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From: <kirvine@sa*.ne*>
Date: Thu, 04 Feb 1999 06:59:21 -0500
To: freeattic@co*.ci*.uf*.ed*
CC: cavers@cavers.com
Subject: U Bet (their) Life - Wakulla competition to the death -"face the wheel"
I appreciate all of you maintaining radio silence as regards the
horrendous ignornance being displayed by the usdct with their scooter
and other problems. I know all of you know what is wrong, but wait until
March 1 to discuss it.

  What really is telling about these guys is the  willingness to
continue to bet the lives of those kids on what they are clearly too
inexperienced to understand. I think now everyone can see why there are
no US cave divers on the "US" dct. 

  I have scooters that burn for hours that have never been repaired in
seven years of diving. We all know that electric motors are continuous
duty. We also all know from high school physics just how pitifully
stupid the concept of "helium cooling" or fanning an enclosed motor is -
this is how a convection oven works. Remember the question about opening
your refrigerator door to cool the house? PhD in WHAT?

  The other thing that is obvious is the what we have here is a
Competition To The Death in cave diving. Notice that there is no mapping
being done anymore, and that the areas of the cave these guys are
pounding on is not being recorded at all. I do have a complete wall map
going out 18,000 feet, but with the vis like it is now these guys can
not even see the walls. All they are doing is following our lines trying
to prove something until something goes even more wrong than it has
already. All this and they have merely gone where we went on open
circuit in two dives, not two months.

  After getting into Wakulla to make an "accurate map", it turns out
that the survey I did is dead ACCURATE based on their cave radio
findings. I had that tunnel under the road to Cherokee, and they
confirmed this. So much for our "compass and string" and our "little
piker weekends".

  Notice they do not see any tunnels that are not on my map or not t'd
in. There are over 25,000 feet of passage for which I never released the
data - they obviously seemed to disappear. They did find the other two
tunnels that go to Cherokee from A , but they looped back into a circle
and missed the way on there for some reason, probably the bad vis caused
them to miss the jumps - those tunnels are the absolute worst nightmares
in cave diving, as they problably found out, and as one of them alluded
to when he turned back at a restricion - actually a good call on his
part. When I was surveying that restriction the whole tunnel collapsed
on me with JJ and Brent on the inbound side. I held still and Brent
cleared the debris off of me and we continued on, but what a mess that
was. I had to keep moving forward to read my instruments.

  I also see that when these guys did find a tunnel to put line in ( B
Tunnel) in the clear water, they did not survey it. I suppose they
expect me to go do that? No chance. That thing is like the area behind
the Hinkel with white walls at 285 feet - no thanks. We reeled back out
of it after we had to push our scooters ahead of us a couple of times,
but we did that one an a triple stage open circuit. In fact, we left our
last stage bottle right there to get through one spot.

  I am concerned that these guys are going to follow that line out there
(the conduit) in bad vis, have scooter and other problems, and not get
back out. They do not understand how long it takes when you have to tow
a diver, or how fast the gas goes on open circuit when you have to drag
bottles. You can not get out without strong scooters, that is why we use
so many. 

  This potential for death is a real shame since as you all know and
witnessed, Brent, JJ and I did that dive easily  in one shot with one
setup that was also an exploration dive. We ran that one from the door
in six hours. For us and the team, this is SOP - no big deal. We have
the contingenices accounted for ( we know what it takes to get out), as
you can see by reading the story of those events. There is nothing to
prove here worth dying for, and what they already have proven to the
World is how long , how much  money, and how much wasted effort it takes
to "compete" with what the WKPP can do in one day with its proven
methods and teamwork. Yes there are other ways to do things, and these
guys have sure proven that.

 I am also concernd about the physical beating these people are taking
doing the wrong deco. They must have smoked lungs by now, and permanent
lung and bone damage. It will take months of extemely expensive Human
Growth Hormone treatment to get any relief from that damage, if at all.
Those treatments cost over $4000 per effort, and insurance will not pay
for it at all. In addition, the battery of tests that must be taken to
do this are prohibitive, and if there is any sign of any predisposition
to cancer, they will not give the treatment, especially to women. The
alternative is lifetime of shortness of breath and emphasema-like
conditions. I will bet that none of them can breathe properly right now.
They are probaly all coughing constnatly.
 
As you know, we measure our vital capacity by running and swimming times
the next day, and have figured out how to beat that problem before it
happens. Do not discuss how we decompress with anyone but Hamilton until
Mar 1, and continue to not discuss scooters , lights, rigging or
anything else until then. You can see they are perfoming superfical bad
copies of everythign we do, and it is not working. Look at how long it
takes to do everything. We can talk about it in one month. Let's hope
that this competition does not result in those kids getting killed.
  
I do appreaciate all of the WKPP guys worldwide keeping quiet - I know
the temptation is overwhelming, but wait one month. It is not our
responsiblity if they keep sending kids out there on faulty equipment -
they KNOW it is faulty. The State can see they are no longer mapping -
it is not our problem, it is theirs. If they want to run a their own
Thunderdome, Autie would be proud. They know the rules, "break a deal,
face the wheel", and they are breaking the deal now.


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