Mailing List Archive Mailing List Archive
In a message dated 8/31/98 11:56:22 AM Eastern Daylight Time, Kevin@So*.co* writes: << You may be "crying out loud " in your e-mail, but I cried out loud for the last three divers I had to bury, two of which were friends. >> Ok, first off, I too have buried diving friends.....altho it is not clear to me how that statement makes what anyone has to say more valuble than someone else....everyone anyway near any of these deaths suffers incalculable loss and pain ....maybe more so because this is a 'sport' a 'hobby' that we chose to do and once the series of events that set the ultimate price, death, into play are cleanly laid out, they are always easily seen to have been preventable.....to loosely paraphrase Henry James, the most annoying thing about the dead is how long they stay around to bother us...... I am very leary of the concept that DIR is absolutely the only way to go.....yes, it is a series of tools and methods that have been very well thought through and tested....albeit towards a very narrow application of diving.....it has also been very vigorously, aggressively, promoted by people who have very large agendas (thats fine, again this is the 20th cent, but awareness is a good thing)...the information on its failures and gaps are apparantly very closely kept.....however, there are other types of divers equally skilled at acheiving their goals who put equally intensive thought and work into their gear and technique....they simply have not chosen to say that they are the only ones who have the right way...... I am afraid of the need to label instructors and dive shops co-conspirators in murder.....yes, yes, from what I have read, some people have shown gross negligence and neglect, but to call that murder--althou satisfying--I feel will end up causing more damage than good as a whole..... How many people have died climbing Mt Everest in the last couple of years, Mt Ranier?? There seems to be in the national psyche a need to 'explore' further and further--to push further and further and to believe that all this improved technology and just plain stuff will keep us safe or safer from the base elements that are there..... Divers have all these gear advancements and choices now to make. It used to be just the Navy tables and a couple of different types of tanks.....but not now, and its all the safest and the best.....so lets keep adding all of it on......in a pool and in a quarry or in a place where you perceive yourself safe--where outside elements cannot come in---the thought process to make the materials work can bump along, one can say...'oops, not that way, this way'....which in turn starts to cause a chain reaction....but at depth (and it is fairly unbelievable how different things are--even on mix--at depth,a point that cannot be emphasised enough)..... the process has to be able to flow along----ones knowledge and appreciation of ones gear, ones own responses to potentially overwhelming stresses, ones actions, and, equally important, the reaction to the actions, have to be able to simply flow without impediment.....that only comes from experience and experience only comes from time spent in the metier.......and that awareness can only come, if not from ones own self, than other people out there doing the thing that one wants to do.... There seems to be this general lack of awareness of how fast task loading and stress can overload your system..... So, when you wanna become a diver, you make yourself part of some sort of community, you annoy the hell out of the rest of your family and friends because you basically dissapear off the map of human relations while the season is on and from this community you will gather information and experience relevant to the type of diving you are doing.....my trimix instructor came from my dive community.....and what he teaches me gets, sorry guy, but you know this anyway, gets run thru my dive community....a person has no business going into 'technical' until he or she has created a strong foundation for themselves by going diving and having found that community..... op the -- 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]