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At 01:01 PM 14/3/99 -0500, Craig Waldman wrote: >Well, this has been informative... > >Not quite as informative as I would have hoped, but informative >nevertheless. > >Here's what I got > >Good points: > >The tanks will be very awkward to handle on most boats > >You will be unable to hear gas flowing through the hoses thus making >it harder to detect a leak. Craig, the subject deserves more accurate reporting and more thoughtful analysis than you have provided here. You didn't mention the hose routing problem - requiring all custom hoses routed up the back and over the shoulder, or a convoluted mass of hoses on the front. You didn't mention the inability to stand the cylinders up unless you use valve guards - which will then restrict your access to your cylinder and manifold valves. You didn't mention the need to find team members undisciplined enough to be prepared to tolerate someone (them or you) diving in a clearly suboptimal way. - After all, if you have your tanks upside- down and they don't, one of you has got it badly wrong. In fact, you haven't mentioned a number of reasons why the idea of wearing your cylinders upside-down makes as much sense as wearing your mask or your fins upside-down. > >Bad points and insults ignored... > >My goal here is to study as many diving methodologies as possible, learn >from each one, and adopt the best that each has to offer. >Personally I don't think there is one right method. I think you need to rig >to meet the needs of the dive. But at the same time, some constancy needs >to be present so that you and your dive buddy (if you have one) are >instinctually familiar with the emergency procedures. >I think the intolerance of anything different needs to end. Sloppy, inept and misleading analysis of diving methodologies, should be pointed out and stomped on immediately. Further, the promotion of suboptimal gear rigging, failure-prone equipment, difference for the sake of difference, retail greed, personal agendas and plain ineptitude when applied to analysis of technical diving equipment should be rooted out and dealt with ruthlessly. All of these things have the potential to kill. > >When I was first certified 11 years ago, my PADI instructor warned me of the >evil NAUI divers > >When I first inquired about diving in NJ, most dive shops snubbed me off as >a lowly Caribbean diver. > >When I went to school for commercial diving, I was a lowly rubber sucker. > >Now I'm "wrong" if I don't dive DIR? This is a specious bullshit argument that deserves no reply. > >What's next..... > >All I know is that with each dive I do, I strive to become a better diver. >With each mistake, a lesson learned. And with each step taken, I'm that >much closer to finding my own way. The WKPP has put thousands of man-hours into testing and trialling all kinds of gear configurations, some that even the upside-down-tank-mounters haven't thought of. Through the design engineers, dive equipment manufacturers and distributors on their team they have access to more kinds of equipment than most divers have heard of. They have tried it all, over a number of years, under a wider range of conditions than you would think, and after evaluating it have come out with the most effective, efficient and safe gear configuration possible. It's called DIR. If you wish to improve on those thousands of man-hours of testing of all kinds of combinations of gear, go away, spend the money, put in the years, then get back to us. Otherwise, in the absence of a reasonably complete knowledge-base, your personal opinion is simply predjudice. On the other hand, you may be capable of taking a direct transfusion of knowledge and wisdom. In which case, you should put together a DIR rig and dive it. Then come back to the list and discuss gear rigging options from a more balanced perspective which at least includes first-hand knowledge of the system which many of us around the world - who collectively dive in a wider range of conditions than you have experienced - believe from our own direct experience, to be the best. rgrds billyw -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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