Posted by seahunt on July 02, 2001 at 14:25:39:
In Reply to: Re: Will the mountain come to Michael? posted by MHK on July 02, 2001 at 10:08:56:
You continue to amaze me with your pessimism and your obstructionist views.. You claim to
be a *problem solver*, but yet I never see you offer answers just outdated and arcane
views..
>You still get and F in reading comprehension... or perhaps just don't believe
>what you read.
>Actually, if you don't recognize that as an honest and optomistic view, then
>I don't think you recognize the real potential of what you are proposing. I
>think you misunderstand my position on the idea. That could change the equation
>of local diving. NASDS sorta tried something like that in the mid-70's, but all
>they had to offer was fancy gear. What you are proposing could make something
>entirely new... of course, you might not like the inevitable commercialization,
>but. Potentially, you could create something unique in the world. That combined
>with the excellent dive conditions, available boats and excellent reef diving
>throughout the rest of the Channel Islands, could make CA a dive destination
>comparable (in a weird sort of way) with Cozumal or the Great Barrier Reef.
>They say that if Mammoth Mountain were in Utah, it would be the best skiing in
>the world. What you are talking about could potentially be something like
>Truk Lagoon in Southern California.
>Maybe this is bigger than you think.
With respect to your continued assertion that *I still say DIR in its present form is not
optimally adapted to California reef diving, a*
I suggest that you offer up your manifesto before you continue with this aligation.. More and
more people are doing it every weekend and you've yet to offer up a cogent reason why you
believe what you believe.. To date, all we've heard from you is that anyone that wants to dive
overweighted, swim as far away from the boat as possible, doing that helicopter gyro thing
and stick there head in to a reef for bugs may not like DIR.. I have said on numerous
occasions that DIR isn't for everyone, clearly you fall into that catagorey, but you completely
missed the boat with respect to the applicability of DIR to local sport divers.. You've have
failed to produce one single thing that DIR can not accomplish in our local environment..
Moreover, the problem solver in you continually speaks to *adding risk* to your diving
habits, we continue to focus on safer and more efficient diving habits.. If that doesn't apply to
our diving market than you are more out of touch than your posts indicate.. You, according to
your own words, do not frequent charter boats, but yet purport to represent a representative
sample of the diving market.. Can you explain how you pull off that miracle??? You barely
dive any longer and when you do it isn't on the charter boats, so what the hell do you know
about the current market place????
>Since when I do go on a charter, I try to get on the most exotic trip available,
>I don't figure that I would get a typical view of charter boat diving anyway.
>Remember, typical CA dive boat customers are neither avid hunters or avid tech
>divers. Most divers just putter around near the boat and neither hunting nor DIR
>are a blip on their screen. Really, most divers in California qualify as beginners,
>because few continue to dive CA long term. In any case, I can get a pretty good
>idea of current CA diving just by following the charter schedule in CDN and by
>perviewing other resources.
If we were so into *competetive* diving as you suggest, then why would we continue to put
on FREE seminars to al the shops,clubs and boats??? We want everyone to see, understand
and try what we offer.. You've yet to try it but continue to denounce it.. You must be afraid of
something.. I offered to pay for you to go on a two day trip, you declined.. Walker offered to
give you a free class, you declined.. How is it that you believe you are qualifed to write
manifesto's absent an intelligent understanding and a practical application of the DIR
system??? That's equivalent of writing a movie review without actually seeing the movie...
>What makes you think I'm writing about DIR??? There is a different way of
>diving as our continued debates clarifies to me.
>I doubt you have any understanding of the competitive nature you promote.
Furthermore, with respect to the sinking of the ship.. We are miles away from completion and
are by-in-large at ground zero.. There are many hurdles to overcome and there will be many
compromises that need to be made and deals that need to be struck.. If you really think that
after every politician, every governmental agency, every potential sponsor signs off on this
project that I'll somehow miraculously be able to turn this project into the MHK - DIR show
than you know less about this undertaking than I'd imagine and you give me way too much
credit than I deserve.. Will I continue to focus my efforts on training and education??
Absolutely!!!! But this will be everyone's wreck, not mine.. I'm just trying to add to the dive
community, your just trying to be an obstructionist pain in the ass.. If you want to head this
project by all means please feel free and then you can do whatever the hell you want, but until
you are willing to get involved I'd ask you to stay on the sidelines.. There will be plenty of
time available for you to bitch later, let's get the ship first..
If you don't trust my vision and judgement then all I can say is that you are free to take over
the project...
>Actually, I again get the impression you are misunderstanding my position.
>This project does show vision. I'm not sure you even see as much potential to
>this as I do. If this was anything else but diving, you could easily get huge
>support for the project. As is, I think it is a good enough idea that you
>could get support from places you wouldn't expect, including organized
>commercial interests beyond the dive industry.... interests with enough money
>to make your project much easier... of course, the politics are likely to be
>the challenge then, but there is some real economics involved in this and
>that is something you might get political pull from.
>As far as the MHK - DIR show, you may get more than you imagine. If you can get
>some good wrecks sunk in an area with conditions that good, you may well create
>the world center for wreck diving. It seems likely to me that events like what
>happened in Florida caves may well cause similar policies to be enacted in
>a comparable situation in California. They would be appropriate and I have no
>objection, though I would think that a wreck/some wrecks should be in sport
>depths, but the real potential for this actually lies with the tech divers on
>ships sunk at depths intended for tech diving... No fooling.
>Like I say, West End Dives Supply - GUE Training Facility.
>Figure that if I think it's a good idea, who's likely not to...
Enjoy, seahunt