I had heard of DIR, or Doing It Right, the rigorous diving discipline originated by US cave-divers, but what was DIS? The acronym came at me from multiple directions at the same time. One after another, friends mentioned that they had joined a new e-mail list called DIS, or Doing It Simple, a sort of self-help discussion group about technical diving, with leanings to DIR.
     Then Izzy Imset, a technical diver and instructor with the Scuba Centre and Underwater Explorers, invited me to Portland to find out about DIS. Before I went, I browsed the DIS archives on the Internet. Izzy had posted a message about my impending day out to the e-mail list and elicited some response.
     One person had taken exception to my Diver review of Gary Gentile's Technical Diving Handbook, in which I had written: "He [Gentile] should also be congratulated on his open and non-dogmatic review of equipment configuration. A refreshing attitude after the excesses of the DIR fascists."
     He seemed to have missed my point. My comment was about dogmatic attitude, not about the DIR or Hogarthian equipment configuration (see panels overleaf).
     Izzy had told the list subscribers on my behalf: "We know he will be objective and fair. He is a professional journalist." To which another member had replied: "That's a bit like: "Trust me I'm a doctor' or: "Of course I will respect you tomorrow, I am a man'!"
    
     I arrived in Portland on one of the brightest, calmest days of the summer. A part of me thought: "Sod the work, let's go diving." But diving journalism isn't just about going diving, so Izzy Imset and I settled down to talk through the philosophies of DIS and DIR and to rig me with a set of equipment.
     Izzy was enthusiastic about the rapid growth of the group: "We have 180-plus online members since the list was set up in November 2000. The local diving group is very active.
     "I think our non-aggressive approach suits the questioning European mentality. We established www.dis-uk.org as a European, civilised and positive approach. Many of us are fully DIR in our diving, others are progressing towards it. Moving to DIR takes time and DIS-UK serves to fill the gap. The very name DIR conveys a sense of all or nothing, a very negative message to non-DIR divers. DIS is progressive."
     Izzy runs DIS workshops in his own time. "I also like to introduce the concepts and elements of the equipment in even the most basic diving courses. Getting divers to think more about equipment early on will avoid expensive mistakes."
     DIS, he said, aimed to kerb the culture of divers imitating others through the Internet.
     "There are relative beginners who read DIR from web pages, buy all the kit, look the business, talk the talk, but don't really know what they're doing. They can be the most dogmatic and a poor advertisement for the system."
     Andrew Georgitsis is training director of GUE, the US technical diving agency which sits at the top of DIR. "I see DIS as a local effort to inform divers about DIR techniques," he said.
     "Divers who dive with only some parts of DIR will undoubtedly experience improvements in their diving. However, they won't get the most out of their diving and in some cases pervert DIR concepts, making their diving more complicated.
     "We encourage divers to experience DIR completely to get the most out of their diving."

Andy Kerslake, one of the UK's first GUE instructors, gave me a similar message. "Sometimes DIR has a fairly in-your-face attitude with no compromises. DIS enables those interested to move towards DIR.
     "DIR is about reaching team consensus, but always questioning. As far as possible, it's about simplification and an uncompromising attitude towards safety. There's no other complete system that's readily available. All others are based on personal preference, and there are always differences between divers. Most other teams are simply a collection of individuals with different agendas - DIR is totally about the team."
     "I think recreational diving in the UK can learn a lot from DIR methods and procedures," said John Grogan, another long-term DIR diver. "There are many occasions when I read incident reports and think that if that person had a better buddy, wasn't using such convoluted equipment, was breathing proper gases etc, then an incident, injury or death might not have occurred."
     "DIS is largely for those people who want a gentle route into DIR; the club diver who wants to apply DIR in a club environment, wanting to learn more about nitrox diving, equipment configuration, and up-to-date decompression theory."
     So serious DIR divers see DIS as a way in. The originators of DIS, however, don't see it that way at all.

The term "Doing it Simple" is credited to cave-divers Stuart Morrison and Fred Pinna. "We were involved in a project in France," said Stuart. "There was a large true zealot DIR presence and we found their "holier-than-thou' arrogance a little off-putting. Their credibility was undermined by the fact that they were not getting the results to justify their attitude."
     "One evening, over quite a lot of red wine, DIS was born. Fred and I declared ourselves first presidents, then princes and ultimately popes of DIS, because there were better tax breaks for religions!
     "DIS did have a serious side, and its message was: simplify, simplify, simplify. As long as you keep it within certain hard limits of safety, you can strip away as much as you can and achieve far more. DIR was founded on much the same principle.
     "I set up a website (www.lizardland.co.uk) and the message went out. People started taking it as a serious diving philosophy. There are a lot of French and Swiss divers who now call themselves DIS.
     "Some see DIS as a stepping-stone to full DIR, but for me this was never the purpose. One of the reasons I am on the DIS-UK list is to try to balance the DIR view. There are times where I use DIR equipment and techniques but there are other times when I feel this is wholly inappropriate. Good judgment is knowing when to use it and when to use something else."
     Later that day at Portland, DIS divers started turning up for an evening dive. Teadch Galloway had been climbing the PADI ladder under Izzy Imset's instruction: "Izzy introduced aspects of the kit configuration and philosophy on the way. It made sense and naturally progressed into technical training. The legacy of my existing kit made the transition slow, as I had to get some use from it, but my transition to DIR is now complete."

