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I liked the entire 3 seconds of virtual cave dive they presented at the end
of the show <g>.  A million dollars, and 3 seconds of data.

-----Original Message-----
From: Joel Markwell <joeldm@be*.ne*>
To: HoustonCaveDivers <HoustonCaveDivers@ca*.co*>; Techdiver
<techdiver@aq*.co*>; Cavers <cavers@cavers.com>
Date: Thursday, July 08, 1999 5:30 PM
Subject: Re: [HCD] Whacky Too


>And you said . . .
>
>> If anybody missed Comedy Central's guide to diving Wakulla on TBS last
>> night, I have the tape. My respect for National Geo went down a notch or
two
>> after watching that.
>
>Amen,
>
>Now I have to back up and think of all the dramatic BS I have been buying
>out of
>NatGeo all these years. The Wakky II Show was such BS. They left out what
>had been explored, Stone's promise to "tripple" the distance, their
>actual distance effort that got them, what 9k, HALF the WKPP distance?
>They left out Kendall's death, the diver's death in Huautla, the history
>of problems with the electronic rebreather, that the WKPP's distance was
>using 'breathers of another sort and what the difference is. And Boyd
>Madson silting out Ginnie! Now THAT is choice!! They just need the
>dreaded "cave shark" to round out the dangers of cave diving. But they
>got Stone's actual mission in life right, Space Cadet. If he wasn't so
>dangerous to his own people, it'd be funny.
>
>The way the show was structured, the heroic effort to map Wakulla that
>succeeded through many trials and tribulations...such drama, will they
>succeed? The nasty low-vis dive, the raging flow that nearly defeated the
>perky Jill Heinreth and then they finally get to "the end." Oh, so I
>guess there's no more cave to discover, right? SHE GOT IT ALL!
>
>I give them their due that the divers who made the longer dives did
>something that not everyone can do. And I wonder about the mapper, how
>well did it work? If there's anything to this, it will be the mapper, but
>as the magazine article suggested, even if Cis-Lunar perfects the mapper
>to be the state of the art, it will be the WKPP who will be the divers
>who will actually have the skills to USE it! Otherwise, Stone's
>leadership into a new era of hi-tech cave diving technology is pure BS.
>It may be someday that a technology _similar_ to that will make inroads
>into diving technology and be safe and effective, but today, the choice
>seems pretty simple. Even forgetting everything they left out of this
>show, just the problems they had with the scooters and the rebreathers
>and the diver breathing O2 deep in the basin. These are all problems that
>I get the sense that the WKPP ironed out long ago. The Halcyons work, the
>Gavins work and the team mentality works without all the drama that
>accompanied the Wakky II gang. Maybe that's why you guys don't get the
>big press, it just looks too easy.
>
>Keep up the Piker Weekends.
>
>Later,
>
>JoeL
>

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