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Chris (and Bob Hole too) >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!. Bob responded to this quite sternly. Some people will always be a bit elitist and I don't know Chris well enough to know if he really is this way, BUT, I *do* know that communication over the internet is much more difficult than face to face. You miss the subtle nuances, the facial expressions, the intonation. Smiley faces are but a small part of a poor attempt to replace some of the feeling. For this reason I simply pass over any postings that might seem offensive to me and enjoy those that contain information that I consider useful and/or informative. I take the stance that there's nothing wrong with it becoming fashionable as long as the standards aren't relaxed to admit people to potentially dangerous situations that are not prepared. This has *already* happened with recreational scuba. I have seen far too many people that have been newly certified attempting dives well beyond their ability, *sometimes* with an instructor along (IMO, that instructor should have his instructor card pulled). It's this type of cavalier attitude that imprints onto students and stays with them their whole diving career. I really don't think there's much problem at the technical diving level (*yet*, but there is potential). Chris' concern may be justified, however, I too may have read a little too much into it like Bob did. My knowledge *greatly* surpasses my experience (as far as technical diving), however, I'm in the same rough area as Bob (i.e. MANY dives). There's nothing wrong with reading from books and gaining knowledge, hell, most of the "original" tech divers didn't even have books to read, they just dove by the seat of their pants. My diving skills are *excellent* although I have no doubt that when I take the cavern/cave course I will learn a great deal more, and will even perfect skills for "normal" diving more! As I grow older and wiser, the one adage that I've always found to be true is: "The more knowledge I gain, the more I realize I don't know". >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. I think this would be a little more unusual for a dive boat here in the US, but I'm not entirely sure. As long as each diver is diving within their ability I don't see why there should be a problem. > (2) The wreck thay were diving was a relativley shallow, well known in >40-45 MSW. 40m = 132'... 45m = 148' Now that may be considered shallow in the UK, however that is deeper than *most* scubat certifying agencies recommend people dive. I might ask the question... What the hell is a "relative novice" doing on a 150' dive!!! > (3) Believe it or not the Trimix divers were actually diving on mix >with 2 stages. Well, without knowing the particulars it's impossible to cast them either in a good *or* a bad light. They could have been poorly trained *OR* they could very well be training and *practicing* for a much more difficult dive coming up in the near future. Working on skills such as these are often best done in a more familiar, less stressful situation and as such, these divers could be a perfect example of how dives should be "worked up to". It's often too easy to look at a situation and find out what's wrong. Try looking to find out what could be *right* sometime! > 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. See my explanation above. 150' - I've personally never had narcosis at that depth, in fact, I've been especially blessed by not experiencing narcosis down to my current maximum depth (275'). >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. Of course it's not, but then again, just exactly how many people ARE Trimix certified? You may know a lot, but it's a very small percentage of the general diving population. You are sounding elitist now. Bob, I certainly hope you do not unsubscribe. I personally have learned a lot on this mailing list over the past couple years. Some themes do get beaten to death, however, good topics are discussed and sometimes great ideas are presented. To all the other "old times" I suggest that you (can't include me) be a little more understanding and supportive of the "newbies" (geez, sometimes I *hate* that word). Searching the archives is always a good idea. I haven't seen the intro email in a while, but perhaps more information could be put there on exactly *how* to search the archives!!! BUT, on the same note, things change, especially in this type of diving and sometimes, conversations that took place a year or even 6 months ago are outdated... Now, back to your regularly scheduled infomercial :^) -Carl-
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