Posted by MHK on July 20, 2001 at 11:53:10:
In Reply to: To the DIR gang: a heartfelt request posted by AADIVER on July 20, 2001 at 10:56:31:
Frank,
What often times get's lost in the minutea is why we do this..
I guess everyone has their own reason for diving, some like wrecks, some like deep, some like to take pictures and so on..
My adoption of DIR stemmed from the belief that it made being underwater MORE fun.. While we debate ad infintum the benefits of DIR it tacitly distorts why we do it in the first place..
To me, being underwater is the greatest thing in the world.. No phones, no faxes, no e-mails, no clients, simply being alone with nature.. I love seeing things that most people could never ever dream of.. I love patiently waiting for and octopus to come out of it's hole and agree to play with me. I love getting a mooray eel to hold in my hand.. To me it's the safe interaction with the marine life..
I also love wrecks.. I, love them in a slightly different way you do, but nonetheless I LOVE deep wrecks that are a piece of history.. My first dive on the Andrea Doria I was less concerned with the China Fever that has taken so many lives, as much as I was alone in my thoughts swimming down the corridors wondering what was going on in the minds of the passengers once the Stockholm crashed it... We dive Lake Superior quite a bit and given the deep, cold, fresh water the ships are still in perfect shape.. Kendall and I did a wreck 2 years ago that sunk the day that Abraham Lincoln got shot.. The wreck was so well preserved, and is protected, that we were able to swim through the bunk rooms and see the shoes of the crew right next to the bunk.. We were able to open the cubbards in the galley and still see the cups hanging 140 years later..
That's why I dive and despite other contentions, the adoption of DIR has allowed me to more closely concentrate on why I'm there in the first place and worry less about the operational aspects of the dive...
See you guys this weekend...
Later