Doing It Right (DIR) is a holistic approach to scuba diving that encompasses several essential elements, including fundamental diving skills, teamwork, physical fitness, and streamlined and minimalistic equipment configurations. DIR proponents maintain that through these elements, safety is improved by standardizing equipment configuration and dive-team procedures for preventing and dealing with emergencies.
DIR evolved out of the efforts of divers involved in the Woodville Karst Plain Project (WKPP) during the 1990s, who were seeking ways of reducing the fatality rate in those cave systems. The DIR philosophy is now used as a basis for teaching scuba diving from entry-level to technical and cave qualifications by several organizations, such as Global Underwater Explorers (GUE), Unified Team Diving (UTD) and InnerSpace Explorers (ISE).
History The DIR approach (and name) evolved out of the Woodville Karst Plain Project (WKPP) in the mid-1990s, where the objective was conducting dives in a very high risk environment: Not only cave diving, but also deep, long duration and exploration of previously unknown parts of a very large cave system. The origins of the approach to equipment taken by DIR practitioners can be found in the 'Hogarthian' equipment configuration attributed to William Hogarth Main. These individuals, along with many others, were attempting to develop equipment and procedures to allow the safer exploration of the deep submerged caves in the area. Successfully carrying out the advanced diving required for deep cave penetration, as in the Woodville Karst Plain Project, places a great need to focus on the fundamentals of exactly how such diving should be carried out, and how equipment should be selected and configured for this type of diving, to maximise mission effectiveness and minimise risk. The DIR approach was originally confined to cave diving, but soon spread to other forms of technical diving. Since recreational diving is the natural source of future technical divers, the DIR philosophy was extended into this field, although the recreational practices were already considered acceptably low risk by most diver certification agencies and insurance companies.
The phrase "Doing It Right" as applied to diving is thought to have appeared in 1995 in an article by George Irvine III. Irvine and Jarrod Jablonski eventually formalized and popularized this approach as DIR, promoting its practices for all forms of scuba diving. Irvine's polemic style and inflexible stance led to a great deal of controversy and, while popularizing the style among some people, repelled many others. This has begun to ameliorate somewhat. , there are at least two US-based dive training organizations, Global Underwater Explorers (GUE) and Unified Team Diving (UTD), and many independent dive instructors who teach a DIR style of diving. GUE renamed its 'DIR Fundamentals' course to 'GUE Fundamentals' in 2007, distancing itself somewhat from the acronym "DIR". In 2013, GUE first started offering a Closed circuit rebreather course breaking with some core DIR principles, and has reduced the prerequirements for the course progressively from prior hypoxic trimix training to offering it to divers with only the lowest GUE tech training completed in 2024. Additionally, in 2017, GUE started offering a sidemount course, providing yet another configuration alteration of the original DIR setup. Similarly, UTD have modified the original DIR methodology to suit sidemount and Closed circuit rebreather use.
+Primary areas of focus Aspect Rationale Claimed implications Team diving The logistical complexity of deep cave diving requires a team effort to achieve goals. Individuals may need to switch assignments. This makes it essential to have interchangeability of divers. This in turn requires standardisation of diving equipment and procedures among all divers within the group that makes up the team. It also makes “non-team” related diving particularly dangerous, when trying to achieve the many tasks needed for this type of diving. Dive planning Deep cave diving requires a comprehensive and detailed plan. The parameters and dive profiles for such a plan generally require meticulous pre-dive computations and preparation to mitigate the considerable risk. Such planning is rendered pointless if it is not followed. The selection and use of any equipment item must be made within the context of overall effectiveness of achieving dive goals Technical diving/ Cave diving Deep, decompression diving is necessarily required to effect penetration diving on the WKPP. Extended dive duration and surveys of previously unexplored parts of the cave system exposed divers to unprecedented exposures. Diving of this type is subject to increased level of risk and increased risks require more stringent mitigation. Equipment must be selected such that it is suitable for more advanced diving practise. Such equipment should be consistently reliable and offer adequate performance for the more extreme environments it may be used in. It is proposed that this equipment is also suitable for less extreme activities. Redundancy in equipment is necessary in main life-support systems. Part of this redundancy must be provided by the diver, and part can be provided by the combined team. The large amount of equipment necessary for the extreme penetrations made it essential to rigorously optimise every aspect of equipment configuration and procedure to keep the task loading and equipment burden to a level that made the dives physically practicable at a personally acceptable level of risk. Equipment must be minimised to only what is essential to minimise failure modes and accomplish the tasks of the dive.
