Posted by SLANG on April 14, 2000 at 15:12:48:
In Reply to: Re: Tech diving posted by MHK on April 13, 2000 at 11:31:48:
For the most part, those are all good points. And I'm sure you are much more in tune with the "Real Parties In Interest" around our So. Cal. diving community, so I'll defer to you judgment on the issue of who's watching and waiting for a screw-up. I still believe that screw-ups are going to happen regardless of your success at mobilizing the tech community around here. It's just a fact of life: accidents occasionally happen; and there's ample proof that you don't have to be a genius to get certified.
Like I said before, I'm not a "tech" diver, I'm just a diver who has been diving off California for a fairly long time. Most of my dives would fall well within the recognized confines of recreational diving. However, on those occasional dives where I might exceed 130 fsw (on air) and/or plan a decompression dive, I don't want to hear from anyone that I can't do it because I'm not certified by some new "tech" agency. That's my only concern (selfish as it may be). That doesn't mean that I wouldn't be real happy to learn about more complex diving theories and practices from knowledgeable divers. For that reason, if you were to organize seminars and dive outings focusing on "tech" topics, I would be very interested in watching, listening and hopefully learning. ...But do we really have to put that "tech" label on it?
You were the DM on the GE a couple of times when I was diving with them, and we spoke briefly one day when we were diving off Catalina this past winter (I was diving with Kelphead that day). These days, most of my diving is done on the Truth Aquatics boats or out of Ventura / Port Hueneme. See you out there sometime.
SLANG