boomx5:
This thread is entertaining and all, but I really find some of your statements disturbing California Diver. I really don't care what dives Steve has done and I'm glad he's still around to regale you with his stories. However, you've eluded to the fact that he's done some crazy stuff and that he's still around to and not dead after doing these dives, and my question for you is, are you suprised by that? Why do you look at a dive that is "deep" or "long" as crazy? I remember talking to AG about a dive one time and eluded to the fact that a particular dive was not all that deep at 300'. To some people those types of dives are not crazy at all. To some people it's just as normal as a recreational diver making a 20' reef dive.
I think what you need to consider is that when it becomes an ego driven thing to go long or deep, that you may need to take a break and get some perspective on diving so you don't get youself hurt. Of course, that's my advise...take it or leave it.
Thank You for bring some sence to this thread.
The system being talked about is the Carlsbad Cavern system. No there is nothing new about this system its been around for a million years "I don't really know". Some say it is one of the largest cave systems around. Most every body has heard of the Blue Hole in Santa Rosa New Mexico. There in the bottom of the Blue Hole as everyone knows is a grated up entrance to a cave said to be part of Carlsbad Caverns. Now if you draw a line from Santa Rosa to Carlsbad New Mexico it's about 200 miles. Yes I would love to do that. In fact I was joking with AG last week about testing his new scooter on a 200 mile test run in the system this weekend. Yes I was going to go dive there this weekend but I can't. Life gets in the way somtimes.
Back to the story. One of the reason I love technical diving is because you technically plan your dive. For me this means that I spend more time studying, planing, research than I do diving. 200 miles is short like I said before from point A to point B is 200 miles. It may it up being 1000's of miles. It streches from Texas to Tuson Az. & from the middle of New Mexico into Old Mexico. If you look at a satilite view you'll see that there are Cenotes scattered all over the south west. Now what I have done is that I have done some research and along with Wayne Cooper of Five Star Divers who is there this weekend diving some of these cenotes. That he has gotten permission to explore that dot the south west.
Doing 200 miles that would be fun and yes it can be done. Some guy did 40 to 50 hours in a swiming pool. I would much rather do 20hrs exploring a cave. For the past 5 months I have been trying to conect the dots from cenote to cenote so that I can along with Five Star Diver not a couple hunderd miles but possibly 1000's of miles.
Pres. Kennedy once said "some people ask why, while others ask why not". The slogan for my group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/taopitek/ is "taking diving to the limits and beyond" I envolve my students in my projects. Like last summers trip with Joel, Dan, Ed and myself to the B-36. The 4 of us our dive pro's so 270' is a walk in the park. The real hero of the dive was Mike a advance nitrox & deco procedure student. He made it possible that it was a walk in the park for us. He had to put all of the skills together in a real life senerio. From shooting a lift bag in mid water at 70' to shuttling deco bottles back & forth.
I enjoy tek diving and I do atlest 3 pretty exterme "what some people would call crazy or exterme" dives a week. But even PADI has sign on to tek diving and this sport still has the safety record as bowling and even fewer in tek.
There is nothing wrong with DIR it is a good thing in that in it is a window into the tek world. Because I use a 100# bungy wing of death and Poseidin regs doesn't mean anything beside I love my gear and it has served me well for a very long time and in places that few have gone.
