Posted by JRM on August 15, 2000 at 03:10:17:
In Reply to: Re: overhead environment posted by JRM on August 15, 2000 at 03:07:54:
Sorry, I used greater than symbol. Forgot my HTML. Here's the fixed post:
Some background:
I am new at the whole diving thing. I have only about 24 hours logged dive time, all but about 3 hours in cold, low vis, mostly with currents (your typical cen-norCal sludge). I am currently enrolled in a PADI Advanced OW course. My background is mostly in Alpinism and mountaineering (but hey, I married a girl from Santa Barbara, so now I dive). I want to dive wrecks, mostly because they fascinate me. I have *no* desire to do caves.
I would like to offer a few fresh opinions on the majority of this mess.
I would like to define experience as time spent in the "death zone". I guess that would be OE in the dive world. Now, just like I don't recommend a brand new climber to head for Denali, where does a new OE diver cut his teeth? And where does he find the folk to guide him? Are there folk out there willing to invest the time in bringing up newbies "the right way?" (each has their own version, of course).
If you are going to require some form of training, why don't we spell out exactly what that is. Hey, I've read four or five books on wreck and deep diving, am I trained? Why don't those of you clamoring for more training start volunteering to train us? Or at least mentoring us?
Or would something like a PADI wreck diving course suffice? And if so, try finding anyone teaching one!
Two: Nitrox. This seems to me somewhat similar to the "O2" arguments in Mountaineering. Some folks use "Os" in places others don't. But it's prohibitively expensive for those of us who consider this "recreation". It's also difficult logistically. And besides, isn't the Nitrox training available for 21%-50% O2. I thought deep uses of Nitrox were less 21% O2 (to avoid O2 toxicity?), or as a deco gas at greater 50%, neither of which are covered by 'standard' training anyway (I could be wrong here, if so, I plead lack of experience :-b ). And let's not even start with Tri-Mix. BTW, wouldn't you need to placard your vehicle while carrying some mixes of Nitrox as per DOT regs (trying to remember my HazMat)?
So, what have we decided? Nothing.
But you folk are mostly talking about people like myself when you complain about the untrained doing the stuff you consider yourself trained. to do. So how does one go about reaching this enlightened state?
JRM