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To: techdiver@aquanaut.com Jeff, I assume George�s message is aimed at me as well as you� So here's my reply. >Look, idiot, there is no excuse for doing things the way these guys do it. Helmet in the dry cave is one >thing, the rest of what you are saying reflects that fact that you don't do jack shit, and don't know. I have not �made excuses� for wearing a helmet, I have �given reasons� why WE wear them. Okay, everyone, as you are sat there at your desk, make a fist with one of your hands. Now put your elbow on your desk top with your fist up in the air. The distance between the flat of your knuckles and your desktop is slightly more than the height of some of the passages we have explored. So, George, if you can offer advice, based on experience, how to dive a passage like this in a DIR way, I am all ears. I have learned a great deal from you and your team over the years, and like many others I am grateful for the time and trouble you take to explain what you do, and why you do it the way that you do. I really would be stupid if I chose to ignore any constructive advice on this. And if YOU personally don�t have any experience of diving in 18inch high passages, I would still be glad to hear from someone in the WKPP or GUE who has. >Reinhard explores sump/dry stuff that you can't even understand the severity of, and he has no problem >bringing g all the right gear and DIR at the same time. Firstly, I have a great deal of respect and admiration for Reinhard�s achievements � especially his push with Michael in the Doux de Coly. When I met Reinhard in 1997 & 1998, he always indicated to me that he was relatively inexperienced when it came to �dry� caving (but perhaps he was just being modest), & I assumed that it was this lack of caving experience which was partly responsible for him & Sandro missing the way on in the dry passages at the end of the first sump in the Emergence de Ressel. I don�t know if Reinhard took a helmet with him when he tagged along with Rick Stanton & Jason Mallinson � but they (as dry cavers of some repute) certainly wore them, as most sensible folk would. I know of two British cavers who have taken falls beyond a sump & broken bones, etc. yet still got themselves out of the cave. Had they not been wearing helmets, I suspect the outcomes may have been different. Of course, Reinhard has been to 15,000 feet plus in the Doux de Coly, and I haven�t, so I wouldn�t claim to truly understand the severity of such a dive. Nor would I make any such ridiculous claims in respect of the amazing dives that you do. I ain�t been there, so I can�t comment. (�It is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and prove it�) But I HAVE been in some very small, jagged, silty British sumps, and pushed them � I believe safely � and so I think I can comment on those, and explain the techniques & equipment configuration we use. If people listen, think about & hopefully understand the reasons we give, they can choose whether or not to adopt any aspects on offer. >You guys keep on trying to tell us all why idiocy and the "every man for himself", "fuck your buddies", >Star Wars Bar Scene mentality is such a noble thing When I dive, I have two independent gas supplies which will always contain gas on one side sufficient to get me out if the other regulator/ tank goes down. As yet I have never run out of gas & not got out of the sump. What�s more I don�t have a buddy with me to put at risk either, if I screw up. I even fulfil your �Rule One� � I never dive with unsafe divers <g>. But seriously, I do not PROMOTE solo-diving (either as a noble thing or anything else). I just try to explain to people who think it is dangerous that it isn�t as dangerous as it at first appears, and the reasons why. >The fact is that no matter how well you try to articulate stupidity, it is still stupidity. And just because one person considers something to be stupid does not necessarily make it so� Best regards, Scoff -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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