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Jon, I never did them ( traverses) either. The reason they are not necesary is that when you hit turn, you go back the way you came. If you hit turn before a traverse is done, you did not take enough gas. I personally think "traverse" logic is extreme bullshit as taught, and I do not do it even in systems that I explored and know inside out without enough gas to go all the way back from max pen the altenate route. If you go out a different way, and something goes wrong or has changed, you better be able to go back the way you came, or again, you have not properly planned the dive. This means gas, scooters, lights, deco gas, argon, everything possible. Some of the worst accidents ever are due to traverses, and due to "recalculations". I don't do it, and I do not mind saying that I am better qualified to do it than 99% of the cave divers out there and still do not ever even consider doing it. I do think that the cds and nacd teach not beginning a cave dive with less than a certain amount of gas, and I notice that at Ginnie springs there was a rule on the board that says something about not beginning a dive with less than a certain psi. I agree with that, but I think in terms of 104's which are 104's at 2640 . Vagaries of pressure guages, potential water in tanks limiting real volume of gas, potential restricting rust or other debris in tanks or reg filters, inability to draw from the lower presures at depth, potential loss of gas on a reg failure before shut down all conspire to mean that you do not deal in the lower end of tank pressure extremes for cave diving purposes. **Personally, I almost never use my back gas for anything but bailout and wing inflation, and to me, "thirds" means thirds from what I had in my tanks before I got into the water, not after I have been diving. ** The big problem with cave diving continues to be the moo factor in N Florida, and the "status" of being an instructor that gets all of these long distance California or New Jersey no caves in sight types teaching our sport. This sport has three levels: 1) complete bullshit like what goes on in Mexico, 2) mediocre like what goes on everywhere else, and 3) what the WKPP and other similar groups do . Jonathan wrote: > > George; > > Did you hear that the NSS-CDS is now no longer > requiring circuits and traverses because some people > learn to dive where they can't practice them. They > just "simulate" them. Sort of like the USDCT > simulation of going 18,000 feet by circling an OW > basin at 20' > > I guess that means on this logic, I should have > "simulated" cave diving since there are no divable > caves near me! > > Looks like fatalities are going to grow. I'm glad > I'm not associated with this trend! Its > embarrassing. > > However, I wouldn't mind getting into being a "dive > lawyer" in the future as it looks like business will > pick up. > > Hope the plan swim through in Leon goes. I'm ready > to dive (help out as needed) again. > > Jonathan
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