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At 9:53 AM 9/15/95, Frank Deutschmann wrote:

>Look at the situation here in NY: years ago, the primary market for
>scuba shops was certifying and equiping people for caribean diving.
>There was a much smaller market for people willing to dive the local
>wrecks in cold water -- a largely unappealing activity to most people.
>(In addition, there was the tiny market for boat bottom cleaning, but
>we won't get into that.)

Heck, that's the situation *now* where I dive, and you're right about
the 'image' thing.  I'm not a technical diver, but I dive in cold
water with the safest stuff I can get that's appropriate for the
environment (read, I have a drysuit :).  I suck air (sorry 'gas')
so I use a big tank. Before I picked up a copy of aquaCorp, I didn't
understand the looks I got on the dive boat (and a few of the comments).

For me, local diving was never unappealing, but the 'tech marketeers'
have certainly made it less socially acceptable.  I'd support anything
that increases the distiction between using good technique and technical
diving.

The real danger here is that after you've been  labeled as 'one of those
tech divers' long enough, you might just start to believe what people say
about you.  Then there's the 'screw you, maybe I *am* a technical diver'
risk.  I wonder how many of those 'macho', 'wanabe' tech divers out there
are just poor bastards who feel like they have to defend their equipment
choices, and are looking for some peer group that doesn't persecute them
for it (not to imply that could ever work here :).

I have no worries that any of the above made sense.

Scott.

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