Mike, these guys told eveyone they were going to the end of our line.
The problem is there are about 15 ends of the line, and all of them were
apparently out of their reach. Several are in the 14 range, only one is
18,000. However, some are only 9,000, 8,000, 7,500, and even much less. 

Here is the scorecard on the Big Mouths:

1) Paul "The Records May Come" Heinerth - managed to get within about
2,000 feet of where Gavin and I put the line on one triple stage dive
back in '92 - a fine performace by the little fat guy.

2) Brian "Deep Air and Proud of It" Kakok - managed to get to where
Gavin and I ended it and weenied before seeing any of the good stuff.
The difference is it took this big timer about three times as long, a
rebreather, and 15 hours of decompression, rather than the 80 minutes it
took me and the 6 hours of deco. This maxed it out for Matt "Pick a Last
Name from Am Ende's Imagination" Mathes.

3) The Section 8 Psycho - in on a few dives, nothing worth talking
about.

4) The rest of the Strokes and the Former Fat Slob - marathon dives to
noplace in keeping with the tenet "easier said than done". Why do it
when you can just lie about it? There will be years of pontification at
Ginnie over this.

5) The Brits - a great effort despite faulty gear and ridiculous dive
plans. Very tough, but a big waste - alas, they damn near got to where
JJ , Brent and I put it on open circuit - within 1500 feet, but it took
them three times as long, and the whole project to do that ( we call
that one a "setup dive"). Oh well. 

What did they miss? 1) 25,000 feet of mapped cave, 2) the best parts of
the cave, 3) all of the ends in the conduit, 4) all of the leads in the
conduit, 5) and all of the stuff we left them in Sally Ward that they
could not get to with the rebreather, and did not have the skill to do
on open circuit.

I especially like the way they needed double rebreathers to get the
safety bottles out of Wakulla - that is a full riot.

The fact is that 1.2 million dollars later these strokes could not get
out of our open circuit zone. Great "technology",  great perfomance,
real useful, and wonderful things they did for cave diving and diving at
Wakulla - a real bravo perfomance buy the worst collection of strokes in
diving - bar none, from the top dog to the last support grunt - the
worst in the game - the list to avoid . I hope they publish this list so
we can all avoid them in the future.

mike bruic wrote:
> 
> George--They never even came close to the end of the line, or smoking you
> like they boasted over and over to anyone that would listen. My guess is the
> reason the Britt's pulled off the 9 grand dive is, they got lost. Maybe the
> lab rats should go to the eagles nest if they want to see the end of a line
> in any cave (tell them it connects with Sally). It would also be interesting
> to see how they're going to get the transfer capsule down to 80'. If they
> can't, they might not dive, but then again, I'm sure they'll come up with
> some destructive way to get it down there, like maybe a giant bore hole.
> 
> Bruic
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: kirvine@sa*.ne* <kirvine@sa*.ne*>
> To: Cost effective home improvement <freeattic@co*.ci*.uf*.ed*>
> Date: Sunday, February 28, 1999 6:27 AM
> Subject: "Ugly Sport"
> 
> >Stone's "ugly sport" comment to the press is typical of this
> >hypocrite. He is the one who said he couled triple our distance, and
> >that he had the "technology" to go further than we did. The fact is that
> >he did not get as far as we went on open circuit, despite constant
> >trying, and his public statement that " we are beginning the longest
> >cave dive ever". "Ugly" for him, a walk in the park for us.
> >
> >     What is "ugly" about the sport is the track record of Stone and
> >the  mess he has made and the negative publicity he has attracted to our
> >work. What is ugly is to pretend to be conducting an enviromental
> >project with a circus going on over a pristine spring, when it has been
> >proven that it can be done quietly. What is ugly is the falsification,
> >the lies, the deceit the bullshit on the web page, and the constant
> >self-aggrandizing nonsense interspersed with commercial endorsements in
> >a human experiment. What is ugly is a 1.2 million dollar useless map
> >that fails to answer any questions about the cave. He might as well have
> >mapped the parking lot.
> >
> >     What is ugly is for this jerk to dare open his mouth about the
> >WKPP, or me for that matter. Calling me a "thrill seeker" is counter to
> >the ten years of work I have put in adn my track record. This diving is
> >no big deal for us - we know how to do it. If I want thrills I go to
> >work or swim a race.
> >
> >     I think we need to make ourselves heard on this where it counts.
> >This was not some one time emotional outbust by this guy - this is what
> >he is and has been saying to anyone who will listen.
> >
> >     It is absolutely amazing to me that this guy can screw up so badly,
> >and all he can talk about is me - I was not there, it is not my problem,
> >it is his, and his alone. He set up the dynamic of competition, he lost
> >badly at his own hand.
> >
> >     We have nothing to prove, and the elimination of attitudes like
> >Stone's from our playing field is in the interest of our safety. One
> >would think this is obvious.
> >
> >

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