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I don't believe that an operation that caters to divers can adequately 
police technical divers. That has to be done first by the diver's 
instructors and then by the divers peers and finally by the diver 
himself. That final and most important responsibility rests with the 
individual. Cave and tech diving are sports that often attracts fierce 
individualists who must learn to listen and follow good advice in order 
to survive.

If your rig is inappropriate for the diving you're doing, you've failed 
on one level. If you have failed to attach the rig you DO have as 
appropriately and as safely as possible, that's a failure on another 
level. Then if you fail to check your life support systems before getting 
near the water and have not practiced emergency procedures such as 
turning your air back on or bailing out of the rig, that is an even more 
basic failure. This diver made poor rigging decisions, then put an 
unneeded weight belt on UNDER his crotch strap so he couldn't ditch it. 
Then, once rigged, failed to turn his valves on, AND failed to hook up 
his power inflator! He also did not do any sort of buddy check on the 
boat with SOMEONE, ANYONE in order to assure his safety and finally, when 
the shit hit the fan, apparently found himself with such a pile of 
screwups that he could not solve them in the minute or so he had and 
drowned. If all the above is true, this is one for the books.

There was an article in UWS a few years ago entitled "Beyond Maximum 
Stupid," that featured a pair of untrained "cave" divers who entered a 
silty, tight cave with one 80, one first and two second stages, one set 
of fins between them, one light and a roll of monofilament line. 
Followed, of course, by a double drowning. This accident we have here 
doesn't top out the Stupidometer, but it's up there. First, 300 pounds?!! 
If I'm overweight and out of shape I don't dive. What I wonder is, what 
did this diver's instructor teach him? What did his peers/buddies say to 
him about his health and his rig and how forcefully? These are questions 
I'd be asking myself if I had been an instructor and dive buddy for this 
guy. I pity his family and friends and I feel sorry for this guy who will 
miss the rest of his life. Despite the tagline we see so often, "at least 
he died doing something he loved," I don't believe there is a good way to 
die. The dead know only one thing, it is better to be alive. 

Do your family and friends and yourself (and the recovery people) a 
favor, if you're out of shape or don't have the rig and safety techniques 
bombproof yet, pack it up and go home until you do. Techdivers take 
enough chances as it is doing what we do and love as safely as we can do 
it, so . . .

Dive Safe or Don't Dive! 

JoeL
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