DIR video review

This review is just a personal opinion, and if I liked the video I probably wouldn't have been moved to write a review. Someone else evidently thought it was worth publishing.


“DIR / 2004“, Jarrod Jablonski & George Irvine, 3 discs, NTSC, £35
Overall duration 8:33


Described as 'The most comprehensive overview of the "Doing It Right" system ever available on video' on their web site, http://www.gue.com/?q=en/node/195

This was an impulse buy at the recent LIDS dive show and I had no idea what was on it but I had high hopes. I’ve read their book “Doing It Right: The Fundamentals of Better Diving” and various net articles, and wanted to see demonstrations of the skills they write about, like controlling bouyancy while discarding and picking up stage tanks, flutter kick and frog kick, pivoting in place, finning backwards, shutdown drills, ... - all the things that would come across so much better on video than in words.

First impression is of rather poor production quality. Poor lighting, sound quality, presentation...

These two guys stand in front of the camera and start talking about early diving exploration and technical diving. After a while it becomes apparent from the way they refer to each other that they are George Irvine and Jarrod Jablonski, founders of the DIR system. Between them are manifolded twin tanks on a stand. No other kit – just the tanks. They don’t seem to have rehearsed their presentation but rely on experience from doing talks at dive shows. The main camera is fixed (on a tripod?) and there is a second camera (hand held?) for close-up, but each segment seems to have been done in one take with all the hesitations, stumbles and coughs still in. I don’t think anything is ever re-shot to make it flow more smoothly. The close-ups have all been done during the same take as the main picture and not necessarily from an angle that allows you to see what is happening. GI in particular will do something to some bit of equipment, and we see a close-up of the back of his hand, but I have no idea what he is doing. In quiet sections, you can hear the increased hum from the the sound system becoming intrusive as the auto-level control raises the gain to find something to listen to. They *describe* the way kit acts in the water, and *talk* through various procedures, but they passed up the opportunity to *demonstrate* anything. No video of divers in the water, no pictures, not so much as a diagram. Just GI and JJ talking to camera. Have they never heard that a picture is worth a thousand words?

By the end of the first disc they have built up a harness and all the bits it carries, and about half way through disc two they have introduced the rest of what they wear. Note that at this point they are still just stood there talking and holding bits of kit up to the camera. After eight hours of video the only dive kit we have seen anyone put on is a bare backplate for a few seconds. We haven’t seen what a fully kitted diver looks like. This also means that we haven’t seen anyone in the water. In fact the only water we have seen is the glass of water George was drinking on disc three as he and JJ sit on a couch talking to camera again.

“Getting started” on disc three is about how George and JJ got started, not about how someone else might get started with DIR. In the final “Wakula dive” section we see divers in the water. Not demonstrating anything, but showing what they are doing at Wakulla Springs. Still a warts-and-all approach, with George crashing into the roof of the cave at one point (there was plenty of room to avoid doing so) and a small rain of cave fragments coming down.

I haven’t listened to them but there are a number of mp3 audio files taken from an earlier tape at
http://dir-diver.com/en/knowledge/dir3_audio.html
This was recorded in 1999 and was their 3rd version, so the discs are at least the fourth version. The 2nd was in 1998 and the discs are 'sold out' according to the web site, so there is probably another set due. Lets hope they are a significant improvement on this set. They could hardly be worse.

Nothing to do with me, but as an idea of what these DVDs could have been, see “Scuba diving advanced skills demonstration” on YouTube. Criticise what he is doing if you want, but most people would admit that he does it rather well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkEmfkHMFXw


Contents
Disc 1
Introduction 9 mins
Tanks 11
Wings 10
Backplate & harness 17
Fitting a backplate 21
Lights 31
Regulators & hoses 27
Balanced rig 10
Total 2:16


Disc 2
Exposure equipment 10
Additional equipment 9
Stage bottles 26
Gas mixing 16
Procedures 55
Gavin scooter 38
Total 2:34


Disc 3
Getting started 49
Diving and DIR 54
Planning extreme dives 50
Decompression 52
Wakula dive 18
Total 3:43




--
Joe

http://joe.hotchkiss.com
http://www.harrowsubaqua.org.uk
.

Relevant Pages