Aldo, What the WKPP does and what we do are apples and oranges. We are out
to have fun and dive safely. And whatever we are lacking from WKPP standards
we are still light-years ahead of the "old school" of techdivers prevalent
on the US east coast.

JT and Dave Widen have been the pivotal factors in organizing a group of
Atlantic Wreck divers who are interested in doing deep dives safely. We do
no official research nor do we want to. We are not incorporated, there is no
standards committee, not bylaws, nothing. We are not in competition with
George and the WKPP, we have totally different agendas and ways of doing
things.

If you want to learn stuff from VBTech you need to come to our meetings and
dive with us. If you want to learn from the WKPP there are videos, GUE
training, gear and anything you want. That's their gig, ours is to dive and
have fun.

I have a lot of respect for George and JJ, but they are down there in
Florida doing their cave thing. Up here I have a lot of respect for JT and
his peers as they have come to terms on diving in Atlantic Wrecks and know
their shit. JT has an open mind and a network of techdivers from around the
world. What I like about JT as a diver is that he adopts what obviously
works and is not moribund in his technique. JT will try stuff and adopt
those things which makes sense for the type of diving we do. For example you
won't see stuporwings or suicide clips, steel stages or other blatantly
stupid crap most NE divers refuse to part with on JT or other VBtech divers
(well, maybe one or two slow learners, but even they come around
eventually).

So, Aldo, come on over and dive with us or buy the DIR tapes, you would
enjoy both.

   Jim

 -------------------------------------------------------------------
 Learn About Trimix at http://www.cisatlantic.com/trimix/

> From: "Aldo P. Solari [APS]" <aldo.solari@ho*.se*>
> Organization: Fiskeribiologisk forskning
> Reply-To: "Aldo P. Solari [APS]" <aldo.solari@ho*.se*>
> Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 17:40:22 +0000
> To: "techdiver@aquanaut.com" <techdiver@aquanaut.com>, Capt JT
> <captjt@mi*.co*>
> Subject: Re[3]: The 490ft Dive Tape
> 
> Dear  Capt.  JT,  as  Jens  observed, I, for one, appreciate your
> honest  replies  and way of exposing your diving approaches, too.
> You  have  defined yourself as a diver having fun, seeing no need
> to    formalize   your   approaches/ideas.  Dont  be  afraid  of
> criticism which is productive.
> 
> However,  I  appreciate,  as  well,  the efforts of the DIR-teams
> because  they  are  developing  a  *very important framework* for
> diving (if you cannt realize this because your anima-aversion for
> G.  Irvine,  you will not be able to learn a lot of useful things
> from  these guys). All approaches have a relative value. However,
> the  development  of a framework (any framework) takes much time,
> efforts  and  money.  Also,  many of these (DIR) guys are risking
> their  lives  being  "guinea pigs" for testing and development of
> decompression  models  and  procedures,  gas  mixes,  testing  of
> equipment,  data  sampling, etc. As I see it, all of that work is
> of  __great  instrinsic value__: they are setting up something (a
> "system")  from  which  everyone  may benefit. That's because the
> development  of  a  framework  goes  well  beyond the mere act of
> diving  and  having  fun,  it  is  formalized  and  it may accept
> criticism   (from  scientists,  doctors,  authorities  and  other
> divers)   and   it   will   evolve-trough-criticism  and  logical
> inference.
> 
> cheers,
> 
> aldo.solari@ho*.se*
> www.ccbb.ulpgc.es/fish-ecology/solaris
> ___
> 
> captjt@mi*.co*
> 
> CJ> First,  lets make something clear, when doing these very deep
> CJ> dives  several things must take place before the dive is even
> CJ> considered  and  they  have  nothing  to  do with any kind of
> CJ> "system". For starters you must have a solid reason for doing
> CJ> the  dive,  to  merely dive to a very deep depth is nonsense.
> CJ> Second,  to do the dive without a dive buddy or support group
> CJ> is  crazy.  Then you have to find a Capt who has enough faith
> CJ> in  you  to take you to the dive site. On top of those things
> CJ> you  must  have  the experience and lots of it at a shallower
> CJ> depth  and  must be mentally tested, meaning if you can't get
> CJ> it  done at 200ft(and that means all the time) what makes you
> CJ> think  300ft  and deeper will be any easier. Somebody must be
> CJ> in charge, everyone else must agree on what he says, but also
> CJ> strong  enough  to go against that person should he be wrong.
> CJ> KNOW  your  own  limits.  Diving is not that hard, we are not
> CJ> creating  new  dive  tables,  any  new  mixes,  or any of the
> CJ> cutting  edge stuff. We like to dive/wreck dive, cut and dry.
> CJ> The  thrill  I  get  from  diving deep wrecks and new unknown
> CJ> wrecks  I  cannot  describe. For diving very deep wrecks your
> CJ> asking  for  a system, no system exists that I know of, there
> CJ> are  better ways to do it, but there is no fast way, everyone
> CJ> looks  to cut corners on experience to get to the next level,
> CJ> why, your cheating yourself out of half the fun.
> 
> 
>>> This  would enable us to learn out of your assumptions/experience
>>> and  you  might  (possibly)  improve  your  approach  through the
>>> criticism of other senior divers.
> 
> CJ> Lets be real here, criticism is all you get on this list, the
> CJ> only  guys  I know who actually do these kinds of dives don't
> CJ> post,  there  is no gain in it for them. Most of the guys who
> CJ> post on here are so intimidated by Trey they won't go against
> CJ> him and usually end up supporting him because they don't have
> CJ> the  experience  or  skill  to beat him in a debate, the ones
> CJ> that  can  beat  him  won't  stoop as low as he does to win a
> CJ> debate.  I  am an average diver, I will not engage in debates
> CJ> that  are  out of my knowledge range, I'm not trying to solve
> CJ> any  secrets to decompression, I'm not experimenting with any
> CJ> new  gas. I'm diving and having a lot of fun. My contribution
> CJ> to  diving  is  first hand honest answers, there are very few
> CJ> perfect  dives,  that's when everything goes exactly to plan,
> CJ> on   most  dives  there  is  always  something  that  happens
> CJ> unexpectedly.  The  open  ocean  is a very unforgiving place,
> CJ> things  can  change  in  an instance, it may be something you
> CJ> did,  your  buddy,  mother  nature,  gear failure, it doesn't
> CJ> matter  what or how. How you handle that change can result in
> CJ> a life or death scenario. Basic rules sit the tone of a dive.
> 
> .....
> 
> 
> --
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> 


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