In Reply to: Re: MHK posted by FARMHAND on July 29, 2006 at 21:54:56:

Frank,

You frequently make the comparative analysis between DIR -v- AA so let me pose to you something I often compare. As I've shared with you privately, and I will now also do publicly, my ex-girlfriend was in AA for 7 years and I frequently attended AA meetings with her. I hope you will concede that the underlying theme of AA meeting is that the attendees, and the speakers often "share" thier own respective bouts with troubles that they have/had while abusing alcohol. In fact, that is the fundamental point of the meetings to exchange "war stories" about the troubles of recovering alcoholics; what alcohol did to screw their lives up; what did they learn as a result; and why they have changed their behavioral patterns. That saliet point is that they confront(ed) the mistakes they have made, they share their mistakes with others and hope that others don't mirror the mistakes. So I guess, I'm surprised that you, of all people, take issue with me. I understand the Chris Grossmans' of the world, the Phil Gardeners' of the world, but you I'm surprised at. Accident analysis, and dive analysis is equally important.

I wish that I hadn't come off so strongly in the past, and for that I apologize to everyone, but with that said, i don't plan to change one ounce of what I believe in. I will continue to stand strong against less safe and less efficient diving protocols. I will continue to point out errors and "accepting of added risks" when I see them. While in AA you see it as take it or leave it, so in some small respect I say the same thing to you. If in AA you get a DUI, yeah you are screwed for a while, or if you kill someone driving home you are even more screwed, so if you see a train wreck happening in AA you have a sponsor to help. In diving, we have no such thing, we have the usual crowd of suspects that say " we've been doing it this way, or that way for so long, so why change". I bet dollars to donuts that you hear the same thing every time a new person walks into AA. "I've been driving home this way for so long", or "I know what I'm doing" or " my family doesn't mind" et. al. You & I both know that it's BS and it's a ticking clock. For sure when you started diving things were different, advances in technology weren't available to anyone other then commercial divers and military divers. Those days are long behind us and it's time to progress forward.

I apologize for my past outbursts, I 100% fully deny Chris' most recent acusation, but irrespective of any of the past nonsense, it seems to me that the salient questions isn't whether I used to be mean, but more importantly is that now that alternatives are available to the diving community, why aren't expereinced divers leading the way?

If this were an AA meeting, and someone was showing a better way you would adopt it in a heartbeat, irrespective of whether or not the guy used to be an idiot on some obscure BBS.

Anyway, that is just my thoughts..

Later