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Current Hogarthian thinking is the product of the current
leadership of the Wooville Karst Plain Project. There is a tape, called
"Doing It Right" that details most of this. There is also a current
article by Jarod Jablonski outlining this. There is the chapter on gear
config in the NACD Manual by Bill Gavin which explains many of the
original basics, and also describes why we do not do some the things
that we see being recommended by the uninitiated on these lists.
Current thinking has been developed by the divers who explore Leon
Sinks Cave System, a system that perhaps five percent of the divers out
there have ever seen any of, and only a handfull have seen the
extremities of. This is the longest underwater cave in the US, the third
longest in the world, it is the cave that prompted us to get into trimix
diving in 1986 and to develop the gear we have now. It is deep, dark,
long , scary and colder than the other caves in FL.
Until you have been there , your opinion means absolutely nothing
to me - make no mistake about that. Thousands of divers have been
everywhere else, thousands dive cold water, etc, but only a few can deal
with this publicly accessible cave system. I hear all kinds of talk, but
since I ( and my current partners) put most of the line in all of the
deep and long spots, and what I did not do, Bill Gavin did, I know that
none of the old time big mouths had been there.
If you have a legitimate question about what we do, I will answer
it. If you are some know-it-all loudmouth, I will treat you accordingly,
like this guy Gillette. If you are an "oldtimer", show me your track
record before you tell me I do not know what I am doing. If you are
going to call me an asshole, like Dan Lins, you better not have left
your dead buddy in the cave deep on air like that stroke, and you better
have something to back it up besides a big mouth and a misinformed
opinion. That means RESULTS and a TRACK RECORD, not a body count and an
armchair convolution.
In an effort to return to a legitimate discussion, I will first
point out that there is a list, called Freeattic, where such discussions
take place amoung people world-wide who know what they are doing, and
who do not come off with the nazi or kkk bullshit. I will also say that
I have not seen any webb sites or pages, and do not give a shit what
anyone else inside or outside of the WKPP puts up , out , or recommends
as far as gear is confimed - if they do not dive with us, they do now
know the anwwer.
To finish this crap, let me point out that the d ring stuff is
bullshit, I use a large ring to hook my scooter to becasuse it is easier
and fast to clip into a large ring. If I have to wear gloves to dive
cold water, I use the giant version of the bolt snaps used for warmer
water. The reason we do not use two hose clamps on a stage rig, as this
idiot gillette would know if he had ever done jack in his whole life, is
that the upper one is perforce too far down the bottle to be the correct
attachment point, and this causes the bottle to dramaticly increase its
drap when scootering or in a current on a wreck, and any idiot would
know this, but obviously, this guy is not just any idiot - he is an
armchair idiot.
If you want to see tha absolute worst stage rig ever made, look
at a picture of Jim "Bat Man" Bowdin: not only is this giant drag, it is
patently dangerous. The reason we use the "rope" , Gillette, you dope,
is so that there are not any metal-to-metal connections and the thing
can be cut free if necessary, as in wreck diving, or otherwise being
stuck or pinned by a current, which you would know if you had done
anything but mouthdive.
The reasons we do not stuff or partially stuff hose, Gary and
friends, is that besides all of the reasons outlined ad nauseuam on here
and in Gavin's chapter, we need both a clean , comfortable feed around
the neck, four feet of immediately available hose to share, and a method
of stowing the hose ( wearing it) that accomodates ALL situations, not
just the limited few that have crossed you inexperienced,
one-dimensional, static-thinking little stroke mind. We deal in real
situations, and we have real solutions - you do not, and it is obvious.
What is even more telling is the list of known strokes who agree with
you - that makes my points even better than I could.
Again, I do not care what any of you think, and it is not my
concern how you dive since you are not diving with me, and never will
dive with me. What is of concern to me is getting out the correct mesage
on gear, buddy diving, deep air, and safety that will hopefully help
reduce the rapid trend towards bringing diving as we know it to a
screaming halt, summed up in one work: STROKERY.
If you are a stroke, you are a problem for everyone, like the
six who are dead in the last five days. Next time you thkn you have all
the answers, go look at your own log book.
--
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