83 dives is what we have been told by people close to the family. This guy,
Mike Elkins,  was a new diver. He wanted to get really good.
He met the WRONG instructor, learned the WRONG procedures and standards, and
dived with the wrong gear.

The scary thing is, that if alot of us were not luckier, in that we met
someone who really was good, instead of just talking a big game, we may have
learned the WRONG standards and procedures, dived the wrong gear, and dived
with the WRONG instructor. I'll say this again. this was luck. We could have
called TDI or IANTD----since we would have known little in the beginning of
our diving career. If we called TDI, we could have ended up having our dead
body being stabbed repeatedly by narced out rescuers, too blasted out of
their minds to bring us up without cutting off our gear.  If we had called
IANTD, who knows, maybe we could have died with a bunch of our friends,
instead of going by ourselves like TDI pushes by their  training.

There needs to be a MUCH BETTER  way for new people to find an instructor. A
way for you to find an instructor that will not teach the personal
preference and other  crap IANTD or TDI are famous for, even though he / she
may still need to operate through an affiliation with them, for insurance
purposes ( of course, at the current death rate, who knows how long the
insurance umbrella will exist).  We need a rating system for current
instructors, and ultimately, we need a new tech agency that will not
embarrass the good instructors, with the affiliation.

Dan Volker



Date: Tuesday, February 24, 1998 3:05 AM
Subject: 83 dives was: Divers Supply, IANTD, Tom Mount and tragic ,
technical diving



>In message <Pine.SUN.3.93.980223143230.22679C-
>100000@pr*.pr*.ne*>, Kevin Connell <kevin@nw*.co*> writes
>>The student had 83 dives?  I don't have it in front of me, but I'm pretty
>>sure the IANTD 97 standards stated 200 dives minimum to enter the trimix
>>course.
>>
>
>My copy sez.......
>
>
>Divers accepted onto the course based on equivalent experience must have
>a log or proof of 200 dives, including 75 dives deeper than 100 FSW with
>at least 12 to 165 FSW......
>
>Regards
>
>
>Chris Hellas         e-mail - chris@de*.de*.co*.uk*
>

--
Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'.
Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.

Navigate by Author: [Previous] [Next] [Author Search Index]
Navigate by Subject: [Previous] [Next] [Subject Search Index]

[Send Reply] [Send Message with New Topic]

[Search Selection] [Mailing List Home] [Home]