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george -- you said: >Your opinion >or the opinion of anyone else means nothing in our world. and: >You represent the opposite of everything we believe in. Thanks for the explanatory missive describing your world but it wasn't necessary. There are a lot of folks like me who are already familiar with your world. Let me describe mine. Seven of my local buds and I have minimal time and minimal resources to explore the five caves we've discovered and are currently working in the Woodville Karst Plain. In these we have nine going leads, counting up/downstreams, two of which are deeper than 260 but we like the shallow ones the best. These are virgin caves on private property, three of which are in hunt club areas, making us probably the only cave divers up here who have successfully established that kind of access/relationships. These are virgin caves -- pristine and absolutely gorgeous -- ancient, delicate -- with deep pits, a circuit, very big and small tunnels, domes, vast rooms, enormous caverns, a sheer/perfectly verticle crack from 10 to 200ft., blowing power cave, and sidemount sections -- unexplored but for us. It's as thrilling and satisfying as cave diving can be. We take them very slow and easy -- we're cautious because safety is paramount -- and we savor every bit of the caves. There's no rush since they've been there a long time and aren't going anywhere. We feel very fortunate to be able to have no traffic jams, no assholes with cameras trying to demean anyone, no one trying to force competition with us, and no one telling us what to do, how to dive, or how to live. We don't use peer pressure to influence each other except towards conservatism and safety. We do it for fun, adventure, and to learn about the environment -- and not to prove anything to anyone, put anyone else down, or make ourselves famous. We support each other, elevate each other, cooperate with each other, listen to each other, help each other, watch out for each other, razz each other, enjoy each other, and respect each other. We are people who would hang together and enjoy each other's company and values even if we never dived a cave again. We study and adopt techniques and safety methods from other divers and other sources. We value and respect each other's judgement, and stay within our own personal limitations while encouraging each other to grow, and gently and considerately work with each other when we think one of us is missing an important consideration about safety, technique, or equipment. We ask more experienced and knowledgable divers for advice, and experiment with gear and techniques. We know about and respect those who came before us in this sport. A few of us have been doing this together for the better part of a decade. We share the booty with each other and work together as teams. We don't pretend we are something we're not. We don't cave dive to put anyone else down, show anyone else up, or put lead in our pencils -- because we don't need to. We lay line and see nothing but cave that hasn't been seen by anyone else and hasn't been reamed and bashed to shit by end-of-the-line obsessives, rude scooter menaces, and newbies who know it all already. Lots of this stuff is shallow, so we can do wet suit, ankle finning swims on air and easy as shit decos. We are very aware of the insidious nature of deep air, have been for a long time, and dive accordingly. We clean the sinks up, hauling the garbage away, and educate and share our experiences with the owners. We keep the locations to ourselves, in agreement with the landowners who want to maintain their privacy. We're also very fortunate to have such good landowner relations that they sometimes even bring us hot drinks and munchies when we get out. When we do share them with other divers, we are very selective and it's usually with someone from out of town/state/country -- who therefore won't spill the beans and bring all their friends/students/openwater buds in and screw the places and the landowners over. Sometimes we'll invite others in who have skills or experience that we don't, so we can all learn more and get more accomplished. We do this with people who share our values, respect us as we are, respect our wishes, and who see cave diving as a means to a variety of ends rather than an end unto itself or a marketing ploy. We don't consider them "our" caves because we know they're not -- they're God's own caves and someone else owns the land over them. We don't trespass when looking for caves, or to get into any. As resources and time allow, we survey, take pix and vid, and bring in other researchers who want to sample or photo the critters. If we find anything of possible value to resource managers, we bring it to their attention unasked. When stuff goes dark, we don't bitch -- we go hunting for other stuff -- and find it. We don't envy anyone else their caves or their diving. We'd love to dive Wakulla, not becaue it will "make" us, but because it's magnificent. We have enough to do, through our own hard work and within our abilities, to last us quite awhile -- including two other places: the monster bore hole that only clears in long droughts and the ripping clear spring that's choked with loose rocks and hasn't been poked at all -- yet. We enjoy cave diving the way we think it ought to be, in our own way, for our own personal reasons, no matter what anybody else thinks or says. In other words, we enjoy cave diving the way it used to be -- before you came along. Christopher A. Brown The Technical Diving Video Library http://www.aulinc.com/video.htm ameruwlite@ao*.co*, Fax: 352.669.1256, or Phone: 352.669.5483 Life is short -- this is not a rehearsal. -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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