I am pretty sure that Steve designed the steps at Cow and P1. Not saying that the design is perfect, but there might be a lot more to consider than what you see on the surface. The length of the stair stringers is a limiting factor. Extending out further into the spring would be an additional engineering challenge, requiring a cantilever support. Also, deviation from the existing basic design might get more people involved from the park and raise additional questions. Point is.. steps were mostly replaced "as is" with just a couple improvements.
Also, extending the steps out, would cover more of the open spring area. And I don't think there is a good argument to do that.
Most (or many) of the folks involved in planning, designing and executing these steps ARE sidemount divers, so anyone thinking that this was just BM divers having it "their way" is just wrong, and silly. Sure you might imagine ways this could have been adapted to make sidemount divers more happy, but I really don't see any valid argument that their life is now harder at P1.
I don't mean this in a snarky way, but it you feel passionately about this.. perhaps reach out to the NFSA and get involved in planning AND execution of the next project. (Madison Main Steps, I think).
Addressing the stuff in bold:
The steps are massively over built (intentionally, and with good reason), and cantilevering out another step or two would not have been a problem. However, I agree with you that it creates other issues, such as extending the "overhead" environment. We can't have cave divers surfacing under a wooden step.
I also agree that deviating from the existing basic design can cause other issues, particularly when state parks and accessibility issues are involved. The irony here though is that the designers deviated from the basic design by widening the bottom two steps rather than continuing two steps lower. There are advantages to that, such as a wider level space a diver can turn around on easier, but there are also costs in terms of not ending the steps as close to the water. Unless you're doing a boat there's not much advantage to a foot high face to the stairs.
If they had simply replaced the old stars using the same design, you wound have the negative feedback. As it is, the steps were replaced "mostly" as they were, and that will have people questioning the design changes that were made.
Now, I agree that we don't want to have the part staff involved more than needed in the design approval process, but that also requires due diligence to ensure designs are fully considered and vetted. If the NSFA screws it up, it undermines their ability to have a free hand in future projects.
I'm happy to provide input to the NSFA on any future plans, and I'd have been happy to give suggestions on this design, including the consideration of the design relative to the average water levels and the degree to which the design should accommodate low water levels. However, to be fair the first I heard of the step replacement was the notice that it was starting. I did see and early design for Cow, but it was clearly being treated as close hold information and I never got the impression comments were actively being sought. Public comments are a double edge sword - you can learn a lot form them, but the process can be a pain in the ass and in cave country it invites cave country politics to play a role, something most folks would prefer to avoid.
Finally, you're missing my point on it being "harder" for side mount divers. The design has created a choke point, at least then the water levels are low. It's still clearly do-able for a sidemount diver, but they'll have to rely on the ladders, when they never needed a ladder at all before. Note that one of the posts in this thread references standing around in 104s waiting for SM divers on the ladders. The design added a choke point and back mount divers are going to have to live with the results of that as well.
