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> I'm not a "real" techdiver yet. I'm working my way towards it, > slowly. As I do that, I hear, over and over, how much MORE important > dive planning becomes once I leave the realm of "shallow" open water > dives. I hear about doing S-drills and bubble checks and such on every > single dive. I have tables and contingency plans and gas consumption > calculations, and I'm told how important it is to find the right numbers > and stick to them. > > But from reading this list, and from conversations and "war stories" > I've heard elsewhere, it seems that "real" techdivers don't necessarily > take all of this planning and safety nonsense so seriously. I suspect > some of this is because more experienced divers have a lot of the info > they need in their heads at all times, making the planning simply less > visible to others. Some of it, though, seems to be divers just tossing > dive planning out the window. The former I would like to achieve someday. > The latter scares me. I think the bottom line for *ALL* divers is to stay alive and healthy. If careful planning helps you do this; then great! But I don't think it's a prerequisite for everyone. I think as diving gets more and more extreme (deeper, longer, multiple gases, etc.), "standards" for doing things have less and less value, and personal awareness becomes more and more important. The idea is not to get into situations that you are not comfortable getting out of (speaking generally, not specifically at you, Tracey). Different people will develop different systems for doing this. If they die by non-diving related causes, then they succeeded (which is not to say that if they die diving that their system is necesssarily flawed). > My concern is simply whether situations like this (making 200' dives _with > little/no planning_) are the norm rather than the exception, and, if so, > do I really want to get into that end of the sport? Will I be feeling > pressured to just jump in without knowing what's down there? Will I have > a hard time finding people to dive with if I _don't_ succcumb to this > pressure? I wouldn't say non-planned 200ft dives are the "norm", but they do happen, and not neccessarily by naive, macho, stupid, or otherwise irresponsible individuals. From the things I've seen you post, I have no doubt that you are smart enough to chose the direction that's best for you. I'm sure John Comly won't agree with me on all of this (have you been following our little discussion on CIS?) but I think it's important to get different perspectives. Anyway, I'm sorry if the wording in my message sounds arrogant...I tend to write like that sometimes. ;-) Aloha, Rich deepreef@bi*.bi*.ha*.or*
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