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Jim, after my mother made me take swiming lessons in Long Island Sound, she got me a mask and fins, and took me to Greenwich Point. I eased out into 3 feet of water next to the marsh grass at the end of the beach and immediately saw a striped bass. I've been looking ever since. It's always cool underwater. Jim Cobb wrote: > > With all the intro's lately it occurred to me that I have never properly > introduced myself to the list. (alright, let's keep that snickering down in > the back). > > I am a NAUI trained diver who started in '78. I dove like a typical rec > diver here in Virginia Beach, VA and in the Fl keys for many years. I have > been an avid snorkel diver since I was 12 years old and always wanted to > stay down longer than a breathold. After screwing around with rental gear > for awhile I had to make the decision as to whether or not I was going to > enjoy this sport or not and decided to make the leap and purchase my gear. > > As most of the rec diving around here is around 80' this does not make for > much time underwater and I grew tired of spending an entire day and much $ > for a lousy 20 or 30 total mins of bottom time. After reading about > decompression diving I decided to give it a try. I can't tell you the thrill > of watching my dive computer drift into a virtual overhead, it scared the > hell out of me. I read, read, read up on the subject, and the more I read > the more serious I got about how to equip oneself to survive this type of > diving. > > I took a TDI nitrox class to try to extend my bottom time. But things did > not seem to add up, from my reading it appeared to me that increasing your > PPO2 just made things more dangerous, I did not understand the logic behind > nitrox. > > After experimenting with crap gear like stuporwings and pony bottles I found > the Techdiver list. And on this list was this guy ranting and raving about > "hogarthian" diving techniques and how stupid and suicidal stuff like > pony's, independent doubles, and all the crap I was doing. > > This guy (who you might have guessed by now is George) called me a stroke > and an idiot, and explained to me in terms which I could clearly understand > why what I was doing was wrong. Me, being a standard hard-headed scuba > diver, did not believe him but, some of the stuff he said seemed to make > some sense from my research. So I decided to try it out. To my amazement the > ideas and concepts worked as advertised. Even better than advertised. > > I have to say that being a military brat and the son of an Admiral in the US > Navy I did not have a problem with George's presentation style. It was > something which I was used to and it did not bother me, although my ego did > take a beating from time to time. This is not a sport for limp-wristed > wussies, that's for sure. > > George, Bill, Trout and the others made me a believer and I read and read > and read and decided to put my research on a web site for the general diving > public. At the time I was not a trimix diver and the diving community > (particularly the NE diving community) jeered, derided and tormented me for > daring to put into print what I had not personally experienced. But fuck it, > how many guy's made it to the moon compared to how many built the rocket? > Fuck them, I say. > > My friends in the diving community have allowed me to dive trimix with them > even though I am not officially sanctioned. Obviously I had done my > homework. They knew, as did I, that being a trimix diver merely requires a > trip to the local gas supply store and the required fittings and equipment. > > So, here I am in one of the premier techdiving Mecca's in the world, > Virginia Beach, Virginia, doing what I enjoy. But now hear this: Tech diving > is a dangerous sport. You need to be confident, comfortable and one with the > water to be a tech diver. My personal goal is to see more shipwrecks, not to > set any depth records. The fact is that the deeper you go, the less people > have been to your goal. As a techdiver you can see sights which less people > than those who have climbed Mount Everest have seen. And you can bring back > a souvenir or two (right, Rick?) to show you have "counted coup" with places > on this Planet Earth than most people cannot even dream of visiting. > > Techdiving is a worthy goal for those who are willing to put the time and > dedication into the sport. It is an interesting sport in that the majority > of pleasure and enjoyment is one of personal satisfaction as non-divers do > not have a clue to what it's all about. That's good enough for me. > > Jim > ------------------------------------------------------------------- > Learn About Trimix at http://www.cisatlantic.com/trimix/trimix.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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