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From: <G.Irvine@m2*.in*.co*>
Date: Fri, 21 Jun 1996 05:03:13 -0700
Subject: My Opinion, My Answers
To: Jeff Kell <JEFF@UT*.UT*.ED*>, Eric Mieczkowski <ericm@ru*.ne*>,
     techdiver@terra.net
Cc: cavers@ge*.co*


       I do not like the present certifications system, but I realy do not have 
a quick and easy answer for a substitute. I can not even remember how I figured 
it out when I did, but it seemed easy at the time, so let's look at where I 
think you can get some value.

       READ: The Physiology and Medicine of Diving (Bennett and Elliot)         
     Decompression, Decompression Sickness (Bulhmann)

       BUY: One copy DECOM from Ronnie Bell $69 (decompression and mixing       
            software, and obtain a copy of WKPP gas guidelines, and bottle 
            marking guidelines

       BUY: A high pressure whip and fill teminus from Sherwood

       GO TO: your welding supply store and get all of the other fittings for
               oxygen and helium, what ever you want to build up. One of each 
               is sufficient, and you can attact one to the other to use one  
               whip line. I use a 19 bottle bank system, but then this is the 
               only diving I do any more, and I am a psycho

       PICK UP: or have delivered the gas you need. Oxygen is about $25 for     
               each 330 cu ft bottle, helium about $55 for each 290 cu ft       
               bottle

       You will need gas to dive gas, and buying it from a dive shop is 
prohibitive. In Lauderdale, it is not so bad, as you have Jim Mimms and Joe 
Lavotti at Ocean Dving who pump it, Peter Schults at American, Brownies Third 
Lung (in cracktown, so you can get a fill, a hooker , and a buzz all at once), 
and Underseas Sports (Matt Stout) who has Nitrox at a good price and is a nice, 
non-officious type guy. 

        Some dive shops won't fill on top of O2, so you may have to buy their 
nitrox and blow on the helium. Anybody who won't take a single nitrox card 
should be avoided. I have an ANDI card, which I got before the other two 
existed, so if they don't take that, they can blow me, or show me their log 
book. Deans in Key West takes the log book , as he has been doing this since 
long before ther was anything but "Sheck Exley" cards, and "Bill Deans" cards. 
Mimms knows we have all been doing this since before it had a name.

         The real reson to take courses is to get a shot to dive with good 
divers (supposedly the intstructors). Avaoid dopes, and avoid instructors who 
let you do whatever you want. Get guys like Jablonski, who are meticiulous
about 
doing it right, will tell you if you should not be doing this, and who wil not 
certify you until you are ready, and can complete his course. 

          Avoid the agencies that make you take fifty courses for one result. 
Remember, there are three of them, and they will have to get smart if we make 
them. Tony Satterfield has beefed up ANDI quite a bit, and TDI no longer 
requires the hoopery that IANTD does (mulitmple deep air and nitrox crap)
but they have not clue aws to the correct PPO2's and so forth. Use WKPP 
guidelines for these things.

           We train and certify our own divers, but we also have instructors
who 
can certify for any of the agencies. Exley used to certify us, now Jablonski , 
Berman , Trout, or any of the others can. However, we obviously do not need it.

           Avoid gear sellers, and trainers who recommend "dedicated" equipment 
- this is unnecessary. Go with the most simple stuff, as can be viewed and 
ciopied from the video, "Doing IT Right", by WKPP. Rig your gear and your
stages 
this way, spend no money until you see this video. Let me tell you this: my 
former diver partner, now retired from cave diving, Bill Gavin, had no more
than 
$2,000 in his entire rig, including scooter , light, many regs and tanks, etc. 
He had a small compressor and a small haskel, but hen he had his own machine 
shop and the NAVY EDU to work out of. If we copy him, and he was the best in
the 
business, we can save a lot of money and do anything. Scooter still will cost 
some money, but the rest can be done for peanuts.

            Spend you money diving and having fun, and let's make these
agencies 
 conform to what we want, and make them train you so that you can do what the 
pros do, not so we have to read about clusterfucks on here. - G






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