on 6/6/00 1:48 PM, Dell Motes at dell@di*.co* wrote:

> So Joel, what is the point you are trying to make ????
> The only one I see is that you are somewhat out of the loop by your own
> admission and choice.

Dell,

That's what I'm trying to get clear. So you are saying that in each of the
accidents over the past three-five years AA style reports were made and
published in Underwater Speleology and/or the NACD Journal? Not reports of
the death, but actual considered analysis of the accidents? My understanding
is that at this time Jeff Bozanic has all these reports, is this correct?
Since those numbers are readily available, what are they? How many deaths
over the last three years and which issues of UWS will I find all of these
reports in? 

I do, BTW, have access to all UWS issues, I just don't subscribe and with
larger numbers of cave divers now joining other organizations like GUE, who
also don't subscribe, it seems a tad cliquish to only post such info in UWS
and/or the NACD Journal. I've looked on the IUCRR website in past weeks and
found no reports. I looked on the CDS website and found their IUCRR link but
no reports. I looked in the CDS NEWS section and found one report of a
diving death, but it was more of an obituary, of Dr. Henry Kendall. No
actual AA reports there either. And since it takes about 5 minutes or less
to flow text into an HTML document and have it posted online I don't
understand why that isn't being done? It's far easier to publish online than
in a newsletter.

Why has this important area become so difficult and so apparently political?
This is info that is useful and important to divers worldwide, yet for
someone as connected as I am I can't get or find timely reports. One or two
reports, second-hand, sure. If you have the Little River report could you
post it here? I'll put them on my web page. Also, if I understand this
correctly, the report you made on the Mad Blue recovery was made by members
of the recovery team and not made through the IUCRR chain which is supposed
to result in a report, would that be accurate?

Any effort to report analysis of dive deaths is to be commended. I wouldn't
let the static here on Techdiver dissuade me from posting info that is
critical to everyone's safety. You do appear to be posting on Techdiver
after all.

The most formative document of my cave diving evolution was the little blue
book, Basic Cave Diving - A Blueprint for Survival by Sheck Exley. Each
chapter started with the report and analysis of a cave diving accident or
death. I remember an article in an old UWS entitled BEYOND MAXIMUM STUPID
that also outlined an accident and cave safety. These are important
documents. This is information that really means something and should not be
political, should not be held hostage by one group or set of groups.

Now that the IUCRR has broken free of the CDS and NACD and is an independent
organization, I hope that Henry Nicholson (the interim director) will push
for timely reports made publicly in all venues. The info should be made
available to each organization and online on their webpage. First, though,
the keeper of the archives needs to make it available in some fashion, even
if it's only by SASE mail. Whatever.

And maybe someday divers looking for safety and accident info won't get lame
comments like:

> The only one I see is that you are somewhat out of the loop by your own
> admission and choice.

Which essentially says, "Hey, you're not part of OUR clique, so tough nuts,
you don't get the information you need!"

So who owns the "loop", Dell? You?

Later,

JoeL

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