Pushing Limits

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Divesherpa

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Scuba Instructor
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Location
Girdwood, Ak
DiverBuoy once bubbled...


Dual/twin cylinders are not taught in my recreational classes
I'd love to dive with you on a wreck some time. Anyway I'm looking forward to trying out a more technical rig, setup, and profile.

I would enjoy diving with you.
As a side note, have you thought about taking technical classes, i.e... trimix, technical wreck penetration, cave, etc.....?
It's a lot of fun and your instruction would improve as well.
Cheers and safe diving
 
Divesherpa once bubbled...
I would enjoy diving with you.
As a side note, have you thought about taking technical classes, i.e... trimix, technical wreck penetration, cave, etc.....?
It's a lot of fun and your instruction would improve as well.
Cheers and safe diving

I'm also a nitrox instructor. However, being married and with a 9yr old boy and 4yr old girl - I can educatedly tell you that trimix is not for me nor is any serious overhead environment - such as cave or cavern diving - or deep/deco wreck penetration. Minimum risk is really important to me (and my family) at this stage in my life. My SAC is .6 how about yours - I'd love to dive twins just for the joy of doing a really long dive. My current long dive is just over 2 hours - off a 100cf single.
 
Sac is about .5
Did a 4 1/2 hour dive today. The long this month is about 6 hours including deco. I'm a MSDT also.
I don't have any kids of my own yet. I'm still trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up. If I did, I don't think I could give up deep wrecks and caves anyway. I may cut back on the solo stuff, but not all of it.
Cheers and safe diving
 
I have kids but I'm not getting any yonger and I want to cave dive. I have no intention of failing to return from a dive. I think I'm safer in a cave than most rec divers are on a 40 ft reef. Sherp is right it will help your teaching.
 
MikeFerrara once bubbled...
I have kids but I'm not getting any yonger and I want to cave dive. I have no intention of failing to return from a dive. I think I'm safer in a cave than most rec divers are on a 40 ft reef. Sherp is right it will help your teaching.

Mike, if you really believe what you just wrote, you are headed for trouble.

Some of you would be cave/deep trimix divers ought to read "Into Thin Air" It is about climbing Mt. Everest, but it does not take a lot of smarts to see that what the author is saying about risking your life to push the limits applies equally to technical diving.
 
leadweight, You couldn't be further from the truth.
Very few cave divers are pushing limits. Most cave divers, especially those with less than 100 cave dives a year are purely recreational. That means that they are following pre-planned routes with definitive markings pointing the way out. Comparing this to anything extreme is like comparing golf to free climbing.
Cave diving on the main path is by far the safest diving that I have ever done.
Some of the no-mount and sidemount stuff is a different story.

Cheers,
Sherpa (climber and diver)
 
Divesherpa,

The route to the top of everest has been climbed by many and it is marked and well known. Under your definition of pusing the limits, climbing Everest is not pushing the limits. When I wrote "pushing the limits" I mean pushing one's personal limits.

One of the groups that received the most critical view in "Into Thin Air" were the paid organizers of the expeditions. That would equate to anyone that makes money off of cave diving. Dive shops, instructors, anyone with a financial interest. Is that you?

If you think cave diving is the safest diving you have ever done, then I hope you have never been on a coral reef, because I have trouble imagining what would make a reef dive more dangerous than a cave dive. I hope you mean that when cave diving you are the most careful of any diving that you have done.

Please try to explain your position to the relatives of the 500 or so divers that died in the Florida caves since people started diving there.

In no way should my opinion be interpreted as advocating a position that cave diving be prohibited. It is more of a reaction to some unbelievable statements about relative levels of safety that are being thrown around here. I have to agree with DiverBouy and his reservations.
 
leadweight once bubbled...
Divesherpa,

The route to the top of everest has been climbed by many and it is marked and well known. Under your definition of pusing the limits, climbing Everest is not pushing the limits. When I wrote "pushing the limits" I mean pushing one's personal limits.

One of the groups that received the most critical view in "Into Thin Air" were the paid organizers of the expeditions. That would equate to anyone that makes money off of cave diving. Dive shops, instructors, anyone with a financial interest. Is that you?

If you think cave diving is the safest diving you have ever done, then I hope you have never been on a coral reef, because I have trouble imagining what would make a reef dive more dangerous than a cave dive. I hope you mean that when cave diving you are the most careful of any diving that you have done.

Please try to explain your position to the relatives of the 500 or so divers that died in the Florida caves since people started diving there.

In no way should my opinion be interpreted as advocating a position that cave diving be prohibited. It is more of a reaction to some unbelievable statements about relative levels of safety that are being thrown around here. I have to agree with DiverBouy and his reservations.

Sherpa.... I'd like to cut in here please....

leadweight.... as far as safety is concerned, You may have the silt to deal with as well as the "no direct" surfacing, but you don't have Mother Nature trying to spank you in a cave as you would on Everest or @ 250' on the Saratoga. You are MUCH more aware of what you're doing & you're senses are very much heightened. I feel more comfortable in a cave than I do in the ocean. I don't have to wory about getting swept away, going beyond my depth, or getting EATEN. This allows more focus on my dive & what I'm doing. I don't have all of these extra distractions to break my focus. I can concentrate on me & my teamates. Is it dangerous? Too a point, but far less than Everest I think.

Now I don't think this is the forum for debating Cave diving, but if you'd like, we can discuss this further in the Cave forum.
 
OK Thump,
This is going off topic.
Just don't get overconfident, that is how accidents happen. Some of these statements make me wonder. OK, no current in caves and no nasty sea creatures. But the overhead is a serious thing. I know you guys know that.
 
leadweight once bubbled...
OK Thump,
This is going off topic.
Just don't get overconfident, that is how accidents happen. Some of these statements make me wonder. OK, no current in caves and no nasty sea creatures. But the overhead is a serious thing. I know you guys know that.

Over confidence kills. Comfort in your surroundings makes decisions a bit easier to make. And the only word I can say about overhead is

REDUNDANT, REDUNDANT, REDUNDANT

Kinda redundant huh... :)
 
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