Thievery! 12/06/2011
Add Comment Thievery! 12/06/2011
Extraordinary how people think it is okay to steal pictures from a website to use on their own! My alter ego, www.sidemountinstructor.com has received a lot of thieving of pictures of my sidemount setup. I wouldnt mind if the users then credited me with them, but they pass them off as their own or fail to mention that they are, infact, someone elses. Good grief, low life, where is your honesty? Philosophy 10/04/2011
Philosophy 10/04/2011
I like the Mel Brooke's line from the History of the World when he is in teh unemployment line and they ask him his profession- he replies philospher and the clerk suggests bullshitter would be more appropriate. I overheard a somewhat new technical instructor (a couple of years as an instructor is, in this game, very much the new boy) from an agency who is, perhaps, not the first one that might spring to mind when one is searching for quality instruction (and there's the issue- quality!), discussing deco theory with his students and bullshitting heartily about the core themes of the one and only deco theory that he "knew". He was surprised to hear that there there are several competing theories, each with various underpinnings and each with +/- and each with reasons why one might choose one over another and in what circumstances that might be. Good grief- and this fellow is unleashing 'extreme' technical divers (ahem!) out into the water. Good grief. I can only say- Train Right! If not for yourself, then for the sake of your family, friends and loved ones-please seek out QUALITY training at this level and TRAIN RIGHT! Isobaric Counter Diffusion 09/07/2011
VERY interesting experience. Deep dive, remote location, unable to obtain desired intermediate deco mixes. Last minute revamping of the deco schedule. Support divers at the ready. Descent, often the easy part, went well and as scheduled, ascent went well up to the 200' stop and gas switch. Not having the gas I had planned, I had to reshape the plan with what I had, switched to intermediate gas and suddenly the world started slowly spinning. I work on the premise that: If something feels wrong- it IS wrong! Before I could switch back to backgas I felt a rushing feeling up and down my arms (I understand from a hyperbaric tech that was on my support team that this is not uncommon with an inert gas switch where the inerts are both relatively high in delta (He to N2 in this case). This sounds like it took an age, but in reality was very fast. I returned to backgas, looked at my lost gas schedules and planned my next move. I recalled reading Sheck Exley, in Caverns Measureless to Man, describe a procedure he adopted for a successful switch from a high He to high N2 gas and decided to give that a try. I wrote a quick note to my support diver who was watching me like a hawk and was right by my side as soon as I approached his stop- excellent chap to have around, he was clearly extremely well trained and knew his business (and I can modestly accept the credit for that!). It worked! I often say that one must be a student of one's art or profession. My dayjob as a stock broker ensures that I am indeed a student of my profession (I am a stock trader for my clients not a mutual fund seller like so many so called "Financial Advisors'. Ask them for THEIR opinion, not their firm's, and see what you get! And I am very much the student of my art, as a technical diver. And being so may have just saved the day. Train Right! Cozumel- several trips later 06/09/2011
The technical diving in CZM just keeps getting better. Ready, easy, safe access to some great depths- beautiful walls to explore/ come up on as we dive. Great shallow reefs to watch as we deco. Hard to beat. Suggested packages: Tec 40/ 45/ 45Trimix (dive to 150' AND be on trimix at an early stage in tech diving- very cool, very clear head) Tec 45/50- 165' full accelerated, staged deco add trimix to that for Tec50 TMx Tec bootcamp Tec40/45/50- 0-165' in an intensive week of su Tec 50/ 65- 210' on normoxic trimix Tec65/ Tec TMx- 300' beautiful Come and join me. COZUMEL 10/07/2010
Way too much going on. All of it good. Excellent technical courses in Cozumel were had over the summer. Divers were able to safely execute impressive dives to 300' which was breathtaking. What a milestone. And an array of sidemount and backmount divers, too were on the team. Truly a great experience. More are planned- there's one coming up in November and another in Jan/ Feb 2011. Keep watching! Cloasses, Classes, Classes 06/02/2010
Cloasses, Classes, Classes 06/02/2010
What a FULL course schedule this year has had. Congratulations to the new technical divers at 40/ 45/ 50 levels and to those going forward to trimix- you will have a blast! One thing that REALLY separates instructors is their experience. Most instructors will teach a pretty good course, given the material is quality in the first place (there are a couple of agencies whose course content is a bit on the light side, and not quite the XTREME side- xtreme, good grief!) But nevertheless most agencies are pretty similar, and an instructor who lacks breadth of experience will not give you the sort of training you want. Of course, you wont know any different until years later when you realise that, so start off the right way, choose an experienced guide for your path. Train Right! What to do when you can't go diving 02/07/2010
This one is easy! Get your gear out, try it on, tweak it, move that hip ring just a fraction this way or that, tweak that regulator, check the drysuit seals- I know, that's a complete load of rubbish. | Paul
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