Posted by Kevin on January 11, 2001 at 14:57:50:
In Reply to: Ken Kurtis and the Solo -v- Nitrox discussion/promotion posted by MHK on January 11, 2001 at 14:19:30:
Dear Mike:
You must be eating your Wheaties in Florida, I hope you are having fun.
I am a BIG advocate of nitrox, and have been for a long time. I get a tremendous amount of e-mail inquiries and telephone inquiries about nitrox from my nitrox website ( picked a "TOP 5" by Scuba Diving Magazine ) and the Federal government's Technical and Commericial Diving website where I am listed as a source for additional information.
Ten years ago a boat captain saw me coming down the ramp at 22nd Street early one Saturday morning and yelled out " Rottner, don't you bring those yellow and green bottles aboard my boat, you get bent on air I send you to the chamber, you get bent on that shit and they just send you to the morgue ".
Before we try to convince those that do not teach and do not fill nitrox, there are some questions we need to resolve:
How can a dive shop in the state of California legally make Nitrox and sell it to the public ?
How can an individual legally purchase the correct grade of Oxygen for human consumption in California ?
How can an instructor with ANY agency and teaching ANY level of class legally dive with nitrox without a recompression chamber manned and ready on-site ?
How can anybody transport a scuba cylinder filled with nitrox inside their car legally ?
How can anyone legally introduce a gas other than air into a SCUBA cylinder through a SCUBA valve ?
How can anyone in a shop or on a boat handle a nitrox cylinder legally with the correct Haz Mat training ?
Yes, HAZ MAT training as required by Cal OSHA and Fed OSHA, which is why I became a HAZ mAT instructor.
So, just a few questions to get the ball rolling.