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Well put, If you want to stay alive, try training with these guys: http://www.gue.com/ -----Original Message----- From: Bill Bott [mailto:aquadart@ix*.ne*.co*] Sent: Friday, August 04, 2000 12:02 AM To: Jim Cobb; Jsuw@ao*.co*; techdiver@aquanaut.com Subject: Re: Diving the San Diego Jim, The problem is that the "hard-headed, dumbass divers" out there think that this is exactly what you want. They don't understand that this is exactly what we are ALL trying to stop. I have been here before, more than once, and shit like this makes me wonder if I should laugh or cry. I still don't know so I sit here numb for a while before I can start screaming again. It does make you wonder though if Tony ever heard any of what was posted here and chouse to ignore it or if he never got the message. It's time for the rest of you to wake up. I no longer care who I offend any more. If we don't get this shit stopped soon my c-cards, my experience, and all the yelling in the world won't matter. They are going to pull the plug on the whole fucking sport. I have kept my mouth shut for the last year because I wanted to do nothing to jeopardizes my Instructors cards. I no longer give a shit about that because I can see it all coming to an end with a couple more of these high profile deaths. I predicted Roost's death to the dive trip. No one listened. I predicted Brad's death and attended his funeral that fall, a diving related death. No one listened. Half a dozen people predicted Tony's death with this bull shit rig and a dozen morons step in to defend him. Personal Preference is dying all around you, LITERALLY, and all we hear is it must have been this or that. IT IS THE BULLSHIT, CONVOLUTED, FUCKED UP GEAR AND INADEQUATE FUCKING TRAINING THAT IS KILLING PEOPLE AND THE AGENCIES THAT TURN THEIR FUCKING BACKS!!!!!!!! And because I CHOUSE to point that out I run the risk no longer being able to train divers who WILL live. WAKE THE FUCK UP PEOPLE!!! Either get with the damn program or get the fuck out of the water. To the instructors out there, Just because a student pays you does not mean you HAVE TO certify them. I fact just because the damn phone rings you are NOT under any obligation to train them. CHOUSE YOUR STUDENTS CAREFULLY!!! You will be rewarded with students who live!!! Word gets around that you only take the BEST students and before you know it you have more of the best students than you can handle. To the Charter Operators, Just like the Instructors you are under NO OBLIGATION to take money from someone. When you see someone with convoluted bull shit gear, TURN THEM AWAY. When someone shows up with air to do a 200' dive, TURN THEM AWAY. When someone shows up who looks like a heart attack waiting to happen, TURN THEM AWAY. This has remained a self regulating industry because the industry has regulated it self. That no longer seems to be the case. I don't remember the last time ANYONE asked me for a fucking c-card before I got on a boat or got an air fill. For that matter one of my instructors, who did not even know me at the time, never asked me for a c-card before or after he agreed to take me into a class. I know instructors who have given out cards with a lecture over dinner, did inadequate confined water and never even saw his students in open water. I know of instructors who have no idea HOW to teach a class but some how they are now instructors.. Any of us can get on a boat or show up at any popular dive site and see certified divers who haven't even begun to grasp the basics of proper kicking, buoyancy control or skills far more important like mask clearing and reg recoveries. Who the fuck is regulating this crap??? Students from basic open water, to cave, wreck and trimix are being pushed through without proper training and with piss poor skills. It is no wonder people are dying. If someone had properly trained Tony so many years and $100,000 ago would he have run out of gas on the dive that started his spending spree??? Would he have ever started down the path that lead to his unfortunate death??? The problem did not start with the $100,000 rig. That is where the story ends. God I feel sorry for his family. If this shit does not stop soon we will all be filling tanks from the Craftsman compressor in the garage to do 20 minute dives in the fucking bathtub because the industry will be regulated out of existence. I swear to god my OW instructor found a dozen or more ways to help me to loose my mask before I was certified OW. Someone was asking about the SCUBA equivalent of fight club... THAT WAS MAY FUCKING OW CLASS. It was three years before I would turn my back on my OW instructor. He felt his job was to prepare me for ANYTHING!!! EXCEPT FOR HIM!!! With his help I have done, and seen, things I never expected possible when I first walked into his OW class. Now I look in amazement at "twenty year veteran divers" who don't look as good in the water as the his divers and mine do during their OW checkout dives. I never feel any better than when a student comes back to me and says " I thought you were a prick in class but..... Thanks for the training!" I was trained to be a quality diver not just one of a quantity of divers. It's time to point this shit out and make everyone aware of the crap that is going on. Let these people know what a shitty job their instructor did. Make them question why they gave him their money in the first place. And most importantly get a stack of business cards from the best instructors you know and hand them out!!! Support the good ones and turn away as many as you can from the bad ones. Time to get off the soap box but damn this just burns my ass. Now all I need to really fuck up the week is to hear that Janet has a fucking heart attack while looking for Tony's missing gear. I'm praying not!!! At 09:15 AM 8/3/00 , Jim Cobb wrote: >I really don't like it when divers die. This saddens me greatly. > >I hope that the lesson is not lost here, but with all you hard-headed, >dumbass divers out there I'm sure it will be. > > Jim > ------------------------------------------------------------------- > Learn About Trimix at http://www.cisatlantic.com/trimix/ > Bill (aquadart) Bott -- 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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