Quote Originally Posted by Papa Bear View Post
I have three different certs for cave diving and it still boils down to know your equipment and your buddies! The equipment list of DIR conflicts #2 with # 4 and # 5. I disagree with having your long hose on your primary reg "Because you know it works" that is my air and I get the one that works! My buddy will get the spare or back up reg! We are forgetting who's air it is! It is mine and one dead cave diver is better than two. I never take my reg out of my mouth in an emergency! This is fatally flawed thinking and goes against everything basic I have learned and investigated after the fact. Your trouble "Here take this and follow me" "You set the pace" from behind me, but it is my air to manage and it is my responsibility to see that "I" get back. If you can be in control of yourself and play nice we will probably both get out! If you dive with me you know all of this and there is no surprise! You can learn more about me at twotankedproductions.com


You contradict yourself. First you say that it all boils down to "equipment and buddies", then further down you mention that an OOA (gas) situation, you mention "my air to manage" and your "responsibility to get back" What is it ? Buddies or you? Is it not better to have NO dead cave divers, rather than the one or two in your scenario?

First dispense with the "DIR" is only doing it right. Too many people have latched on to that phrase without looking in to what it really is. The philosophy that has been adopted by GUE as the vehicle to maintain uniformity and consistency in their students is called the "Hogarthian set-up". The originators of the GUE took that and said "to do this as safe as possible, we WILL do it this way!

NOW, the issue: GUE at its very core is about the team. Let me repeat this.....THE TEAM. So if there is an individual diving with me who insist that his resources are his alone, well, they will not be diving with me! The team dives together, it's resources, are shared through out the team and utilized by the team. The drilling and practicing that ensues is to insure the safety of the team. So why the primary on the long hose? Because that is the quickest way to start to ease a panicked situation. BamaCaveDiver is 100% right in having two equally high performing regulators as primary and secondary.

I was fully certified as a cave diver before GUE came into being. My gear and equipment reflected the conventional wisdom of that time. Since I have adopted the GUE training as my own practice, my gear clutter has disappeared, my awareness increased, my technical ability improved significantly. Each of my dives starts with me and my partner doing an "S drill" (safety drill), which in part, has us submerged, fully deploying the long hose, sharing our gas supply. Our reactions are such, that the primary is the "go-to" reg.