Mailing List Archive Mailing List Archive
I'd like to thank everyone who's responded with donations to Sub Ocean
Safety; based on public and private messages, it appears that help is on the
way. With a bit of momentum going, they'll have the cash they need in time
for their February 7 departure on a 3 week trip to Central America. Last I
heard, SOS has received $700 of the $1900 needed to cover travel expenses
for boats, bush planes, hotels, food, and trucks. Air fare to Central
America has been donated by NICA Airline. Ingersoll-Rand donated an $800
compressor rebuild kit. And Seattle Filmworks has donated four blocks of
film for use with their new 'Pictures on Disk' processing and 'Photoworks
Software for Windows'. SOS is planning to put the photo results on-line
this spring on their own Web page and in AQUA~GEO on-line magazine.
In case you're wondering how much bang for the buck your donations have,
they go directly to the costs of the expeditions with the participants
paying half out of their own pocket; nobody associated with SOS has been
paid a nickel for their work over the past 4 years. For this trip,
participants include Bob Izdepski, Dr. Tom Millington, Dr. David Youngblood,
Jorge Torres (video/photo), David Rossi (saturation mechanic/diver), Lou
Jankowski, Ph.D., and Professor Bernard Nietschman of UC Berkeley; I've
included a thumbnail description for a few of these guys at the end of this
message. There's a good chance that Jim Joiner of Best Publishing will join
the expedition on Feb. 13th.
SOS has already moved two hyperbaric chambers to Honduras and Nicaragua
(e-mail me if you're interested in an account of that ordeal) and they've
been sitting for more than a year to be put into operation. On this
February's trip, SOS is transporting the compressors and power plants needed
to make the chambers operational. Sometime in March, they should be up and
running. Thanks, in part, to some help found here.
Rocky Daniels
----------------------------
Descriptions of the following characters were supplied by Bob Izdepski:
Dr. David Youngblood
Called "Dr. Adventure" by a press who doesn't know a hundredth of
it. David, who specializes in tropical medicine as well as hyperbarics, has
been in every third world jungle from Cambodia through the Amazon and back.
As a hyperbaric physician, he's been down to 1,000 fsw...because he didn't
want to send any diver to go where he hadn't been. Fluent in Spanish,
Portugeese, French, Vietnamese and Zulu, he's a good man to have at your back.
Dr. Tom Millington
Co-founder of SOS and a true humanitarian. It was Tom who put me
onto the diving problem in Mosquitia. He had already installed a
recompression chamber on the Miskito Coast, taught missionary doctors how to
use it, and lectured on the subject before I met him. Tom is the nicest guy
you could ever meet and no slouch as a diver. Most capable head of the
hyperbaric dept. at Lombard Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, CA, he is
internationally known as a diving disease specialist and is also a pillar of
third world diver's human rights.
Professor Bernard Nietschmann
Mr. National Geographic. Professor of Geography at UC Berkeley,
author of numerous articles for prestigeous journals, writer of books and
leading authority on coastal indigenous peoples. Bernie spent 17 years
living in Tashbapauni, on the Miskito Coast of Nicaragua, studying the
people and mapping the land and sea of that unique region. Perhaps the
greatest indicator of a man's life, is to visit the villages where he once
lived and talk to the people. I was in Tashbapauni last March, and
mentioned Bernie's name. It had been 16 years since Bernie lived there, but
still when I spoke with the young men, they remembered him with awe from
their childhood, and the old men beat their chests with pride, saying, "I
knew Nietschmann, he was my friend! A great philosopher! You are most
welcome, come, meet our council!" I was treated like a king.
--
Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'.
Send list subscription requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
Navigate by Author:
[Previous]
[Next]
[Author Search Index]
Navigate by Subject:
[Previous]
[Next]
[Subject Search Index]
[Send Reply] [Send Message with New Topic]
[Search Selection] [Mailing List Home] [Home]