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To: techdiver@opal.com
Subject: Education beyond certification?
From: Chris Hellas <chris@de*.de*.co*.uk*>
Date: Sat, 15 Apr 1995 17:04:27 GMT
Here's a thought........

Technical diving is in grave danger of becoming 'fashionable'. We have already
had a few threads
on the subject of  "technical diving wanabe's". Well unfortunatley we are going
to se a lot more!.

There has recentley been an unfortunate fatatality on the south coast of
England. This was 
not involving a technical exposure, nor was it a 'tech diver', but it
highlighted a couple of things.

  (1) The charter boat had a mix of skills ranging from relative novice to
Trimix diver.

  (2)  The wreck thay were diving was a relativley shallow, well known in 40-45
MSW.

  (3)  Believe it or not the Trimix divers were actually diving on mix with 2
stages.

 To my mind this begs a few questions. If the 'Trimix' divers were qualified,
why dive a wreck
in 40-45MSW on mix?( unless they had a particular sensitivity to narcosis).
 Why create further 'equipment stress' by using 2 stages etc. when it should
have been an air
 dive with Eanx or O2 deco?.  The list is endless.

What we do not have is education beyond initial certification. Divers pass the
theory,
 demonstrate certain in water skills & then are let loose waving a C card. I
know lots of
instructors who care enough to advise students on the way foreward and ensure
that they
have a 'feel' for a particular mindset that will hopefully mean the student
will progress in
a logical manner. I suppose we are back to sounding elitist, but I still think
that Trimix
is not for mass market consumption.

Regards

Chris
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Chris Hellas

UK Deep wreck Diving Team

EMail:- chris@de*.de*.co*.uk*                                            |
             10422,2334@co*.co*
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