Posted by MHK on August 02, 2000 at 15:28:16:
In Reply to: Well then... posted by seahunt on August 02, 2000 at 13:33:47:
My sense is that the spread of mis information, the fear of any potential liability are the reasons behind the dive shop/boat mentality.
Whenever someone can't give you a straight answer they generally hide behind the catch all phrase *liability*. Of course when you challenge the issue you can't get them to tell you what the liability issues are, but it scares off most of the unkowning public.
I'll give you an example, I was in a shop about 3 weeks ago and a customer asked the owner of the shop why they don't pump nitrox and they gave an answer of * PADI has told us it's a liability issue *. After I stopped laughing I asked what possible liability issue PADI could have been suggesting given the fact that they are pioneering into trimix??
The answer was * I don't know that's just what they said* Of course, this is bullshit but some people cling to primitive beliefs hoping the issue will go away..
In my view, education is the key. The more people know, the more the myths get dispelled. It seems strange that the military and commercial divers have been diving nitrox for decades but yet someone will claim that if I dive a mix with 11% elevated F02 somehow I'm a liability, I'll die or the sun won't set the next day...
Ignorance is bliss but the fact of the matter is that Nitrox is here to stay, Trimix is steadfastly gaining mainstream acceptability and the cry's of * Nitrox is voodo gas * has been completely obliverated..
Later