Posted by Richard on July 05, 2001 at 23:26:13:
This post from another list really applies to some of you and one in particular.
On 5/7/01 7:14 AM, Ed treet at blacknet@phenixcable.net wrote:
First almost everyone here has never even seen me let alone dove with me. To imply things about that only puts these statments into question and also the validity of the speaker.
This was the response.
Bravo Ed!
You just slammed the very method by which you obtained your so called "DIR" knowledge. Ie - Long hose is worthless? Bungie mounted second regulator? Tank mounted pony is superior? Never correctly dove it before have you?
You think that because you bought a long hose you are diving "DIR"???Certainly you need to be configured safely to dive DIR, but it's what is going on between your ears that really matters. Your posts clearly
indicate, you are not ready to have this discussion.
All sniping/flaming aside, here's some honest, no BS suggestions:
1) Take an evening and spend a few hours trawling the GUE site and it's links. read everything CAREFULLY and think about it. Eliminate the thoughts about what you have spent on your gear and training to date.
2) Pay the measley ($29) to get into DIR Quest and read the back issues. Eddie Brian's physiology stuff is particularly good.
3) SIGN UP FOR A GUE COURSE AND THEN YOU CAN GET IT STRAIGHT FROM THE
HORSES MOUTH.
3) Look past Trey's understandably impatient tone with having to deal with idiots like you ... time and time again ... and read the CONTENT. It may piss you off, but sometimes people like you need to be slapped around before you realize the message.
4) Wonder why it is ... that although Trey's tone gets up people's noses alot, he has NEVER lost an argument ON THE FACTS on any list.
Continue on by asking yourself WHY does the WKKP hold all the world records for the most demanding of diving and with ZERO fatality rate in the last (ten?) years. Forget the Parker Turner freak cave in that couldn't have been helped, DIR or not.
Follow the logic about why the gear hasn't "evolved" over the last few
years - answer ?: Because once it reaches an optimal state there's no need to change it.
Why does the above point piss off the dive industry? Because they can't sell you this years "latest + greatest" Sport or Tech BC, slobwinder, Spare Air, and sooper-dooper regs, and all the other BS equipment. Which accounts for a lot of the "negative sentiment" by the so called "experts" in the dive industry. Even by those who feel their gear and style is better because they haven't died yet by diving in their gear preferences and styles. I heard of one clown who even professes to be an expert on helicopter diving by keeping himself in constant motion so that he stays off the bottom whatever the frump that is. It must involve the Bell Jet Ranger Maneuver I guess.
The gear doesn't change that much because from 10 years ago the conditions are the same. The caves and the ocean haven't magically changed in the last ten years, but the understanding on how to deal with them has.
Finally here's a couple of sig lines to ponder:
1) You can't learn to dive on the net .. sooner or later you have to get in the water. I find this most appropriate to apply to those divers who only talk about their long past experiences diving within their minds. Listen to those who are diving near every day and using DIR to increase their overall comfort and safety level for themselves and those around them in the water.
2) In theory, there's no difference between theory and practice ... but in practice there is.
***And to my hero worshipping nemesis who dives in a glass aquariums. Last Saturday. One hundred twenty-eight feet for forty-one and thirty-seven minutes. A normixic mix on each (you do the math smart guy). Sixteen and nineteen minutes of deco (gee, what depth and time was my first stop?) One thirty tank of O2 for each dive (guess how long at twenty Dufus). One hour & ten minutes later I did the whole thing over again. Saw purple hydros the size of five gallon buckets. Saw quite a few electric torpedo rays, one was easily a seven footer. Viewed numerous whites and yellows as they cruised by during our deco. Saw a purple striped jelly float by that had the initials KK carved into it. TLS dry suit, neoprene hood and gloves. Twin one-o-four tanks on a Sea Elite manifold. ScubaPro primary and secondary requlator off the posts. Apeks SE-four reg on the deco bottle w/ScubaPro SPG. Thirty cubic foot al deco bottles. Stainless steel back-plate. Pro-three light. Six pounds on my weight belt. No ankle weights. A Mares bottom timer. No computer. No AIR-Two. No pony hard mounted to any of my tanks. No brass clips, suicide or otherwise. A seven foot primary hose with the safety bugied around my neck. Oh yeah, an RMV of .four-one at rest and .six-nine swimming with doubles.
We are going to do it all over again tomorrow but with a richer mix to reach one-eighty.