Tom,

The original complaint would have been grouped with several others in
general. The timing you may remember relative to when I was argueing for the
"NO DEEP AIR" to do trimix as the first one, shortly after the WPB triple as
the second. The second discussion we had was specific to the Sun-sentinel
full page article with a large photograph of Dereck and Jamie "standing" on
the deck of the HYDRO. I went into Dereck's store (SCUBA SCHOOL) to offer a
suggestion that the picture did not seem to promote skillfull diving. Dereck
was not available so Jamie politely gave me the run down on how they had "no
control" over the photo being published. He said they took the Sun-Sentinel
guy down and they were all "NARCED" thus the "Stand" on the dive. The
attitude was not confrontational at all, it was like a couple of teenagers
talking about their early drug and alcohol days (reflection for me, current
giggle for Jamie). I reflected back to my diving deep air and how much more
satisfying my dives are now. I tryed to convey my heightened sense of
adventure and fullfillment which inpart has increased by the ease of how we
do these dives, with reduced gear and lack of impairment. I felt I was
getting through to Jamie for the few minutes I spent with him, but he was
not in the "LEADERSHIP" position. This is where the problem lies. In my
opinion, Dereck had gained the attitude that so many of us have when
entering this area of diving; go deep-and DEFEAT the RISK.

The real message from leadership should be; EXPLORE, EXPERIENCE, an IDENTIFY
& REDUCE RISK to a absolute minimum.

In my opinion, Jane and all had been lead into the spirit of believing that
the 305' mark was what would make them "REAL DIVERS" by defeating the risk.
The contingency plan for the dive that day was 310', the target was 305'.
The ledge in that area sucks compared to the shallower reefs and wrecks
nearby which are considerably more appropriate for training and conveyance
of the spirit of adventure.

Mims was the last safety check point in this tragedy, he got lied to, this
is a fact. No one disputes it. Why has your option number three or even four
not been taken yet? Jim has first hand knowledge of this and he is a BOA
memeber of IANTD.

If you are waiting for my recovery report, here is the short version; I
found Jane while diving with Trey at fifteen minutes of run time on Sunday,
she was dead. She had plenty of gas and way to much gear. Some of it worked
some did not.  I saw her dive buddy/instructor, he was alive.

I will report on history in detail soon. For now we need to be concerned
about stopping the trend.

My opinion; attitude was the first shot to the head and continues to exist
in the tech community at large. The final blow was the lack of recognition
of a serious problem and no action to intervine. Dereck knew he had a
serious problem when she vanished on this 150' visibility day. A quick check
of the student 20 feet below (at 50-60' on 80/20 that he had placed her on)
would have taken seconds to discover she was unconscious. If indeed she had
already suffered a fatal blow, then we would not be having this
conversation. Twenty seconds of NON-ACTION was the final blow.

Buddy awareness and readiness for action are the largest in water changes I
made since diving with WKKP.  Mental and physical preparedness are perhaps
the largest at the surface.

I am constantly amazed that proven advancements in safety (WKPP and others)
take these catastrophic events to bring recognition to your organization.

RMC


-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Mount <TOM.MOUNT@wo*.at*.ne*>
To: kirvine@sa*.ne* <kirvine@sa*.ne*>; NAUI 7874 <NAUI7874@ao*.co*>
Cc: techdiver@aquanaut.com <techdiver@aquanaut.com>; cavers@ca*.co*
<cavers@ca*.co*>; jbentley@cr*.co* <jbentley@cr*.co*>
Date: Thursday, May 07, 1998 7:05 AM
Subject: Re: IANTD criticzing teh WKPP in Sun Sentinel


