Posted by MHK on February 05, 2001 at 09:16:52:
Your article speaks in the context of the past twelve months and the related tragedies and you go on to state:
" During the past twelve months we have heard of diver's who died alone {noticeably absent in your article is the word SOLO} and those who died with buddies nearby [ a.k.a. on this list as independeant and/or buddyless], diver's who dived diving deep and those that dies diving shallow, diver's dying on air and diver's diving on mixed gas."
Please state the name of any of the diver's that you refer to that were diving mixed gas??????????
This is simply, yet another, attempt by you to tarnish tech diving.. The fact of the matter is that none of the fatalities were from mixed gas diving, some probably should have been, but given the rhetoric surrounding mixed gas it's easy to see the reluctance.. Moreover, you ellude to common sense in your article [ and I share your view in that regard], however, I would add that encouraging diver's to dive solo and so vehimently denouncing mixed gad and/or Nitrox fly's in the very face of common sense. While we will never be able to state with absolute certianty, it's a safe bet that several of the fataltities may have had a better chance of living had they been diving Nitrox or mixed gas..
Clearly the guy recoverying the anchor solo at 165' would have been better served having a clear head.. Would Mia have required the added decompression obligations had she been diving Nitrox???? We can't say for certain, but it is something to consider..
But to me it is irresponsible journalism to suggest that of the fatalities in the last 12 months that mixed gas was involved.. The point of your article was to use common sense, and I would strongly argue that using the right gas for the dive is common sense...
Hopefuly you'll be man enough to have Dale correct the blatant error in next month's edition. I plan on submitting a rebuttal but given Dale's anti-tech diving stance I sense it will fall on deaf ears...
So in short Ken, please name one of the fatalities that was on mixed gas??????
Later