I was impressed by the attitude of Chris White. He had done many dives but managed to avoid the depth fixation that hits many up-and-coming divers. "I've done lots of 30-35m diving but don't see the point of going deeper without being properly prepared," he said. "My aim is to get mix-qualified, then enjoy deeper dives. My equipment is not yet fully DIR.
     "The nice thing about DIS is that it tolerates transition, progressing at a pace to match diving progress."
     Mark Ninnim wore a full DIR rig, but explained: "I got interested in DIR because of the emphasis on teamwork. Kit configuration was not my primary motivation, though it does make sense."
     DIR stipulates that its adherents dive only with other DIR divers, but that cannot apply to DIS. "I like safe buddies rather than buddies with a kit fixation," said Mark. "I won't go round refusing to dive with people just because they're not DIR. My wife Trudi doesn't dive a strict DIR rig."
     "My back's too small for twin-12s," Trudi explained. "I have twin-10s and a smaller wing. It actually balances better in the water than my previous rig - single 12, pony and conventional BC."

It was about time I did some diving the DIS way. On the way out to the site, I chatted to Andy Lawrence, skipper of Top Gun: "Watching DIS and DIR groups on the boat, they're much more together than most divers - none of the usual Christmas-tree problems," he said. "I've moved my own kit to a Hogarthian configuration. Many of my "fun' dives are solo and it works well for solo diving."
     This would be my first time on the equipment, so we had opted for a fairly easy dive on the St Dunstan, a bucket-dredger in about 30m. In the water I pretty much got on with the dive and forgot about the rig.
     I was diving the equipment, but I wasn't fully DIR. While Izzy was decompressing on a schedule with relatively deep decompression stops, the nitrox computer I was diving on was still busy accumulating. We weren't shallow enough for my computer to begin clocking down until Izzy had almost finished his stops.

So what about that rig? It was certainly very comfortable in the water, and I had no trouble diving with it.
     Isolation manifolds generally make me nervous (see Diver, January 2001). Before moving to a rebreather I had always dived with independent cylinders and balanced my gas by switching regulators, partly because I like modular equipment that breaks down and reconfigures easily, but also because I'm not very physically flexible. Even with a remote knob for the isolator I find it difficult to do an isolate and shutdown quickly.
     I was surprised to find that I liked having a continuous harness without shoulder-adjusters. Although I don't think these are really worth worrying about, it was nice not to have the loose ends dangling, and easier to get on than it looked.
     Earlier this year I gave up on crotch-straps for my own kit when I realised that mine was rubbing against my drysuit and accelerating wear. I don't know how well the continuous harness would work without the crotch-strap to hold it down.
     I held the lighthead on my left hand because with it on my right I was dazzled by the reflection from my sketchboard. I don't like a cable crossing my body, so location of the light canister and routeing of the cable is something I would have to think about.

I clipped my camera to my right shoulder D-ring and had some concern over this. It wasn't a problem during the dive, but might have obstructed the long-hose regulator if I had needed to donate it. I asked a few DIR divers, and apparently camera placement is still a matter of debate in their circles.
     A useful tip I did pick up was to hammer a bend into D-rings to stop them lying flat. I might also incorporate the harness and backplate into my own kit.
     I am certainly interested in the state-of-the-art decompression schedules DIR divers are using, but to be honest I am too much of an individualist to go fully DIR. I like to dive on a computer, using tables purely for bail-out. And I like my cylinder boots and hose-wrap, which aren't a hazard in the diving I do.
     On the other hand, by the original definition, I might already be Doing It Simple.

Setting up the harness and backplate


Getting into the harness was easier than it looks here!


Note the cylinders, with no netting or boots


Lighthead hooked on the back of the right hand, spare cable wrapped around the arm

DOING IT RIGHT There is no a simple, quantitative explanation of DIR. Many divers see only the visible part, the modified Hogarthian equipment configuration, but it extends further than that. Drawing on a number of sources: DIR divers believe in enhanced dive preparation, fitness and team work Divers train and dive as a team, carrying out carefully planned schedules They use a common "modified Hogarthian" equipment configuration Gases have a narcotic depth of 30m or less Decompression is generally on 50 and 100 per cent O2 Serious DIR divers exercise regularly, have healthy diets and don't smoke DIR divers dive only with other DIR divers DIR is a holistic approach to diving. You can't be 95 per cent DIR, just as you can't be 95 per cent pregnant

HOGARTHIAN EQUIPMENT The Hogarthian configuration is named after Bill "Hogarth" Main. It is based on reducing equipment to a minimum streamlined configuration that nevertheless includes sufficient redundancy for extended decompression dives: Twin 232 bar steel cylinders with isolation manifold on a stainless steel backplate DIN fitting valves No cylinder nets or boots Wing BC without bungee cords or pull-string dump valve Harness threaded from a single piece of webbing; no shoulder adjusters D-rings on each shoulder and on the left side of the waist Crotch strap Aluminium stage cylinders, all on the left side, marked with maximum operating depth only No "suicide" clips with unprotected gates No ankle weights or leg accessories Membrane drysuit with cargo pockets Light canister on the right-side waist strap Lighthead clipped to right shoulder when not in use Right regulator: wing feed over left shoulder; primary second stage on long hose, routed below light canister, across front, behind neck and over right shoulder to mouth Left regulator: suit feed under left arm; standard LP hose to the spare second stage held on a shock cord round the neck; HP gauge clipped to the left waist D-ring Dive timer or computer on right wrist, but computer used only as depth gauge and timer, not for decompression