Posted by MHK on November 06, 2000 at 12:32:53:
In Reply to: Re: Open Letter to MHK-Doria example is just plain wrong posted by Kendall Raine on November 06, 2000 at 12:03:35:
Kendall,
You forgot one thing about when JT and Danny went and found Charlie's body, even after they dropped the weightbelt they couldn't get him up they needed to unclip his steel stage bottles because they were also weighing him down. The couldn't cut him out of the stages because of the metal to metal connections...
I dragged Charlie's body from the water, I spoke to Charlie not less than 5 minutes before he went into the water and he was one of the nicest guys you'd ever want to know but a combination of mistakes ( all of which I speak out against regularly ) is what killed him..
Sadly, the debate in scuba has become so devisive that exchanges generally turn nasty.. As everyone knows I am a DIR supporter so given the negative connotation associated with DIR the message deliverd by DIR get's lost in the rhetoric and to the extent that you attempt to make a point after someone dies you are accused of speaking ill of the dead. But the fact of teh matter is that whether people want to analyze facts or not is the only way we can learn and prevent future tradegies..
I have tried to analyze every fatality that we have had this year, all 13 of them, but I haven't truely seen a corresponding analysis from the other side. I've seen alot of MHK is this or that, DIR is this or that, I seen alot of well this is all speculation, but I haven't seen alot of introspective reflection and gut analysis..
I have heard and seen all the defenses but corrective measures are difficult to implement when you have shop owner's posting * How to solo dive* lists and 30+ year diver's offering to mentor new diver's with unexplainable and undefendable dangerous diving practices..
The level of private e-mail I get in support of my positions are enough to keep me going, hopefully one local diver's voice can make a difference. When guys like you, Walker and Terry keep beating the drum the message begins to build and the response level to the DIR demos have been extraordinary so we keep going..
Later