Posted by mike on May 02, 2001 at 23:02:31:
In Reply to: Let’s get back to “recreational” diving posted by scubabum on May 02, 2001 at 17:53:58:
because we can ; )
seriously though, as others have stated, there is a lot of intelligent, helpful and just plain interesting knowledge on this BBS.
As for joediver going to 60 fsw for a half hour, goofing with his gear, hitting me in the head with his fins, for two dives and then crapping out in the galley, all i can say is NOT ME!
If i have to come up after 30 minutes, i damn well better have a 30 lb halibut wiggling at the end of my stick, or four delicious bugs squriming in my goodie bag or have just run out of film in my housed F3 or be shivering involuntarily and getting ready to die of hypothermia.
i am in the process of getting my drysuit fixed up so i can just drift in the water for an hour and a half at 30 fsw in a beautiful sunlit kelp forest on a single steel 72 in 57 degree water.
for me, a dive just ain't a dive unless it is at least 40 minutes in length. Thats the way i dive in the tropics...thats the way i want to dive here.
i got nitrox cert because i really do feel better after spending all that time on the bottom. and i like, no make that love, dearly love, those magnificent things called oil drilling platforms, where i go deeper than 60, and will never likely even see the bottom (700fsw, Eureka, 330 fsw, Grace). Trimix is next, because i am planning on paying the Moody and the Palawan and Richardson Rock and the other less visited pinnacles at Farnsworth some visits one of these days.
i agree with the fuss on failure points, because the less shit i have to worry about, the more time i can spend taking pictures and chasing dinner. BuuUuUrp!!
i agree with the fuss on buoyancy and stream-lining because i don't want to dive like a pig.
I don't want to leave a gash atop a 2000 year old brain coral the size of a pickup truck off the coast of Borneo. I don't want to crush tunicates, break acropora, smash Corynactis anemones while goofing with my gear. For me, absent all other considerations, buoyancy control and streamlining is about the ethics and morality of conservation, of taking only pictures, halibut, yellowtail, scallops and bugs, and not leaving a bunch of crushed, broken gorgonians in my wake <: )
prior to accessing this BBS, the only place i could get ideas and discussion was from people who wanted to sell me patches i didn't need and gear i didn't want at a retail chain that rhymes "short fillET" and of course Rodale's and DIVER magazine.. hell, i was ready to sign up with the BSAC!
just my $0.02