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--part1_15f.11038509.2a6cdb7c_boundary Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I can speak somewhat to the issue of Billy Deans, he truely was one of the nicest most honest, conscienscous guys in the business. I worked for him as a Captain/DM/Safety diver for a year almost up to the time he went out of business (left for a flying job), and have heard the rumors about the Truk trip (wish I would have been there to go on it, Billy was good about taking his crew along on trips, covering there bill as well, as well as buying them equipment he wanted them to use, even if you couldn't afford it, because it was safer), but haven't visited with him about it. I do know that hurricane George did his shop there off Cow Key Channel a lot of damage, and that was the straw that broke the camels back so to speak and caused him to close up. I'm sure he was personnally devistated. That person would have been the second person I am aware of that would have been hurt on one of his trips, and I can tell you, he takes those kind of things very hard and very personally, even if he personnally bears no direct fault. He was the most safety conscious person I have met and was extremely generous sharing his knowledge and whatever else he had with me and any of the others in his crew, and was always willing to listen to and consider ideas put forth by others and discuss them at length, he was never a guy to be secretive and proprietary with his knowledge. While I was with him we ran to the Wilkes Barre pretty much once or twice a week (240-280') and the Curb as well (180') in all kinds of conditions (vis isn't always 200' down in KW and the current on the Wilkes Barre can really crank) as well as a myriad of recreational dives in between and the occassional trip to the Kendrick (320'), and for the entire time I worked for him NOONE was injured, no outside trained techie, no student, no staff. That ain't a bad record, but then we had home boat control advantage there and Billy would never let a person do a dive he didn't know they were trained for and capable of, customer or crew, and have witnessed him turning away some good paying trips when we needed the money, over bad vibes. If I sound a bit defensive about Billy, well I am, he's one of the best people I've met and has never done me anything but right. In a message dated 7/21/2002 9:30:10 PM Central Daylight Time, captjt@mi*.co* writes: > At 06:29 AM 7/21/02 -0400, George Irvine wrote: Billy Deans had a > >perfect track record of not killing anyone. He had a perfect track record > >of saving every moron who screwed up. He ran his show properly. Maybe all > >of you should ring Billy up and ask him how he did it. > > I hear he is a nice guy and did his best, but got out of the business for > several reasons. We do know from Gary Gentiles books and the latest book > Deep Decent, Billy was part of one of the Doria deaths. No disrespect to > him, just a mere fact of history. Also there is this rumor that keeps > popping up on a death on a RB during a trip lead by him which a lawsuit > followed. Don't know how much is true, but I'm sure you know the clean and > dirty version and we are about to hear the clean........why don't you stop > pulling this guy out of your pocket like a gun. He is history and got out > of the business for known reasons. --part1_15f.11038509.2a6cdb7c_boundary Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit <HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=2>I can speak somewhat to the issue of Billy Deans, he truely was one of the nicest most honest, conscienscous guys in the business. I worked for him as a Captain/DM/Safety diver for a year almost up to the time he went out of business (left for a flying job), and have heard the rumors about the Truk trip (wish I would have been there to go on it, Billy was good about taking his crew along on trips, covering there bill as well, as well as buying them equipment he wanted them to use, even if you couldn't afford it, because it was safer), but haven't visited with him about it. I do know that hurricane George did his shop there off Cow Key Channel a lot of damage, and that was the straw that broke the camels back so to speak and caused him to close up. I'm sure he was personnally devistated. That person would have been the second person I am aware of that would have been hurt on one of his trips, and I can tell you, he takes those kind of things very hard and very personally, even if he personnally bears no direct fault. He was the most safety conscious person I have met and was extremely generous sharing his knowledge and whatever else he had with me and any of the others in his crew, and was always willing to listen to and consider ideas put forth by others and discuss them at length, he was never a guy to be secretive and proprietary with his knowledge. While I was with him we ran to the Wilkes Barre pretty much once or twice a week (240-280') and the Curb as well (180') in all kinds of conditions (vis isn't always 200' down in KW and the current on the Wilkes Barre can really crank) as well as a myriad of recreational dives in between and the occassional trip to the Kendrick (320'), and for the entire time I worked for him NOONE was injured, no outside trained techie, no student, no staff. That ain't a bad record, but then we had home boat control advantage there and Billy would never let a person do a dive he didn't know they were trained for and capable of, customer or crew, and have witnessed him turning away some good paying trips when we needed the money, over bad vibes. If I sound a bit defensive about Billy, well I am, he's one of the best people I've met and has never done me anything but right.<BR> <BR> <BR> In a message dated 7/21/2002 9:30:10 PM Central Daylight Time, captjt@mi*.co* writes:<BR> <BR> <BR> <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">At 06:29 AM 7/21/02 -0400, George Irvine wrote: Billy Deans had a<BR> >perfect track record of not killing anyone. He had a perfect track record<BR> >of saving every moron who screwed up. He ran his show properly. Maybe all<BR> >of you should ring Billy up and ask him how he did it.<BR> <BR> I hear he is a nice guy and did his best, but got out of the business for <BR> several reasons. We do know from Gary Gentiles books and the latest book <BR> Deep Decent, Billy was part of one of the Doria deaths. No disrespect to <BR> him, just a mere fact of history. Also there is this rumor that keeps <BR> popping up on a death on a RB during a trip lead by him which a lawsuit <BR> followed. Don't know how much is true, but I'm sure you know the clean and <BR> dirty version and we are about to hear the clean........why don't you stop <BR> pulling this guy out of your pocket like a gun. He is history and got out <BR> of the business for known reasons. </BLOCKQUOTE><BR> <BR> </FONT></HTML> --part1_15f.11038509.2a6cdb7c_boundary-- -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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