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Hi Ben, My name is Scott Bonis. I am a full cave and trimix instructor for TDI. I am also an active instructor at various levels for PADI, NAUI, SSI, IANTD, ANDI and DAN. Before retirement I was an engineer in the aerospace industry and a ski instructor. Academically I hold a Ph.D. in EE with a major in solid state and minors in math and physics. I would simply like to talk about where I stand with regard to your request for information. Asking for information is obviously the correct thing to do but first, I think that you could benefit greatly from further experience in open water diving. Cave divers who have had less than several hundred dives have been trained, but only when they had the requisite skills, attitude and maturity, were perfectly comfortable in the water and had the self discipline to not exceed the limits of an agreed upon dive plan. These are really the keys. If you are still working to master the skills of open water diving, then you are not ready to accept the additional demands and responsibilities of technical diving. Almost all of the cave divers I have trained were at least open water divemasters and the majority have been open water instructors. Its kind of like when you first learned to drive a car. If you are like me, at first it seemed as though there were just a whole bunch of things that I needed to consider constantly. Shifting (I'm telling my age), turn signals, speed limits, not cutting corners too closely, etc., were all in my consciousness. At that time for me to even consider eating an apple while driving was outrageous. Now, after driving for over 35 years, complying with speed limits, hearing a brake squeal, having a rear door not completely latched or a headlight out can each be handled with ease. So it is with technical diving. After the basic skills of scuba diving are second nature, then it may be time to consider technical diving. For example, in open water diving buoyancy to plus or minus a foot is usually Jim Dandy fine. But in cave diving, in order to not damage the decorations in a cave or to not raise silt and obscure visibility, buoyancy to plus or minus an inch is sometimes required. And the mental strength to (non judgmentally) turn back and exit a cave only a few minutes before some magnificent vista would have come into view, just because your buddy was not feeling comfortable and signaled he'd like to leave, is a characteristic that must be present. Cave diving is to a major extent, a mind game where your life can easily depend on your judgment, attitude and maturity. I believe that several of the people from this list who answered your request were really trying to say "We have seen people die because they wouldn't listen to what we have learned. We care about you and don't want you to be another one of them. Please, at least until you have learned that there is wisdom in our experience, do not argue with what we are saying. Just listen and perhaps we can help you avoid the same mistakes that have killed other divers. There will be time to discuss alternatives after you have earned your bones, so to speak". I can understand your request to be convinced (rather than accepting on faith), that what is being taught is correct. It is the way in which my education was accomplished. But it is not the only way to teach. Please consider this letter carefully before continuing on your diving career. Take care, Scott -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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