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To: techdiver@aquanaut.com
Cc: nztechdivers%yahoogroups.com;quest%gue.com;dir_uk@ya*.co*;;
From: petesfscuba@me*.co*.za*
Subject: RE: Was Single or Doubles, now amount of dives
Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2002 08:04:56 GMT
The dogmatic insistance on a big dive log to start using helium seems to be 
based on the assumption that anyone using helium wants to dive deeper than 40m 
(or 60m if they punt deep air). I got really frustrated with this because I 
wanted to use helium in the 30-40m range (100-133ft). Because there is no 
training agency here that trains Normoxic Trimix below 75 dives (CMAS-ISA)
(IANTD=100), and I couldn't get He fills anywhere in South Africa until I could 
wave the C-card around, I have had to stay above 30m to build up the dives.

Sadly, this is counter productive, because we have such a dominant deep-air 
contingent here in SA. If helium were introduced much earlier and based on 
objective skill criteria (e.g. when bouyancy is sufficiently mastered), and not 
number-of-dives, it would stand a better chance of getting away from the voodoo 
gas stigma, and be more competently used.

IANTD and other "tech" training agencies probably find number-of-dives an easy 
measure of experience, which would apply to any diving beyond the dead simple 
and lowest risk "recreational".  The question then becomes: "why deny 
recreational Helium?". ...because it is still seen as voodoo gas and "everyone" 
is scared of it for shallow diving...

Maybe this view will shift over time, as the use of He in shallow dives gains 
more public exposure as DIR grows.  Efforts by you(Trey)and the WKPP guys, and 
GUE to get people to understand the benefits of DIR have gone a long way to 
making these changes. The DIR-UK guys and the DIR New Zealand group have been 
doing great work at getting DIR seen by the wider diving community, through 
practical demonstrations, exhibitions & club visits. If we keep up the effort, 
practical DIR wisdom will soon become evident to everyone.  

Pete.

-----Original Message-----
From: George Irvine [mailto:girvine@be*.ne*]
Sent: Friday, April 26, 2002 3:03 AM
To: Dogtrner1@ao*.co*; techdiver@aquanaut.com
Subject: RE: Was Single or Doubles, now amount of dives

Karla, any trimix requires no dives. What kind of drooling moron would tell 
somebody they need to do 200 air dives before they could dive the correct gas? 


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