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You wrote: 
>
>On Saturday the 22nd a diver died off Long Island on the
>Old Cunard Liner Oregon in 130 fsw. It was his second
>dive of the day. He split up from his partner once they
>hit the bottom. He was diving independant 80's. It appears 
>he had breathed one down to 1500 psi then switched to the other,
>on draining that tank it looks like he couldn't find his other 
>regulator or perhaps the sudden out of air situation panic'd him.
>He tried to tie an ascent line to the wreck and was
>found at about 90 fsw, entangled. Someone found him
>and cut his ascent line at which point he made it to
>the surface. The crew attempted to resusitate him
>until the Coast Guard got him and delivered him to
>a local hospital where he was pronounced doa.
>
>Maybe some of the less experienced divers on the list
>will pay closer attention to thier diving habits and
>the environments they find themselves in and not rush
>blindly to their deaths as well.
>mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@terra.net'.
>Send subscription/archive requests to `techdiver-request@terra.net'.
>

Independant tanks have been used a lot up north and caused many 
problems.  Solution for divers who do not use manifold is the  
regulator management techniques developed for mix diving.

As for comment about less experienced divers, we were all such at one 
time.  Thank goodness that the old veil of silence has lifted and 
people are openly discussing these techniques. With this advance, 
however, has come growth.  Technical gear is widely available, as is 
instruction.  So many people use it that Captains no longer run 
"specials" for decompression dives on shallow wrecks, like the Oregon.  
The old way to get on such a boat until you were known was to have 
someone dependable vouch for you, or say they would dive with you.  
Now, with technical diving in the open and widely practiced this rite 
of passage is no longer enforced.  Making information freely available 
has thrown the responsibility back on the diver.  You walk on the boat 
with doubles, then you should know how to use them.  Or at least you 
could have learned, if you had the proper respect for the escalation in 
difficulty.  Perhaps the price of free information is that there will 
be more of the accidents, such as you describe, where someone got in a 
race care when they barely knew how to drive the family station wagon.  

A final comment, or really a tip for less experienced divers.  There is 
a natural tendency for many newer divers to want to come off as being 
experienced.  This mitigates against the very profitable exersize of 
recognizing who are the more experienced divers, taking a look at thier 
gear and asking advice.  That would entail an admission that you were a 
student not a master- a hard thing to do.  But, here is a secret:  The 
most experienced divers are constantly on the lookout for ideas and 
better ways to do things.  

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