To see live action of this pinnacle of cave diving expertise, The 
Learning Channel has a show called SeaTek which plays around here at 8:30 
EST. The previews shows footage of helmet/quads/butt cave divers with 
ride-on scooters and something about a rescue.

  Jim



On 1/7/98 7:25 AM G. Irvine wrote:

>Pete, that photo is the posterboy "stroke" that is taped to the door of
>my van and is featured in the video "Extreme Cave Diving". This is the
>perfect "what not to do " case of sheer stupidity that characterizes the
>cave diving community.
>
>Helmets are nonsense - they get in the way, they are dangerous, they are
>an accomodation to using the wrong lights and other gear, and they
>reflect the attitude of the user. The only time I EVER hit my head in a
>cave was wearing a helmet. 
>
>Only a real jerk would put lights on a helmet, so that when he turned to
>look at his buddy, the lights would blind him, and only a moron would
>think that putting work lights on a helmet made any sense, rather than
>using the primary properly or properly stowing the backup lights. Only a
>true jerk would compromise his whole rig for this kind of nonsense.
>
>Helmets are not even a good idea in dry cave, unless you are caving with
>a bunch of inconsiderate morons who climb all over the place and knock
>rocks down on you, but that involves Rule Number One.
>
>The big time strokes think that helmets and more crap is a sign of the
>"technical" diver, and they plaster those stupid pictures everywhere and
>give the wrong impression, just like the same guys do when they brag
>about their deep air diving.
>
>Look at that picture and just think what kind of abject stupidiity it
>takes to hook two aluminum 80's to your back tanks rather than carry
>stages, not to mention the other horrifying strokery displayed there,and
>keep in mind that the dope who is in the picture never went more than
>1000 feet into the cave, which is 1000 feet short of the first stage
>bottle drop, and he was riding a fast scooter.
>
>At the end of this "project", after they were onlyh able to get past
>2000 feet in one of 129 attempts, these strokes said that "if they only
>had rebreathers, they could go another 1000 feet". If they only knew how
>to cave dive, thery would go the other 7,000 that we went so far in a
>tiny fraction of the dives. The reason they got noplace and we smoked it
>on a fraction of the gas on open curcuit is explained by that picture,
>and the pictures of the Klingon cruisers, as well as the stories of
>buddy-leving strokery and nonsense that charaterized and still is in
>evidence with these same clowns, that is the few who are still alive.
>Their attitude is "every man for himself".
>
>Pete Young wrote:
>> 
>> George Irvine wrote:
>> 
>> > Jerry, I mixed your magazine up with "Diver" Magazine. I did indeed do
>> > that interview with you, and I confused it with the one I did not have
>> > time for in England ( they said it was a U.K. magazine ).
>> 
>> I was bemused by this at first, since I couldn't remember an interview
>> with George appearing in Diver magazine. Then the penny dropped. The
>> original message was referring not to Scuba World or Diver, but to
>> the Imersed (sic) Winter 1997 issue, which features the article on
>> WKPP which was discussed in this august forum a couple of months ago.
>> 
>> Accompanying an article by one Jeffrey Bozanic are two photographs of
>> the same guy, one on page 34, the other on page 41, of a diver in
>> Wakulla Springs wearing an assortment of gear which would not meet
>> with WKPP approval This includes a wet suit, helmet, primary light and 
backup
>> light mounted on helmet, stage bottles fixed high either side of
>> back-mounted doubles, dangling 2nd stages everywhere, Jetstreams,
>> stage bottle slung underneath a scooter, suicide clips and "butt-mounted"
>> light canister. Is that the one?
>> 
>> The photos are credited to someone called Wes Skiles, and I'd rather not
>> scan them in without permission. Perhaps you might care to email
>> immersed@nj*.co* and ask them for an electronic copy.
>> 
>> Incidentally George, what is it that you don't like about helmets?
>> Streamlining, or is there something else?
>> 
>> Regards
>> 
>> Pete
>> 
>>   ____________________________________________________________________
>>   Pete Young     pete.young@bt*.bt*.co*.uk*      Phone +44 1473 605525
>>       "Just another crouton, floating on the bouillabaisse of life"
>


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