Posted by JRM on August 21, 2001 at 19:10:21:
Well, since it's been a horrible day here in the salt mines, I thought I'd end my day with some random rantings. First a dive report from Saturday. After spending 4+ hours at the pool, I can say unequivicably that pool diving is nowhere near as fun as open water. But much better to practice. The bottom was concrete the vis was lousy (public pool), and the collection of deceased creatures on the bottom was rivaled only by the man-made trash.
So, back to the title. True knowledge is the realization that you know nothing. Socrates was a great man. After an interminable (it seems) time getting dumped on by my Greek prof for attending a state school (hey, he teaches there), that's about the sum total I picked up.
So how do I apply that to diving. I have been trying to keep up with several of the threads here. I feel I have been doing an adaquate job. My BS detector keeps going off, some threads more than others. But I find it interesting that the discourse here has pretty much boiled down to "your mom." The people with the experience and the information are busy calling each other sock puppets, which leaves the horribly un-informed to attempt to post about topics they think they grasp. While I do not have the background, knowledge, or experience to throw the BS flag, I wish those that did would. (The BS flag is a time honored tradition in the Geo dept at CSUF. While not a true flag, it is any object hurled at the offender accompanied by a phrase resembling, "BS, I gotta flag that." Unfortunately, since it was the Geology dept, the objects at hand generally were rocks.)
I've met some great folks on this board, and dived (btw, what is the correct tense of that word, dived or dove?) with them. Of course, no-where would be home without at least one village idiot. But you have to take the good with the bad. It's a spectrum, really. With the ultimate diving BBS on one side, and Rodales and the techdive list on the other. While this BBS is definitely heading the techdive direction (not for reasons of content, either), I still think it's salvagable. If we would just cling a bit to Socrates' principle, it'll turn around.
Let's get over the whole DIR thing, OK? It's not a just gear config, it's a mindset. It isn't the only way. It's all about cost/benefits analysis. The parameters and boundry conditions I set in my personal analysis are much different from yours. If the benefit of DIR doesn't justify the costs to you, *don't do it*. And please feel free to offer opposing viewpoints, just toss some content in. If you do something different, explain *WHY* you do it. Back to the spectrum idea, we as community members here dive gear and mindsets of amazing breadth. That post you make about why you like Spare Air may help shift someone a bit one direction or the other, or it may move two people different directions simultaneously.
No one is going to be converted to DIR by posting on this BBS. No one is going to become un-DIR by any posting on this BBS. And certainly not by the rash of recent posts (coming from both sides). I don't care who's parents had relations with whom and when. Four hours at the pool taught me a few very important things, the least of them is that I need to spend lots more time there. Underwater. Because that's what it's all about in the long run. Spending time underwater.
In this community we have guys with thousands of hours beneath the surface. We have fresh newbies. And we have newbies who wish they had thousands of hours trying to convince us how great they are. The whole spectrum (hmmm, that word again). In my perfect world, those of us on the newbie end could gather information from those on the experienced end (DIR and non). The third category should be the first against the wall when the revolution comes, though.
So, since it's all about being underwater, how about someone down south fix us up a "diver.net" BBS charter. The DIR folks can bring their loaner gear, and we can have a day of fun in the sun. People act differently when they can't hide behind a keyboard and psuedonym. They're generally nicer. So let's put some faces with names, and hit the water. Maybe, just maybe, we can get back that sense of community. I'd like to propose Saturday, October 13th (mostly because that's best for me). I'll even bring down a few of my signature Tri-Tips to Bar-B-Que. Between that and the seafood (it is bug season after all, and I hear a lot of tales here about big bugs), it should be a heck of a party. Any takers?
JRM
-- not sure what it accomplished, but I feel much better.