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It appears that I am not making myself clear about
the training organizations. What we have hear are the Good,
the Bad, and the Ugly.
The Good is obviously Mount's IANTD - a serious outfit.
My only complaint about Tom is that he is too nice of a guy,
and lets people do things (in order not to hurt their feelings
or to allow them their personal preferences) that I would not.
I don't think crappy gear configs or stuffed hoses are safe
in the least, but that is not my point.
The Bad is clearly ANDI, recommending ridiculous PPO2's
and claiming it is ok because of some NOAA nonsense or antiquated
Navy nonsense. In my opinion, these PPO2's have been implicated in
accidents by recent information and should be discontinued.
The Ugly is clearly TDI: the emphasis on deep air and on
deep air records, on deep air "ability", and on proving you are
some tough guy via deep air is assinine. I have no idea what their
standards are, I only see the results of the activities of people
with TDI and the acitvities surrounding this organization that have
resulted in disaster.
The other major problem I have with these guys is the
recent empahsis on active addition semi-closed rebreathers that
base their "bet" on an unknown metabolic rate, unknown respiration
production, unknown loop ppo2's, and taught by people who have
little or no pysiological training, little or no math knowledge,
little or no enigneering knowledge, limited diving experience,
and very little rebrether experience.
Let me give you an example: a fiend of mine had his
yacht over in New Providence. He went into that "tech" shop
over there, and mentioned to you-know-who that he wanted to
get a little more bottom time on his dives without the deco
obligation. He was told that what he needed was a Drager
rebreather. The friend called me, and told me the story - I told
him that he needed nitrox, not a rebreater. This guy does 100
foot lobster and spearfishing dives only, has a 120 foot yacht
a sixty foot sportfishing boat with full crews , compressors,
tenders, everything. They just thought they had them a pidgeon.
Luckily, the guy called me from the boat.
I would suggest that if we give these guys
a wide berth, they may get the message before they ruin it for
all of us, and we end up in the same fix the Aussies are now
dealing with - regulated diving, including a ban on mixes
other than air for non-commercial or non-military activities.
The sooner recreational and scientific diving makes the
distiction between obvious misdirected dillatantic charlatans
and serious players, the sooner we will be able to legitimize
our activities and prevent unwanted regulation. Castigation of
the bad examples is our responsibility.
George Irvine
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