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In a message dated 98-03-03 17:42:45 EST, dlv@ga*.ne* writes: << Your wrong about this. It is my concern for lives of these people that has caused me to take the LARGE amount of time I've spent, to address this subject-----the fitness issue should not be "fought" by the "physically challenged" as you call them, instead, they should seek out a top notch personal trainer and try to attain a higher level of fitness. This will make them safer and better qualified, physiologically, for tech diving, and make them healthier in ther general life. And the tech diving, can be the "Goal", and the "reason", that these people will finally pursue fitness, ultimately to benefit in their everyday life. I can't believe you are giving me this "perfect specimen" crap. A tech diver needs to develop many facets. Fitness alone ( no training, no skills, wrong mind set, bad gear) would make a dangerously bad diver. This is so obvious I should not have to comment on it. But I'll say this one more time. A tech diver, and particularly a tech instructor, needs a high level of fitness, in the same way a college student needs to be able to read. And the better he can read, the greater his chances of succeeding in college-----as opposed to the person who slides through high school, barely able to read at all, and perhaps reading with lips moving, a testiment to poor reading skills. But reading skills alone will NOT make the college student go to the head of the class----without diligent study, reasonably good IQ, aptitude in the classes taken, good instructors, and desire to learn as much as possible, reading skills alone will be of little value. Fitness for a tech diver is very similar. Its "our" reading skill. Without fitness, you will never be a good tech or cave diver for extreme depth or duration diving. Your gas exchange rate will be far to great a liability to you---this including the processing of CO2 from whatever exertion you become subjected to, and the offgassing of nitrogen and helium......and even the actual gas consumption itself, since the ultra fit can learn to lower their heart rates to 45 or 50 bpm while scootering on a deep dive, and use a very small amount of gas, which also means ingassing less for the duration at depth. But again, fitness is ONLY the entry level prereq skill here----the tech diver needs brains, motivation, a good instructor, the right attitude, and a lot more. And if you were to decree that all obese tech diver candidates were "fit" for tech diving, as is, you'd be opening up college to the "illiterate", or worse. >> I agree here with Dan. Fitness in tech diving is very important, and some level of fitness should be expected of participants for this type of diving. No need to be Mark Spitz though, just in shape for the dives being performed. Safe diving, Raimo -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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