To answer a few questions for you , Richie, as representative of the
Last Great Hope of the Personal Preference Crowd ( the usdct ):

   1) The usdct has now conducted more than twice the number of dives in
Wakulla as the WKPP , experiencing the best conditions ever recorded at
the cave.

   2) The usdct was able to follow our lines over less than half of the
surveyed passage, leaving exactly 23,000 feet unseen and un"mapped" by
them. Half the cave in twice the dives, and all they had to do was
follow our lines.

   3) They were able to add line in side tunnels of the clear passage
which starts near the entrance ("B Tunnel") which we deemed not worth
losing a dive over ( we have an allotment of dives every year).

   4) The max penetration of the usdct ( read the two British divers,
not the rest of the strokes) was about 9,000 feet. We know this from the
location of the last beacon and from interviewing the Brits, who never
saw the items they would have seen had they gone any further. They
missed all of the good stuff, and drove right past tons of open cave
which we will now go back and explore. They could not reach the end of a
single line in the conduit - not one, and there are a ton of close ones
we left open. They missed every jumped line.

    5) Using the ridiculous methods of Stone, it took these poor guys
over two times as long to do these dives as it takes the WKPP. This is
due to poor rigging, poor teamwork, lousy scooters, and constant
attention to the rebreather. In fact , these guys did not see a single
clearly marked lead or jumped tunnel since they were so busy staying
alive. Great "exploration" tool.

     6) This is despite the use of a bell to 100 feet and a dry chamber
to deco in. Obviously this is s good thing for the unfit, but tells us
nothing about the capabilities of the cis lunar. The WKPP uses its
machine to decompress on. A lot can be learned form the WKPP - the only
thing to be learned from the usdct is how NOT to do anything.

     7) The resulting map from this project tells us nothing we did not
already know, and falls way short of answering any important questions.
The WKPP will take care of that end, as ususal. Also as usual, our
survey was dead accrurate, as they found out. It is interesting to note
that they only "mapped" parts of the cave for which they had my survey.
Luckily I withheld the other 25,000 feet, or we would be hearing about
all kinds of "records" out of these guys.

     8) These brave British lads, who have more guts than smarts, were
damn near able to get to where we laid the line on open circuit in three
dives ) one by me and Gavin, one by me Brent and Rick, one by me Brent
and JJ). If they had only gone 1500 more feet they could have been able
to brag that it only took three months, a bell, a chamber, cis lunar
ccr's, $30,000 scooters, 1.6 MILLION dollars, a mobile home, barges,
cranes, fenced off swimming aread, tractor trailers, and a cast of
thousands to do what we did in one day on open cirscuit and were at Lucy
Ho's by dinner time that night.

     Quite frankly , given what these British lads were up against, I
will say these are some seriously tough kids. Who knows what these two
could have done had they used our gear , our methods, and been taught by
us. They could have gone back to Europe with some real information to
share with others, instead of turning back into pumkins and fading into
the sunset, like the rest of these shooting stars.

     The usdct had their chance, they blew it. Now it is time to go back
to the pros in the Woodville Karst Plain. Personal Preference is dead ,
and the last hope of the strokes just faded away. 

     Thge usdct showed up unprepared to play; they had not completely
trained the actual divers on the cis ( most of the trained ones had
already quit), they did not have working scooters, not did they
understand the scooters, the cis was being revised right up to and
DURING the project , and none of thes guys knew anythnig about this kind
of diving, and still do not to this day, as evidenced by the times and
results . This is inexcuseable, and is exactly what we predicted would
be the case.

     The results speak for themselves - a disaster that will only be
rememberd for one thing.

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