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> What you may not know, being in a somewhat isolated\ > paradise in Hawaii doing scientific diving, is that tec diving > has degenerated into macho thing. People are taught that > depth is the achievement, and that more gear is necessary, > and that more deco and complication are the measures of > susccess. If this is indeed true, then my worst fears are being realized. When I first found out that other people were exploring the same techniques that I was (Bill Stone, the first couple of AquaCorps issues, Parker, Exley, etc.), I was very excited because the attitude was generally "This deep air stuff is no good. Let's do things to increase our margin for error." I thought this was fantastic, because it was a clear departure from the "sport diving" mentality that is riddled with obtuse jargon and chest-beating. That's when I developed my "bell-curve" model to graph machismo against level of experience. I knew it was inevitable that the chest-thumping types would flock to this new "radical" diving stuff, but I was pleased to see a lot of hosing down of such attitudes at the various meetings I've attended. As of Tek95, there was still a lot of testosterone flying around, but the anti-macho attitude seemed to prevail, so I've remained optimistic. If your observations apply to more than just a few places in Florida, than I am terrified about the fate of rebreathers. There is NO ROOM for machismo when diving with a rebreather. HUMBLE is the key word. Let's nip this in the bud -- I am changing my banner message, just to make sure. Aloha, Rich Richard Pyle deepreef@bi*.bi*.ha*.or* ********************************************************************** "Rebreathers are for spineless wimps who can't handle narcosis and who have high gas consumption rates. REAL divers do it with Open Circuit! **********************************************************************
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