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Dear JR, Thanks for the link. Although the editorial may seem controversial to the California set, it is a bit dated. Technical diving is far from a "new frontier." It's roots are least 15 years old. Which in the grand scheme of a millennium may seem to be a "new frontier" but within the short 55 years of scuba it's just another chapter. Dale is a fine editor, I have seen his newspaper for many years, yet his whole approach is similar to the one Bill Gleason made when he was editor of Skin Diver in 1992 when he rallied DEMA to ban Nitrox from the sales floor. Dale's opening rebuttal paragraph (probably created to create some controversy in a non-controversial marketplace) reads like this. <<<First, I don't have a problem with Nitrox. I also have no qualms about rebreathers. With proper training, those two are viable options for the recreational diver. Where I draw the line is at decompression diving. Decompression diving should NEVER be attempted without a chamber ON- SITE. If this problem can be solved, which in some rare cases it has, and the divers are fully informed as to the risk, than I think recreational "technical" decompression dives can take place at depths of up to 300 feet. I am also completely against 100 percent oxygen (or similar oxygen-rich mixtures) in the water for decompression.>>> Clearly this rebuttal is created without a clear understanding of what is involved in a technical dive or a successful technical dive operation or that rebreathers for the novice are extremely dangerous. Anyone who is involved with techincal diving exposures is fully aware of the risks (at least they should be.) The statment about oxygen or high oxygen content mixes is also way off base. Although Dale has some commercial diving background and a fair amount of recreational diving background he clearly has none in technical diving. I would suggest he do what many other dive publishers and editors have done before lambasting the activity. Get some quality training by the best he can get. (As a magazine publisher that would not be hard for him to do.) Heck, even Gleason went to Key West and did some training with Billy Deans once he saw technical diving was here to stay. Dale wraps out his "rebuttal with: <<<<<Technical diving will grow, albeit slowly. More technical dive sites will be discovered and boat services will add equipment to serve the need and interest. We as divers, however, need to take serious risks into consideration. With proper safety nets, such as on-site chambers, we can venture into new and more exciting deep territories. Until then, technical divers are the "pioneers," and as a good friend of mine says, "Pioneers are usually those with the arrows in their backs." >>>> Where Dale is off track here is his "pioneer" approach. Today we have equipment, procedures, tables, texts and quality training we did not have just 8 years ago. Even though no-stop OEA is not technical diving more than a million people have learned to use it over the past 5 years. It seems that there are a lot of wanna-be technical divers but that does not make them exploratory pioneers; it just means that they woke up and smelled the coffee. Joel Silverstein http://www.nitroxdiver.com At 01:18 PM 1/31/1999 EST, JR Gordon wrote: >FOR OPEN DISCUSSION... > >LINKED BELOW IS THE CURRENT EDITION OF CALIFORNIA DIVING NEWS FEATURING A GUEST EDITORIAL ON "TECHDIVING" BY MICHAEL KANE, IANTD INSTRUCTOR. > >DALE SHECKLER, EDITOR OF THE MAGAZINE, OFFERS HIS OPINION IN A STRONGLY WORDED REBUTTAL AGAINST DECOMPRESSION DIVING OF ANY SORT WITHOUT A ON-SITE CHAMBER. FURTHMORE, HE STATES "HE CAN SEE SCUBA INCLUDING NITROX AS A VIABLE OPTION BELOW 100 FT.FOR RECREATIONAL DIVING". > >THIS IS A SUCCESSFUL AND WIDELY READ MAGAZINE DISTRIBUTED THROUGHOUT CALIF. PLEASE COMMENT. > >http://www.saintbrendan.com/cdnfeb/edit2.html >-- >Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. >Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'. > -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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