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Richard, Just a few thoughts about your post. I am trying a new mailer so I hope it works. >Enough ranting and raving. I guess the important issue is: "What, if any, >role does/should deep air diving have in technical diving?" (and, of >course, how deep is "deep"?) I think there is a role for deep air diving, to aroung the 60msw mark, this being my approximate limit because of narcosis and breathing gas density and the possibility of O2 toxicity. A bounce air dive to this sort of depth is a relatively simple affair, requiring minimal decompression and only a single gas (although O2 at 6msw is nice). To do a similar dive on trimix increases the amount of decompression required and the number of gas mixtures desirable to at least 3. So if you do not need to be down long air is a viable alternative for those who can handle the partial pressures. >These are very difficult questions to answer >- even for someone as outspoken as I am. At tek.94, I was interviewed >by Walter Comper, the Greman rep. for aquaCorps. He asked me: "Do you >think that people who want to learn to be trimix divers should first gain >a lot of experience doing deep air dives?" I thought about it a lot, but >couldn't come up with an answer - I really don't know what to recommend >here. The issue relates to the present-day diver who wants to learn >how to do trimix dives, but doesn't already have a lot of deep air >experience. Should that person first go out and do a couple hundred 200' >air dives to gain the "wisdom" (for lack of a better word) needed to >really acquire the necessary discipline to do deep mixed-gas dives? Or >should that person never face the hazards of narcosis, etc., and go >straight to helium-based diving? The old-school types (and I as well) >would be very tempted to say that the deep air diving is a necessary first >step to becoming a deep mixed-gas diver. The rationale behind this >perspective is based on the belief that the most important qualities a >deep mixed-gas diver must have are: > >1) An ability to calmly and intelligently respond to problems under > very stressful conditions with a very narrow margin for error >2) An adequate self-awareness (with associated control of one's own ego) > to be able to accurately assess one's own personal limitations >3) The supreme discipline to not exceed those limitations > Also to learn some things that you can work out hypothetically but a best driven home by experience, preferably on a simpler dive, like how quickly do you go through gas at these deeper depths? regards, David Doolette ddoolett@me*.ad*.ed*.au*
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