Posted by SLANG on April 12, 2000 at 14:57:06:
In Reply to: Tech diving posted by MHK on April 10, 2000 at 18:04:23:
No offense Mike, but who the hell came up with this stupid "tech" label anyhow, and why do we really need it? A diver should dive only what he/she is capable of and properly trained for regardless of the environment. The various types of environments that most people would characterize as technical diving often have little in common with one another. As Clinton pointed out, a trained deep diver is not automatically qualified to dive in a cave environment, and a cave diver isn't necessarily qualified to dive deep wrecks. So what do we need this "tech" label for? I see it as a minority group trying to force their standards and regulations on my sport; a sport that doesn't need them.
Quite frankly, I was diving beyond "recreational" depths and decompression limits long before the "tech" label ever existed. Now these techies are telling me that I can't do profiles I've been doing for over 25 years because I don't wear the DIR accepted equipment uniform? After 27 years of refining what works for me in the environments I choose to dive, I think I am the best judge of how to strap on my gear. I do not claim to be a "tech" diver, and I have no interest in going into caves or some of these other areas of diving that seem to produce these gung-ho dive Nazis that I've come to associate with the term "tech-diver". But I sure as hell don't want them telling ME how I should or shouldn't be diving.
I am leery of those who want to classify and define "types" of divers. A large part of the attraction of this sport is its lack of formal regulations and regulatory agencies. It seems as though diving is the last area of my life where I can still make my own individual decisions without restrictions from some governing body. It doesn't matter that you label a particular dive as a "tech" dive, that's not going to stop some fool without proper training from going out and attempting it anyhow. I know you say that there are all these people watching and waiting for an injury so they can blame the techies, but I think that's a bunch of crap. The thing is, no one else is responsible for me or the profiles I dive. That's the beauty of diving, if I die while diving outside recognized recreational limits, and my gear did not malfunction, then there is no one to blame but myself (and, FTR, my insurance covers me to any depth). To quote a favorite movie line, "A man's got to know his limitations." There will always be people out there making bad decisions involving diving and their individual abilities. As far as I'm concerned, that's their right.
I guess what I'm trying to say (and doing it poorly) is I just don't see the need for this categorization of dives and divers. This is not meant to be a slam or a flame, merely my opinion.
SLANG