<---- Begin Forwarded Message ---->
From: gmiii@in*.co*
Subject: State of Cave Diving
To: cavers@ge*.co*
Cc: freeattic@co*.ci*.uf*.ed*


   When I first came for cave instruction to north Florida it was only to 
pick 
up some improved techniques for the deeper wreckdiving I was trying to do 
at the 
time, and to pick up a place to dive when the winter winds ruined weekend 
plans 
locally - nothing more. 

   My instructor, Parker Turner, met me at the Tallahassee airport, at 
the gate. 
The first thing he said to me was , "you need to take the cotton out of 
your 
ears and put it in your mouth if I am going to tech you to cave dive". 
Clearly , 
he was not just gong to teach me to cave dive, he was going to teach me 
to cave 
dive with the WKPP. I had come well recommended , and he also told me, 
before we 
reached the end of the terminal, that I would be doing what he was doing, 
if I 
did what he suggested.

    I was paying him $1,400 for the course, and I was paying all of the 
expenses 
of teaching it. I did not want any strokes in the class with me, and 
wanted the 
real world version. I told him I wanted to do it right, and absorb what 
he was 
showing me. Nine months later he gave me my card on a flight to Mexico 
where he 
and I were headed to explore some cave.

     During the course I talked to him on the phone every night, and when 
we 
were diving, we talked on the way to the sites, which were spread way 
apart. We 
never dove Peacock. He told me every  horror story he knew, and I still 
can see 
the Mickey Mouse shirt on the 14 year old kid that he and Gavin pulled 
out of a 
cave in mexico, the "I am a cool guy " look on the face of the guy he 
pulled out 
of Emerald who was diving deep air with independents, and I can still her 
him 
say  "don't dive with strokes", and he mentioned a few as examples - you 
all 
know who they are.

      I also attended his classes at FSU, and read volumes of material he 
gave 
me, including both of Exley's books (he had the manuscript), Bulhmanns 
Decompression , Decompression Sickness ( he mde me take it out of the 
library 
and go to a copy place and copy it), Bennett and Elliot, a speleology 
text, a 
geology text, and everything ever written by Bill Gavin. One day at FSU I 
read 
all day long in his office. He gave me all of the maps, and showed me how 
to 
survey before we ever went diving.

        He made me take may tanks apart and we went to a dive shop and 
reconfigured everything to what it is right now. He made me go take a 
course at 
Western Kentucky University in Speleology, and he made me rescue him from 
90 
feet of water in a cave before he would certify me CMAS. I later saw two 
women 
practicing this at Ginnie, and it was so convincing that I tried to help 
them.

         I DO NOT SEE ANY OF THIS ANYMORE. All I see is aggregious 
strokery, 
gear selling goobery, fat slobbery, macho technodeepery,  and 
incomprehensible 
stupidity in this sport. I can not immagine what kind of mindless greed 
would 
get  one person to sell useless gear to a dive student, or get a student 
to dive 
anything as dangeous as independent backmounted doubles (how low an IQ 
must 
somebody have for this?) , or to get a student to configure his gear like 
a 
circus clown, with stuffed hose, helmets, butt lights, etc. 

          How can we have let so many people become technical and cave 
intructors when there are so very few who can actually even do this in 
the first 
place? How can we have stories like what the Todd brothers told at Little 
River? How can it be that I had to teach almost every person who came to 
me how 
to survey? How stupid are dive instructors anyway? Why do we have to 
listen to 
people who have an endless track record of anything for a buck, 
recommending the 
absolute stupidest things and then later changing to somethign more 
stupid , and 
then denying all of it, and swearing by square lights, gathering people 
to sell 
them expensive rebreathers that do not work, swearing that this or that 
rebreather is the best, certifying the most hideous idiots in diving to 
be 
instructors, etc.

           When have these guys EVER done a real dive? NEVER.  When has 
this 
legion of instructors ever done anything. The fact is, guys like 
Jablonski 
learned to gas dive from the WKPP, and that goes for any of the other 
original 
guys. Steve Berman was gas diving with WKPP before IANTD existed, and so 
were we 
all, yet these guys are mixed in with with a horrifying list of 
incompetent 
strokes who have never, will never , and could never do a real dive, and 
should 
not be teaching this sport. This is a classic case of "Strokes in the 
woodpile" 
- you see the Jablonski's on the list as a validator, and then you get 
the 
goobers, fat slobs, idiots , incompetents, and morons.

           If you are looking for dive instruction of a serious nature, 
do what 
I did. Ask who is the best in the business, and hang out with them. In 
other 
words, check with the WKPP , and see who they have teaching each 
specialty, and 
get involved with an organization, like I did, that will do something for 
you, 
not sell you useless gear, screw you up, and resign you to mediocre 
diving while 
the good ole boys hide the cave from you, and you get to pay to dive at 
Ginnie 
with the huge fat slob dive intsructors, while we have 63 dive sites that 
are 
the absulute best in the game to work with while doing somethign positive 
and 
developing the techniques and equipment that you can take anywhere and be 
the 
absolute best - ask the question : WHO IS THE BEST, and settle for 
nothing less, 
no matter how loud the idiots howl, and ask who is getting and 
maintaining 
access that will not be destroyed by fat dumb red neck goobers and 
mercenary 
dive instructing bozos - get with the program and do it right.

     The cave diving community is a bunch of fat, whining  loosers, and 
we have 
all seen that exemplifed by the CDS BOD "heavyweights", the crybady 
Training 
Directors, the gear sellers, the star wars bar scene at each workshop, 
and the 
crap posted on here . 

      Parker told me that the best way to dive is "naked with the magic 
stone", 
"don't dive with strokes", and "the key to getting something is to give 
something". That is us. Take a look at them. No amount of campaigning 
against 
what is right will stop me - trust me on this, the same people have been 
trying 
for seven years.

George M. Irvine III
DIR WKPP
Woodville Karst Plain Project
1400 SE 11 ST Ft Lauderdale, FL 33316
954-493-6655 FAX 6698
Email gmiiii@in*.co*
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