StrokeMe you ignorant embicile:

Lose the beer, lose the hangovers, lose the loose girlfriends, or stop
diving!

If your gear is put together right, you don't need convuluted nonsense to
protect your regulators. You don't need "plenty" of D rings. As for your
difficulty in booking a dive boat, you said it yourself, the boat owner
doesn't want your business. Why not? Well, you're diving stroke rigs, with
stroke students, and you can't meet a dive boat because you and your stroke
students are always hungover on Saturday and Sunday. Does that answer your
question?

What half-assed agency do you teach for that will let you certify trimix
divers without taking them on a dive? No matter how "together" they have
their moronic stroke gear.

Get the right gear, put it together the right way, or fo-get-uh-bat-it!

Later,
Horhay

-----Original Message-----
From: StrokeMe

Techdiver List:

I just finished my first trimix course this weekend. It was great. I had two
students, Jim and Bill. I forgot to book the pool for Friday night, so we
had a classroom session instead. It was great! Jim's girfriend, Jill,
brought a case of beer, which really took the edge off. Usually, when wives
or girfriends who are not into diving accompany students in a class, they
sort of stay quiet and keep to themselves, but she was a riot! Cracking
jokes almost continuously. She was helpful in the class, too, since she had
the only calculator. She is good in math and so was able to help Jim with
the difficult calculations, like PO2.

I was up pretty early on Saturday morning (about 9), but we still missed the
charter boat, so we didn't get to dive. Probably a good thing, because I was
feeling a little "seasick" from all that beer Friday night. Instead we had
another classroom session. There, we tried out our gear "dry". I insisted
that everyone have some sort of cage, cobra guard, etc. to protect their
regulators. Jim went with the cobra guards, Bill took a piece of aluminum
from an old storm window, cut it to form an inverted "U", and hose clamped
it in place. Awesome! Simple, cheap, and effective. Jim bought a brand new
tec bc/harness combo with plenty of D rings -- he'll have no problem finding
places to clip things. Bill took an old SeaQest jacket BC and sewed D rings
to it. For the doubles, he made an adapter that will allow any standard
double bands to attach to the plastic backpack part of the BC. I'm using a
second-hand tec BC that I borrowed from a friend of mine who no longer wants
to dive (I'm hoping he'll sell it to me cheap).

Our gear was all ready for Sunday, but we got blown out! Bill is taking his
trimix instructor course next weekend so there's no time to schedule another
dive. But he and Jim really seem to have it together. They're both dive
masters and have made over 75 dives each (some of them boat dives). Jim even
went through most of a instructor course. Anyway, their previous
qualifications, combined with the imagination they showed in putting gear
together really impressed me, so I certified them. I just made them promise
to go out and do some practice dives before doing any "real" ones.

Word has spread about my trimix course. Almost everyone I run into has heard
that I'm doing it now. I'm not sure how many classes I can do; it's so hard
to get space on a boat. This morning, I tried to book space on a charter for
next weekend. A friend of mine said just last night that it might get
cancelled for lack of people. But the boat owner told me this morning it was
full! When I asked him for a schedule for next season, he said he would call
me when he got one printed, but that it would be a while. It seems he
doesn't want my business! Oh Well!

Good Diving,
StrokeMe, Former Administrative Assistant
Underwater Applications Corp







--
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]