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Through the years I have come in contact with many people who had put a lot into this industry. I am of course familiar with Gilliam, Mount, Palmer, Exley, Lippman, Graver, Gentile, Bowden, and even the old frenchman. I began diving in 1957 in La Jolla California, with the instructions of "Breathe in, Breathe out, exhale on the way up". I survived the age of every dive shop handing out it's very own "C-card", and skip breathing to make the cylinder last longer, now over forty years later and some 16,000+ dives all over the world, two of which were my weddings, an active instructor/instructor trainer/ course director/international training director with some five recreational agencies and two technical agencies. I have seen and heard all the arguments about who is better as a certifying agency. Recovered countless bodies both civilian and military, certified and not, deep divers and shallow divers. The last time I checked, the single most reason divers failed to make it back home for dinner was running out of gas, be it air, EANx, or mix. As Instructors we kill our students in open water class, in "advanced" class, in specialty programs, we even kill non-divers on air deeper than 300 fsw. I have seen a lot of stupid ways to die, and I am sure, the victim would have preferred to have made it back to the beach alive. Dead is dead. It's the final solution, depending upon your thinking or lack of. Lance Rennaker (I beleive it was), once said that the only thing that comes close to what we teach (scuba) is astronaut training and that takes years. As instructors, it is up to us to make the student aware of what he is doing in the water as well as what the water is doing to him/her. Be it air/EANxor mix. Hindsight is always 20/20, over the years, I have done stupid things in the sea ans still survived, hopefully I learned from the experience, and have tried not to repeat the situation. As instructors, we can only scratch the surface of what the student must know. A drivewrs license from any state, does not allow me to compete against Foyt, Andretti or the like. A diving license does not make one a diver, it allows him/her to learn more about our sport/industry, a divemaster card does not make one a divemaster, it merely allows him to learn about being a divemaster, a brand new or scubasaurious instructor merely has a license to allow him to learn how to be an instructor. How deep is deep? What is a deep diver? If I choose to dive air to the 180 to 200 fsw range, solo or as a member of a team, that is my choice. A dive to 180 on air is a daily occurance for me, logging an average of 80 to 110 dives per month in micronesia is a lot different than doing the doria or 853 on air once or twice a year.. I also dive mix for depths deeper than 200. I have standards in my programs to follow, all but one of my agencies expect me to exceed them in either classroom hours or the number of dives (not depth), if someone is unhappy with his agency and its methods, work from the inside to try and correct it. If you are not a member of said agency, you must join it and work to improve it to what you feel is up to "your standards". Failing that, you are like the individual who badmouths the politician, but is not registered to vote. As the bumper sticker says, "If Clinton is the answer, It must have been a stupid question". Question, oh yes, my little question: Who and what is a George Irvine? Is he an instructor, a certified diver, a Tom Mount wantabe or what? This forum is like CB radio was in it's heyday, every channel had someone overpowered with inconsiderate manners, and even when he had good to say, you turned the volume down. I am sure that George is a nice guy around his family, talks nice, and at the dinner table with friends, will say "Please, pass the butter", ladies and gentlemen, I am a diver, I consider each and everyone of you as family, let's be polite, a lot of the dogs kicked around here lately are dead (sorry), lets stop kicking it and put it to rest and get on with what we are here for, DIVING!!! Dr. J. Frank White -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send list subscription requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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