Posted by mike on November 06, 2000 at 16:01:11:
In Reply to: Re: Open Letter to MHK-Doria example is just plain wrong posted by MHK on November 06, 2000 at 12:32:53:
first off, please don't think i have my head up anyone's ass, because i really don't. I buddied /w/ MHK and J. Walker on the Yukon a month or so ago and like i said in an earlier obscured post, both have excellent skills and both are great dudes in person (i know, personnas become altered thru the electronic medium). I tend to be unrepentant as any when it comes to my own solo diving but i know when something makes sense, and the fact of the matter is, those 13 fatalities are hard to argue with. Last night i had a chance to f**k around with a camera, dangling pain-in-the-ass light, and a leaky drysuit in a thick kelp forest at 2:00 AM. I soloed that dive, maxed out at 60 fsw below the boat, and drifed back up right under the swim step and climbed back up /w/ 1100 psi left in my ancient steel '72. Why didn't i swim off looking for bugs or even things to photograph? Because i didn't feel comfortable heading off into the dark alone, with a cluster f**k gear config, and malfunction. If i had a buddy, i probably would have prolonged the dive. Instead, i kept it to 30 minutes, which for me, is practically like aborting the damn thing (if this would have happened at say, Farnsworth on an average day, dive would be aborted immediately). Point is, if i'm going solo, i am going to make damn sure that i remain /w/in my comfort/ability zone. If i'm going to look at a new way of configuring my gear, than regardless of their lapses in etiquette (oops, me throwing stones in a glass house there;), i will give the DIR people a fair hearing. No, i am not going to 230' off of NJ (at least not solo), but i do want to run through scenarios and alter my practices to enhance my survivability in case the shit ever hits the fan, team, buddy, solo, independent, or whatever, at 90fsw in 15 foot viz, with a 3 knot current, 8 foot swells and 400 psi in the tank at someplace gnarly like San Nick or Cortez Banks. Will i hang effortlessly in the kelp, solo, in 30 fsw in still water off of frontside Cat with glass surface conditions again? you betcha! So to those who can defend their positions (using, you know, things like logic, empirical evidence, rather than polemics and personal attack), regardless of the popularity of those positions, i say 'lets keep the discourse flowing!' there are lots of skulkers out there that appreciate the decades of experience of some contributors on this board.