Mailing List Archive

Mailing List: techdiver

Banner Advert

Message Display

From: "Dave Sutton" <pilots@na*.ne*>
To: "Capt JT" <captjt@mi*.co*>
Cc: <techdiver@aquanaut.com>
Subject: Re: Philosophy, Was: streamlining of scuba gear
Date: Sun, 24 Oct 1999 11:02:42 -0400
>>The guy was carrying two WKPP type sidemounts
>
>No he was not , I was talking about me.He had 2 steel stages left and
>right.


OK. No sweat. He had way too much shit on.
Side mounts plus doubles? Too much shit.
No wonder it (literally) dragged him to his
watery death.

Reminds me of the closing lines of the
'New Jersey Wreck Divers Song" which
ends like this:

"And with guages and guages,
 From catalog pages,
 He lept into the water and drowned"


>You have 2 different dive trips to the doria going here.Doria 98 I had the
>mask problem on the first dive and had my stages right and left.The ladder
>on the boat in 98 sucked ,in 99 they had a new ladder , I could climb that
>ladder with 4 stages anywhere on me ( not steel stages)if I wanted too.


OK. Same issue, however, of sides interfering with laddering.


>>I've seen many a deep
>>blue water wreck dive done with twin overpumped 80's and a 40 cube
>>poney with 02 in it.
>
>What depth and where is the blue water you refer to.What is the goal ,
plan?
>
>>  Think about it: Less drag for sure than side mounts
>>and adequate gas for bottom and deeper stops and 02 for the shallower
>>hang. But poneys suck 100% says the guru(s) from the South. I better
>>not get off on that subject either... ;-)



Say, the Choapa. 190-ish. Open water. High relief. Bad vis.
Just about at the border depth for air V/S trimix. I choose
trimix on this day, meaning I'm also looking for 02 deco.
Not sure I'm getting back to the anchor line. Set up to do
an intentional off-anchor deco. Blow a bag and hang on
my reel line (cave reel or manila is yer choice). Wear
two 104's into an OMS manifold and carry a 40 cube
poney of oxygen for deco. Side mount the poney or
back-mount like olden days? Not sure best answer.
For sure an overpumped 40 is going to be enough 02,
though. Side mount does me little real advantage here,
I'm a slow swimmer and not covering much ground.
Snagging hazards of the back-rig V/S the side rig are
about a wash. The ladder splash-zone environment is
easier to deal with using the back-mount. I have no
intent of stashing my 02 bottle on the bottom, since
if I could find it,  could find the anchor line. if I can find
the anchor line, why am I carrying my own 02?

What's the need to carrying -4- bottles to the Doria?
You -are- going to go back to the anchor line for deco.
It's easy to find. You hopefully have hung-gas waiting for
you on a hose from  K bottle on the boat. Carry what you
are going to breath, leave the deco gas on the boat.



>I could agree here if you were more detailed of the dive.


See above. I'm not convinced that  4 bottle cave rigs belong
offshore. No resting place on the bottom, eh?

This is -the- reason that I'm going to a fully closed rebreather.
I have enough gas to do anything I want to in a package weighing
less than a set of twin 72's. That's -including- enough off-board
gas to do my deco after any bailout to open circuit.




>>I'm not the sidemount expert so I'll keep my yap shut from here. But
>>it'll take some convincing to get me on board the idea that they are
>>always appropriate in high current blue water diving.
>
>There are NO experts on this list , all the experts I've heard of are
>dead.Thats the first thing they say about them in their obituaries "John
>Doe was an expert scuba diver", screw it I'm still learning don't want to
>be an expert:)

Yup. Agreed. This is -the- issue. Nobody should feel that they are going to
be obscenely ridiculed by anyone here for asking questions or sharing
their experience. That does nothing but close communication lines.
I teach 'Crew Resource Management' and 'The Philosophy of Safety'
in my aviation job. The -main- point of CRM is for the crew to focus
on -what is right-, not on -who is right-.  Whe a crewmember has
an emotional stake in a position (IE an ego problem) he'll very likely
die before doing anything about it. When airplanes are involved, it's
a big issue. Open communications without fear is the resolution.
-Any- crewmember should feel free to call to the entire crews
attention any issue that requires resolution, for group attention.
This raises the entire situational awareness of the group. When
any crewmember feels that he will be made socially awkward
by his/her input, he/she will probably say nothing.

Before each takeoff, the Captain of a jet gives a takeoff brief. This
includes all safety related items and the plan of action in case
something goes wrong. A typical brief might include something
like this "In case of an engine fire after V1, we will consider it
an in-flight emergency. I'll fly the aircraft to 1000 feet and level off.
You will do nothing until then except cancel the audio warning of the fire.
At 1000 feet we will conduct the emergency engine fire checklist.
We will then reconfigure the aircraft to best engine inop climb speed
and return to the airport".

Now, here is the good part. The Captain can 'shut the door' on
communications from his subordinate by saying "Do you have
any questions", thus forcing the copilot to reveal any weakness
in his understanding by asking a question that might reveal a
weakness. Few copilots will do so, even if they are clueless.
-OR- the Captain can 'open the door' on communications by
actively soliciting feedback by asking 'Do you have anything to
add to that?" which is an open statement. The copilot might answer
by saying "Do you want me to set the alt alerter at 1000 feet if
you level after a fire, or would you prefer to do it yourself".

How does this affect our group? We have two choices:

A: We can 'shut the door' on discussion by saying
"You ignorant fool. Your way is stupid. Only assholes dive like that.
I'm the expert and you are so friggin stupid. I know what is right!"

Or B: We can concentrate on -what- is right and not -who- by asking
"Really. I have not considered that technique. Can you explain?"

Which is better? Civility or rudeness? Open or closed communication?
Driving away those offended by the tone, or being nice and entering
into polite debate to convince a wayward entry that there is a better way?



>You are answering a great many questions from the list , ready for a break?


Naah..... If anything, we have begun to use the list for the correct reason
and not to push any particular agenda.

Now, does anyone have anything to add to that?? ;-)


Dave Sutton





--
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]