Bill, the dive logs would have us all rolling on the floor. They repaced
the weenie line that I cut out of the B entrance - 47 minutes for a 4
minute dive, and then they put a cave radio at F Tunnel and called it D
Tunnel - 60 minutes for an 10 minute dive, so now the map is going to be
a phoney as the first one, only smaller.


Bill Mee wrote:
> 
> Richie,
> 
> So Vanderleest's DCS is more than a little "leg pain" huh?
> 
> As for your "Cutis marmorata", skin bends for the for the English speaking,
> we are talking about the massive edema which accompanies dcs of the fatty
> tissues surrounding the abdomen and we affectionately have termed
> "slobitis". You essentially become a temporary fat slob as a result of this
> or a fatter slob if you already are one.  Anyone can develop symptoms of
> this, even skinny  people such as yourself (I've seen pictures of you). What
> is amusing, assuming you still have a sense of humor is that an otherwise
> normal person develops what appears to be a beer gut, without the beer. You
> find yourself walking around for a week with belt undone and your shirt out.
> I thought you knew about these things.  This situation is not uncommon among
> saturation divers.
> 
> I have never suggested that the USDCT divers are fat or out of shape. As
> George has quite plainly stated, there are some people who do not fare well
> with deep exposure diving, regardless of their fitness level or experience
> level as some of the USDCT guys have done a lot shallow cave diving,
> according to their cvs.  You find out who can tolerate the repeated deep
> stuff by doing it.  I will say that one should be apprised of this before
> embarking on a project the magnitude of Wakulla II.   Some people have a
> predisposition to DCS and they end up quiting the deep diving as a result.
> 
> DCS is serious business, but if you are going to make a practice of deep
> diving you can't take a "chicken Little" attitude towards it. There are
> dives where you will suffer mild dcs and you can't go calling 911 every time
> this happens. You learn to differentiate what is bad and what is just
> routine "beating".  In fact the term deco "beating" is accurate, because it
> sometimes feels as though someone physically beat you with a wooden bat
> about the fleshy areas if you do not do your deep stops just right.  Even if
> you do your deep stops, sometimes your drysuits pinches or a harness
> constricts too much or your drysuit floods and some of the extremities get
> too cold and so on.
> 
> Rich, now that Dituri has come out the closet, so to speak what will be next
> shoe to drop? Have you been appointed as public spokesperson or apologist
> for the USCDT?
> 
> As for the dive times. At least you published your Mk 4 downloads during the
> Pahlau expedition and we could see just what happened. According to someone,
> the Cis Lunar dive logs are to be published on the website. This will go a
> long way to telling us just what is really going on. Why don't you mention
> this during your nightly conversation with Dr. Stone.
> 
> Bill
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Richard Pyle <deepreef@bi*.or*>
> To: Bill Mee <wwm@sa*.ne*>
> Cc: Jess Armantrout <armantrout@wo*.at*.ne*>; Techdiver
> <techdiver@aq*.co*>; rebreather@nw*.co*
> <rebreather@nw*.co*>; Houston Cavers List
> <HoustonCaveDivers@ca*.co*>; Cost effective home improvement
> <freeattic@co*.ci*.uf*.ed*>; cavers <cavers@cavers.com>;
> kirvine@sa*.ne* <kirvine@sa*.ne*>
> Date: Monday, December 14, 1998 5:44 PM
> Subject: Re: More USDCTisms
> 
> > For those who have actually experienced diving in Wakulla Springs, it
> > came as quite shock that one could turn an essentially no
> > decompression dive to the beginning of the B tunnel into a 47 minute
> > bottom fest. Did the 47 minutes include the time it took to walk from
> > the Lodge to the Beach, scooter into the basin and count cat fish for
> > 15 minutes and then scooter to the B tunnel junction?
> 
> I would suspect not.  Rather, I suspect that the bottom time was because
> "They placed a radio transmitter beacon and laid new permanent line
> to clearly mark the B and C tunnel entrances in preparation for routine
> mapping missions to come shortly. They also relocated some safety stage
> bottles to the B and C junctions."
> 
> > I am sorry about Vanderleest geting bent in the leg. As to this, all I
> > can say is welcome to the club. If it had been myself I would have
> > taken four Ibuprofens and gone home. This is what we affectionately
> > call the "deco beating" and is to be expected, just as one would
> > expect minor aches and pains after running 20 miles.  I really think
> > that this was due to some other problem.  Wait until these guys do a
> > dive where the bottom time is 47 – 60 minutes from the 220 travel gas
> > change stop. This, of course, is where the WKPP bottom timer starts.
> > Not in the parking lot.
> 
> I thought you called it "sports injury"?  How can you profess to be in any
> way safer than the Wak2 divers, when this is your attitude towards
> clinical bends symptoms? I hope you guys don't plan on having your joints
> intact in about 10 years; or, at least make sure your insurance plans
> cover artificial joint replacement.
> 
> > You can just imagine the horror which will ensue when one of the
> > "team" gets a real case of slobitis. I wonder if Barbara Am Ende will
> > photograph a closeup of a large black and blue swollen beer gut.
> 
> I gather your implication here are that:
> 
> 1) Wak2 divers have swollen beer guts (they must hide them well, because I
> see no evidence of such in the photos); and
> 
> 2) That risk cutis marmorata bends is inversely correlated with physical
> fitness.  If that were true, then why is Joe up on me 2 to 1 on the cutis
> marmorata hits, and why do the super fit WKPP divers seem to have such a
> high incidence of this otherwise uncommon form of bends?
> 
> Aloha,
> Rich

Navigate by Author: [Previous] [Next] [Author Search Index]
Navigate by Subject: [Previous] [Next] [Subject Search Index]

[Send Reply] [Send Message with New Topic]

[Search Selection] [Mailing List Home] [Home]