Posted by MHK on April 19, 2001 at 16:54:21:
In Reply to: Deep air question posted by AADIVER on April 19, 2001 at 12:56:27:
Frank,
I think Walker pretty much answered the question but I thought I would chime in a tad...
The fact of the matter is that times change and what was once considered taboo and/or voodo gas is now becoming more mainstream and accepted.
We are fighting a very hard battle, as evidenced by many of the exchanges on this bbs, and as evidenced by many of the *old school* shop owners that refuse to embrace advances in technology..
Deep air was a bad idea that made money for a lot of agencies and instructors.. Trust me I know because as has been posted on this list on many occasions I have an IANTD deep air certification...
It was a pre-requisitie to trimix that I had no choice whatsoever but to take. Back then if you wanted a trimix card you needed to go through the deep air nonsense first...
Times change and advances in technology know allow for sport divers to take advantage of what military and commercial divers have been benefiting from for DECADES... What we are advancing isn't new or groundbreaking, it has been used for years and years and years, but it simply goes against the industry and as such was denounced..
When I look at some of the nonsense that some *experienced* divers get on here and post I laugh my ass off. You have dive shop owners telling people they will die if they breathe Nitrox, you have guys claiming 30 years and 3000+ dives worth of experience telling us that we don't apply, it's a joke....
The fact of the matter is that some of the most prevelant and outspoken on this list have fallen prey to a serious problem in our sport, in the most simpliest of terms they have a superiority complex and do what they tell their students to never do which is to stop learning...
When I see a shop owner with 20+ years of experience ignoring the advances it's hard to keep silent. When I see certain loudmouths that claim to be so experienced and then don't know jack sh*t about anything other than reading a pixal count off a computer I cringe...
Deep air is a thing of the past but dinosaurs will be what they will be...
Frank, I know you have been around a while and I'm sure you remember the uproar when they came out with the first dive computer ( Bendomatic) and how people would get bent left and right if they didn't plan by tables.. Well today we are so far away from that mentality that the pendulum has swung so far from that that agencies no longer think it's necessary to teach tables...
While I don't agree with that nonsense it speaks to the times are changing notion.. To that end deep air has no place any longer and from what someone else posted ( I haven't verified it ) IANTD has even stopped teaching it...
The real question is why dive drunk when you can dive sober?????????
Later