Tenets
Doing It Right is about diving safely for personal enjoyment of the underwater environment. The principle of buddy support and teamwork using basic, well practiced, familiar and standardised safety procedures is central to the philosophy. Use of simple, reliable, well matched and rugged equipment that is versatile in its application, and familiar to all team members is seen as the logical way to achieve the highest levels of teamwork and as a means of minimizing task loading on the divers by reducing drag, and allowing good trim and buoyancy control, maneuverability and freedom of movement and low risk of entanglement. The familiar DIR equipment configuration is a means to this end.
A holistic approach to diving is a central DIR principle. DIR is a system and as such equipment configuration should be considered within the context of the whole philosophy, and the ultimate aims of ensuring safety, efficiency and enjoyment. Diving equipment is viewed as only one part of the diving activity. DIR proponents believe that the most important piece of dive equipment is the diver, followed by the team, and the interactions between the team members.
Experience Experience is considered a key aspect of becoming a good diver. It is the result of training and familiarity with the demands of the various environments. Training of fundamental skills by a suitably competent professional educator is recommended as the most effective route to gaining experience safely, however this is not a substitute for time spent in the water practicing and using the skills, as this produces the familiarity and comfort of repetitive exposure, eventually allowing the diver to perform the skills with minimised stress and delay, even in difficult circumstances.
Ability Competence is a combination of knowledge, aptitude and practice of good technique. Knowledge and technique can be learned, and assiduous practice can compensate for lack of natural aptitude. Course training does not generally provide sufficient time to hone skills and develop the optimum level of knowledge, and therefore additional review and practice are usually necessary.
Equipment DIR proponents say equipment configuration should be simple, streamlined, exactly sufficient or minimalistic and applicable to all diving situations, from shallow reef diving to long cave penetrations. It must also be appropriate for reliable team support, so the configuration of each diver's equipment must be familiar to all members of the dive team
Streamlined equipment and standardised configuration The standard DIR equipment configuration is fairly well established. The configuration has been designed and evolved to work in all situations. The intention was to improve a diver's efficiency and overall convenience and minimise risk. The configuration is minimalist and streamlined, and equipment should not hang free, stick out or increase drag unnecessarily, or cause entanglement.
Balance and trim The DIR rig is carefully weighted to ensure that the diver is not overweight but is able to maintain accurate depth and trim at any decompression stop. This requires assessment of how each component part fits into and affects the buoyancy characteristics of the configuration as a whole. The choice of cylinder size and material must be made with due consideration of the effects on buoyancy and trim in conjunction with the selection of dive suit
Gas selection parameters
The parameters for gas use recommended by DIR are relatively conservative. These include: Equivalent narcotic depth (END) of less than 100 fsw (30 msw) Partial pressure of oxygen (pO2) not exceeding 1.2 atm (1.2 bar) for the active sectors of a dive. Currently 1.0 atm. Partial pressure of oxygen (pO2) not exceeding 1.4 atm (1.4 bar) for decompression stops, 1.6 atm for 100% oxygen (may be exceeded in dry chamber). Liberal use of helium together with the conservative use of oxygen to limit the toxic effects of oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide. Air is not listed as one of the recommended gases: Either nitrox or trimix will have advantages over air at any given stage of a complex dive. Standardised breathing gases are promoted to simplify the logistics of mixing gases and marking cylinders. This makes decompression planning simpler and reduces task loading when sharing gas in an emergency, as all divers in the team have the same decompression plan. Cylinders are marked with the Enriched Air Percentage, maximum operating depth (MOD) in a clear and easily identifiable manner, and time/date and person confirming mix and MOD before usage. This practice is used in conjunction with standardised mixtures as a simple and reliable identification procedure.
Unified team
The notion of a unified dive team is central to the DIR philosophy. A unified team acts in concert to preserve the safety of the team and meet the goals of the dive. All of the team's equipment and its consumables (i.e. breathing gas, batteries) are held in common and dedicated to the safety, comfort and dive goals of the team. In addition, each team member should be familiar with what all other team members are carrying.
Divers of similar competence and preparation are grouped together to form a team that provides greater safety than possible if they dive independently. By maintaining a similar high level of care and attention among the team members, the experience of diving as part of the team can be more rewarding and satisfactory than diving without the support of such a team.
Preparation The notion of preparation within the DIR ethos applies well before the divers approach the water. It encompasses personal physical fitness, mental fitness, rigorous planning and pre-dive safety drills and routines.
Fitness
DIR divers are expected to keep themselves physically fit, as this reduces the stressful effects of high levels of exertion, and provides the diver with a better chance of effectively dealing with a problem. GUE minimum level of fitness is equivalent to a 400m continuous swim. with a medium fitness rated as 1600m continuous swim. Whilst all forms of diver training promote physical fitness, the DIR approach takes it further than most.