DIR Details

[FreediveWI]

I agree with you that stuff breaks, and that;s one of the reasons I switched to DIR from the way I was diving. Things that have broken the most on me are:

1- dive computers- all makes and types
2- regualtor freeflows- which means that you need to do a valve shutdown
3- camera strobes- the sync cords are notorious for this
4- lights- halogen, HID, and back up's- they all break eventually
5- cameras- always at the wrong time
6- drysuits- minor holes here and there

I have never had a BC bladder failure, but the ripcord system on my Zeagle's would dump my weight when just swimming along- that's why I got rid of mine. I also had a bad power inflaotr on my old At-pac.

Once upon a time, I used to dive dual wings, we used to stack them up before anyone designed a redundant bladder, but stopped using them because I never had a problem.

I can see how you got spooked because of your incident, but I would still feel comfortable calling it a very rare problem that warrants a repair from the manufaturer for free, rather than carrying an extra on every dive I do.

I choose not to dive with one simply because that's one extra piece of kit to go wrong and I know that I can always borrow someone elses on the boat.

Acutally, since everyone I dive with is also DIR we can switch our kit around without a second thought. We have switched out second, and first, stages on our deco bottles on the spot before a deep dive becasue the snow had caused some of the scubapro's to freeze up. Since everyone has their I.P.'s set the same you can switch things around without a problem, and you don't need to worry about special hoses like some upstream reg's have.

I have done trips to out of the way places where I even carried along an extra drysuit, but I didn't have it on the boat with me. It stayed back at camp and I could redo things at the end of the day.

The biggest problems have been with computers. At one point in time I carried three on me, all made by diffrent companies, just to bail me out if something went bad, but I soon found it just palin eaiser to use my watch and the tables I had to bail me out. I got rid of the computers and haven't looked back. A simple bottom timer and a wetnote book in your pocket can get you out of a lot of jams that a $900 computer never could.

Jon