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Date: Thu, 5 Oct 1995 11:22:32 -0400 (EDT) From: Roderick Farb <rfarb@em*.un*.ed*> To: techdiver@terra.net Subject: Diver's Rights THIS MESSAGE WAS POSTED EARLY THIS AM BEFORE GEORGE WITHDREW FROM THE LIST BUT FOR SOME REASON IT WASN'T SENT. I just received a message from J.R. Oldroyd, the owner of the Techdiver List, informing me that I was NOT one of the two individuals he was referring to in his recent post. I still apologize to the List for the waste of bandwidth recently. This is my last post on the matter of aspirin and narcosis and recent events. As you recall, Cherf posted a message to Pyle about aspirin and narcosis. I answered with an example of my reaction to narcosis during dives to the USS Monitor from 1990-1995 on air at 240 feet. Irvine intervened and the matter deteriorated. I have received a number of private messages about the matter and Irvine and so forth. What is to follow is my last post on the matter: I am a professional working diver that dives in and out of the US. I dive as the job requirements dictate. There are many places in the world where work related diving is regulated by labor laws and insurance regulations that do not permit the use of helium in scuba tanks; mixed gas must be surface supplied. If you are going to work underwater in those places with scuba it will be with air as the breathing gas. I dive open-circuit deep (whatever that means to you) air, mix and rebreather as the job requires. My USS Monitor dives at 240 from 1990-1995 have been made on air. In 1993, when I was hired by NOAA to dive the site, the dives were made on trimix under OSHA regs. My photograph of the Monitor was published in the June issue of National Geographic. In 1992-1994 I worked on assignment photographing the CSS Alabama at 200 feet 49 degrees F and dark on air at the bottom of the English Channel off the coast of France. These photographs were published in the December, 1994 of National Geographic. Two films about the Monitor dives were made for Public Television and for Discovery. These and other companies don't care how I do the dives. They leave that up to me and the prevailing work rules and insurance regs. of the countries, agencies, etc. involved. I have plans for work on two other deep shipwrecks under the control of two different nations and I must abide by the applicable work rules and insurance regs. Neither permits the use of mixed gas in scuba. I've been diving for 33 years using air, mix and rebreathers for portions of my career. I have never insisted that anyone dive MY WAY. I know how to dive comfortably on air, mix and rebreather, and I never try to set records. For me- this is the important part- diving is not an end in itself. I hate the gear, the decompression, the bubbles, the narcosis and the trouble. For me DIVING IS A TOOL. Period. A tool to get the job done. I don't give a flip if it is analog or digital diving, whether the tank is on my back or under my arm, whether it is air, mix or rebreather, as long as it gets the job done and I make it back to collect a paycheck. I dive what the job requires and within my comfort zone. There is an old rule in diving that says that a diver's skill is generally in inverse proportion to the amount of times they tell you how great they are. Irvine's way is not the only way to do diving. You all know that. The way I dive is MY decision alone. I have never insisted to anyone that MY WAY was the only way to dive and that that was the way they had to dive before they could dive with me. In 33 years, I've learned a lot about diving and people in diving and I've seen more changes in diving than most of you know about. There are many good divers out there that have more experience, more knowledge and a delivery style that makes you want to learn. Some are on this list but most are not. Many of the individuals that Irvine has slammed as being ignorant divers are the very people new divers should listen to about diving. I do not think anyone should dive deeper than 130 feet unless you want to. I do not think you should dive mix unless you want to. I do not think you should dive deep (whatever that means to you) air unless you want to. If you desire to do these things then get a proper education from good divers. There are people in the world's navies, commercial diving industry and in the deep sport diving community that have good advice. Most divers around the world do not use mixed gas or nitrox for their deep (whatever that means) dives. They use air. Not out of ignorance or lack of desire but out of necessity. And they are good at it. The argument that you cannot do good work on deep (whatver that means) air is utter nonsense. It depends on how deep and the individual. That you could do better with mixed gas is a reasonable arguement. But it's your choice. There is a vast reservoir of scientific literature, anecdotal evidence and other work form the military and commercial diving that can be used to guide your choice. I have a personal limit on air depth when it is necessary to dive air (250 feet)and have dived mix shallower. That's for me. I don't tell you to do it. One paper on our work on the Monitor is published in the Underwater Archaeology Proceedings of the Society of Historical Archaeology, 1992. Other work is in progress. All work was done by many divers who chose to use air. Many other divers are choosing to use various mixes. The first step in the process is to quit using the term "technical diver" to describe yourself. You are a DIVER, period. Call yourself DEEP, SHALLOW, REEF, CAVE, WRECK. Anything but technical.
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