>Begging your pardon but check with Errol he did not make any complaint to
me
>about Derek,
>in this course or anyother course he has taught. When I first read your
>earlier statement to this fact I called errol and he acknowledged he had
not
>made a complaint to me. I do not remember Robert issusuing a complaint
about
>Derek in a class either
>Tom
>-----Original Message-----
>From: katherine Irvine <kirvine@sa*.ne*>
>To: NAUI 7874 <NAUI7874@ao*.co*>
>Cc: TOM.MOUNT@wo*.at*.ne* <TOM.MOUNT@wo*.at*.ne*>;
>techdiver@aquanaut.com <techdiver@aquanaut.com>; cavers@ca*.co*
><cavers@ca*.co*>; jbentley@cr*.co* <jbentley@cr*.co*>
>Date: Thursday, May 07, 1998 6:24 AM
>Subject: Re: IANTD criticzing teh WKPP in Sun Sentinel
>
>
>>Alan, we need to know if those other two divers were on air or if the
>>commnunicator caused them a problem , too. I have a copy of the message
>>that the dive shop sent out advertising this dive as a 300 foot reef
>>dive. Somebody needs to send that to Mount as well.
>>
>> Also, Alan, whose idea was it to call me? My schedule was posted on the
>>cavers list , so everyone knew I was 500 miles away. What they did not
>>know is that I was standing at Big Dismal looking at my already set up
>>gear when Derrek called me. I still had enough gas mixed for 300 feet to
>>do the dive.
>>
>> My personal opinion is that this was the very last thing they ever
>>expected, and their worst nightmare. As we all saw, I can find them if I
>>get any decent information, and Mims got me within 2000 feet linear, and
>>the bottom was sloped such that I could see from 220 to 300 so long as
>>Carmichael stayed on the 240 ledge as my baseline. I ran a super fast
>>Gavin scooter and my speed drysuit, Robert had a locomotive pulling the
>>freediving float.
>>
>> Unfortunatley, Robert and I have had many, many ,many practices of this
>>exercise already, and Robert and I have had fifty times as many phone
>>calls to Tom Mount complaining to him about the instructors and
>>practices of his organization. In fact, Errol and Robert complained
>>about Dreek and this particular class ( the "deep air" portion - Errol
>>refused to have that stupidity on his boat when Derek called due to Mims
>>boat being broken) one week prior, and I went so far as to deliver a
>>Doing it Right tape personally to Dereks store in an attempt to
>>straighten him out, and Robert went over there twice trying to talk some
>>sense into this guy.
>>
>>Has Mount suspended him yet?
>>
>>
>>NAUI 7874 wrote:
>>>
>>> George Irvine responds-
>>> ---
>>> He then watched her sink to 50, and
>>> told the cops he thought she was ok since the other instructor was there
>>> - another bad move in print.
>>>
>>> and other stuff-----
>>>
>>> I think we will find that the last time I checked the other Geroge who
>was on
>>> the dive is not a instructor, yet he had the guts to at least try
>something.
>>> and this was after helping his buddy up. do you not think that derick
was
>not
>>> getting a fine example of the buddy system before my Jane had her
>emergency,
>>> and even with that example right in front of his face he still did
>nothing. I
>>> talked to him and the other divers when they came into the shop. I had
>also
>>> talked to derick by my cell phone while driving from my work to the
shop.
>when
>>> asked what rescue was being done he stated he was out of gas. and was
>being
>>> detained by the coastguard. I then told him to start a recall for divers
>and
>>> get the gasses blended. when I got to the shop 20+miles away still
>nothing was
>>> being done. I started forcing a recall and cleared the store so the one
>>> employee in it could blend gas, and call in divers. the first person he
>called
>>> went something like - HI what are you doing? are you busy? could we get
>you to
>>> come to the shop for a dive? - huh? this was a emergency.
>>> I then called west palm looking for divers to come down, got to dive
>boats to
>>> leave dock as far north as Boynton Beach and start a search. called a
>pilot,
>>> got emergency clearance for him to take off from under the air show as
>his air
>>> port was closed down. got eyes on the plane. I did this becouse derik
>stated
>>> he thought Jane made it back up and was floating. later at the shop he
>states
>>> he watched her bubbles come up for another 2 min. the George on the dive
>>> decribed the flow as a freeflow. I do know he is at the least he is a
>PADI
>>> divemaster. I also called the WKPP and others to help with what I knew
>then to
>>> be a body recovery. My JANES body.
>>>
>>> I did not watch the news last night so do not know this as a fact but
>have
>>> been told this by a couple of other folks who were not involved. it was
>stated
>>> to me that derick stated that 'she was dead anyway' as she was falling
to
>her
>>> death. this was on camera - someone down here who knows for sure please
>tell
>>> me if I am wrong. if not then what a remorsless cowardly sack of shit he
>is.
>>>
>>> he then trys to tell us how great he is in trying to setup a rescue. I
>call
>>> bull shit to the whole thing.
>>>
>>> A rescue that should never have been set up in the first place if he was
>doing
>>> his job
>>>
>>> and I would not be scattering her ashes at sea this saturday
>>>
>>> tom I'm looking for real answers here!!!!!!!!!
>>>
>>> Alan Pelstring
>>> Time does not heal, Love does.
>>> and my love is dead
>>
>

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