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I have noticed a growing cadre of people who would like to silence the voice of Mr. George Irvine, permanently. His opinions, pronouncements and accomplishments, both as a an explorer and now as director of the WKPP (Woodville Karst Plain Project) have had a definitive and growing impact on the theory and practice of technically oriented diving. His shrill and sometimes vigorous prosecution of those who transgress the boundary of sensibility in diving is legend. His name often inspires admiration and respect by some and fear and loathing by others, who have taken issue with his viewpoints. There seem to be many adherents who are deeply offended by Mr. Irvines disagreement with their preferences, opinions and training practices. In fact, there may have been several circumstances where he was threatened with punitive legal action. Of course, I suspect that such actions only serve to further motivate him on his mission to get across the real message of safety and effectiveness in diving and to harden his intolerance for those who fail to embrace this reality. The complaint most consistently voiced about George Irvine, aside from frequent profane denouncements directed at him, is that he is completely intolerant of any opinion or practice that diverges from his own (supposedly) narrow viewpoint. The next most common gripe typically involves a complainant who knows someone else "who has far more experience" than George. This "so and so" knows better and thinks that George lacks the credibility or qualifications to comment on whatever the subject matter. (What could George possibly know about deep ocean wreck diving ?) The latest imbroglio is centered around training practices and standards. This is an area where George has been especially active and outspoken. When it comes to saving lives and not repeating the fatal errors of the past Mr. Irvine is indignantly uncompromising and an equal opportunity offender. He must be very well aware of the particular practices, behaviors, preferences and otherwise "bad luck" that have cost so many lives over the years. Perhaps all those, who will endlessly argue with him should ask why he thinks as he does, and then listen. George spent years professionally sport fishing in the North Atlantic, South Atlantic and Pacific before focusing all his interests into sport diving 15 years ago. He will freely admit that he committed every conceivable stupidity, that he presently inveighs against now. Diving deep on air, diving on outrageous PPO2s, diving with dangerous equipment and unsafe individuals were among the many transgressions George and myself and others have been guilty of. He was one of the first people to practice nitrox and trimix diving in our area of South Florida in the late 1980s and made hundreds of dives on deep wrecks and reefs before he became interested in cave diving. Five years ago George decided to obtain instruction in cave diving and eventually received his training from the late Parker Turner (founder and director of the WKPP). Parker was especially well known for his uncompromising viewpoints regarding cave diving theory and practice. Turner was the originator of the term "Stroke". His famous rule # 1 of cave diving ( besides the continuous line, redundant lights, dual tanks and regs etc. stuff) Was "Dont Dive with Strokes". George and Lamar English came 6 minutes away from getting killed when Indian Springs reversed flow. Parker drowned that day. During the next year George spent hundreds of man hours and thousands of dollars perfecting extended range diving techniques in Yucatan cave systems. Ask Mike Madden or Bill Gavin. George put the end of the line in many Mexican caves including Toucha Ha and Naval as well as NaHoch and long list of others. All this was preliminary to his current operations in North Florida. He doesnt like to talk about it, but if you press him youll find out that he was with Carl Sutton several days before he died while diving deep on air in a Mexican sinkhole, he knew Jim Fernandez who toxed from high PPO2 while doing a swim dive in Devils Eye and he was at Ginny Springs the day Allan Jonusitis drowned in Devils Eye. He knew Chris Rouse. He knew Andy Bator, whose fatality was an early consequence of mistaken gas identity. Sherwood Schile was Georges friend until he got killed in the Cheryl Sink system, at the end of an exploration dive, and Sheck Exley had dinner with George one week before word came of his untimely death in Zacaton. For those of you who dont recall George and Scheck and Bill Gavin put the end of the line in Wakulla Springs (and downstream Eagles Nest) over a year ago (the Wakulla dive involved 6100 feet of penetration at a depth of 300 feet). The unfortunate and hapless "Nick" was diving on Jim Mims boat with us two days before he was killed (we coincidently were on the boat that day, but doing our own dive. We were shocked and appalled when we learned that he was preparing to practice "world record" deep air diving). Robby McGuire and his dad Bob were diving with George in Wakulla Springs exactly one week prior to Robbys death as a result of a gas mixup. He most recently was communicating with Mr. Bergman regarding decompression software, before his death. Given this background wouldnt you have a personal concern for safety and common sense diving practices? George is single handedly responsible for reactivating the WKKP and personally has spent tens of thousands of dollars of his own funds and uncounted hours of his time in designing and building equipment (deep long range Gavin scooters) and lobbying government agencies to obtain the necessary permits to dive sites that have been otherwise inaccessible for years. The objective requirements for diving these sites are the production of scientific data regarding hydrology, speleology, troglobytic biology, paleontology and archaeology. Sponsoring agencies are not interested and could care less about individual gratifications (who has the end of the line where). Vast amounts of time have been invested in drafting safety standards and procedures so as satisfy the safety demands imposed as prerequisite to diving in such locations as Wakulla Springs, Sally Ward Springs and Indian Springs. Ask anyone, (Steve Irving, Jarrod Jablonski, Bill Gavin, Casey McKinlay, Steve Berman, Barry Miller, Rick Sankey, Arnold Jackson and others too numerous to mention) who personally knows George Irvine, about his absolute adherence to safety and effectiveness and his complete intolerance for deviation from procedures. Ask them about the type of diving people, involved with the WKPP, have an opportunity to do and ask them if them about their collective opinion. Throughout the course of many WKKP dives a lot more has been learned about the practicality of specific equipment configurations, dive machinery (scooters, regulators, tanks, lights and manifolds) and diving physiology (decompression planning and schedules). Certain practices, configurations and equipment are simply and unarguably superior than others. When George Irvine expresses his opinions he is representing the collective thinking of all those (past and present) who are actively involved in the WKKP. This is an active sensible and practical approach to technically oriented diving which is solidly anchored upon factual accomplishment and experience. Bill Mee
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