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If you want to argue against self-taught helium, you really should argue on the basis of results, not on the basis of flights of conjecture or circular logic. I suspect that, with Jim's Trimix page, the OXY HACKER, and this list as resources, there are as many "untrained" trimix divers out there as there are trained. If it is so dangerous, where are the accidents? We've seen plenty of deaths caused by poorly trained, inexperienced instructors pushing poorly prepared students too fast. I can't recall one death, certainly since I've been on the list, where diving trimix without "official" sanction has been the cause. Remember too that the self taught are not just grabbing a tank and jumping in - the are usually "self teaching" in the truest sense of the word - reading, practicing and asking questions, until their knowledge of the subject exceeds what they would have ever gotten from the training materials of any one agency. Ditto the in-water work. Unlike the trimix student, who frequently has stages hung on him/her for the first time when they do their first trimix course dive, the self-taught diver has usually progressed slowly, logically and at his/her own speed as they add and master each new piece of gear. And the self taught trimix diver is usually a diver who has progressed to the point where he/she needs the stuff, not a merit-badge collector who is seeking to buy bragging rights or get in on the latest trend. I suspect that, as an instructor, your view of the difficulty of the subject has been tainted by seeing too many of the latter type. Self taught trimix diving is like teaching yourself any "forbidden" discipline - say, aircraft repair, or regulator servicing. You may not know as much about it as an offical practitioner, but the knowledge that you are holding your own life in your hand it a powerful impetus to go that extra distance to do it right. And then of course, tht bottom line is that this (the US at least) is a free country and dumb or not, we can dive trimix without instruction if we like, and many of us do. Before you go into "the feds will start regulating it", go back to my point no. 1 - if it;s so damn dangerous, where are the accidents?? If the fed were going to regulate diving, the logical place to start would be by closing down a couple of the tech agencies! An instructor wrote: >Recently, I have started to see an opinion coming out on the lists that >bothers me a great deal. It deals with the use of helium in breathing mixes >by divers untrained and uncertified in its use. -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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