even asked what DIR was? After he started picking up, he went quickly. He took DIR-F with Jan Sitchin along with my wife Andrea and fellow SFL-DIR team member Ralph Figuora. William is a cave man and the ocean is just a quick way to get a dive fix, not to mention your gear all salty.

Miami Project

Memorial Day 2003 Charlie, Andrea and myself were diving off Fathoms of Fun when we noticed a single DIR rigged diver get on the boat. He was quite friendly and we mentioned Charlie and I were going spearfishing, but Andrea could use a buddy if he just wanted to look at some pretty reef. Jody was grateful to have a DIR buddy and they had a great dive. On the trip in, Jody mentioned he had a boat in Miami and he was having a tough time finding DIR divers to go out with him. He invited us out for a Thursday night dive.

I was quite skeptical about private boat diving, but it turns out Jody's boat, "Wave Dancer" is the perfect dive platform. He leads a project to dive all the artificial reefs off Miami in the Tech 1 range of 120-170 feet. Charlie and I ended up supporting the technical dive operations and diving recreationaly with this team. This fired us up for taking GUE's Tech 1 class. With the team's mentoring and encouragement we booked a class with Tyler Moon.
http://www.miamiwreck.org

GUE Tech 1

I did a lot of research on why people passed or didn't pass the class. Several members of the Miami Project along with some mentors of mine didn't pass the class the first time. All the people I spoke with already had deco cards from other agencies. The pattern I found was the class itself, or more importantly the team of people taking the class. The people who failed were put together with random people they had never dove with before. If I could put a team together, I could would pass.

Charlie and I were set and the third person varied between Christos who helped me get the ball rolling, William A. and finially the last spot was occupied by Buck. The months leading up to the class I drilled, and performed every kind of mock emergency I could come up with.

DIR Humor

My friend Christos gets really fired up about diving. Sometimes he forgets to tuck in his waist strap.

DIR-It's Not Just for Diving Anymore

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