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At 06:19 01/01/96 -0800, George wrote: > > What will get us regulated is the teaching and promoting > of deep air diving, diving high PPO2's, and the dive > industry (at lest South Florida) penchant for shoving > prospective students through dive courses as fast as they > can, holding out the "goal" of higher certification , like > the great "cave diving" merrit badge, or the gas courses. > George I agree with your point about high ppO2s and badges for badges sake. When "technical" training first crept across the Atlantic about seven years ago I was at first resistant to it overall (being a Brit; we always at first resist anything new, later we claim to have invented it). I was then concerned because it seemed to be promoting deep air diving which has killed a few people I know in the Red Sea in particular, where dive guides started to believe that the rules of physics and physiology did not apply to them. Guys there would routinely dive to 80 metres plus on air, and over 100m was not uncommon. (330 feet in archaic units). This was all done with a single 80 ft3 tank and a computer with no planning, back-up or for that matter buddy. Each year about six people die diving in the Red Sea, and always more than half of them were Divemasters or Instructors doing deep dives. I having been going down there for years running instructor courses and had just got to the point were most of the people had to started to realise they were being stupid when they started to hear about stuff going on in the States where it was cool to go really deep again. When I looked closer at what was being said, I realised the more serious people were actually trying to go beyond the traditional recreational envelope [air/no-deco/<40m/open water] but in a safe manner, which I have no problem with. In particular, Menduno did a great job in promoting the realistic viewpoints and filtering out the worst excesses of the crazy fringe. In fact we were using many of the principles of technical diving over in Europe without the name, but I have to say you guys really refined it, especially the cave community. (See, I nearly claimed we invented it). We can't take the old viewpoint that "we must not offer training for deco diving because that will encourage it" because people just try it out without training and do it in a dangerous way. I think it is better to offer training, but not to encourage divers to take the step out of the existing envelope. There are very few I feel comfortable taking. I actually became an instructor in all three agencies, not to collect badges, but to try to see who had the best system. I am not entirely happy with any one but that is life. > what we need is for dive "professionals" to quit > pretending that there is some magic to gas "blending" > or that some set of cleaning rules will protect people > from accidents. This is the kind of officious weenery > that has always plagued diving. > There is no magic to gas blending or preparation for oxygen service but there are certain rules or procedures that can be defined, otherwise you end up with the type of degenerating compromises that Randy described recently. I remember a case in Spain about ten years ago where there were a series of diving accidents in one year, partly due to dubious practices on the part of local dive schools. The government responded with a set of regulations which were so restrictive all but one dive centre had to close down (they included a requirement for an eight man chamber on site). In my experience, every time government gets involved it is a mess. The cave diving community is one of the best examples of a group that has come up with a set of working procedures which have become like rules, and in that sense they are self-regulating. That is what I am suggesting we need. I have seen some very scary practices by people making nitrox, both stores and individuals, and often it is just because they did not know they were doing anything wrong. I also dislike "officious weenery", but I dislike government intervention too, and being blown through a compressor room wall even more. Mark Caney Scubex, Cyprus Tel + 357-6-246680 (GMT + 2 hrs)
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