For many years, I have watched--without responding--as some people have rewritten cave diving history to support their personal agendas. And for those many years, I have generally been amused by "facts" that are inaccurate and by events that never actually occurred. However, Jarrod's article demands a response from me, so I am making my first ever Internet posting. I feel compelled to make this response for two primary reasons.
First, Jarrod uses the words "twisted facts" in his post, when, in fact, several of his own "facts" are inaccurate. Second, I spoke to Jarrod recently and told him I was going to write an article regarding the differences between the Hogarthian configuration and DIR. When Jarrod heard this news, he became defensive and asked me not to write the article because it "would stir things up." So I complied with his request and did not write the article. If, however, I wrote the article now, there are several things I might say.
For example, I might mention that Lloyd Bailey, my long time friend, certified Jarrod in full cave on October 23, 1989, a date that's after some of the events about which Jarrod writes with seeming authority. In actuality, Jarrod was not there in the early days of the WKPP, nor was anyone else currently in that organization around in those days. In my non-article, I also might write an interesting tidbit to put some perspective on Jarrod's position in the equation. Specifically, when Jarrod was working at Ginnie Springs, we used to dive a lot together. One night, while we were decompressing on the log in Devil's Ear, I used my slate to ask Jarrod in what year he was born. When he wrote his response, I realized that I had been decompressing on what seemed to be the same log when he was only three years old. As a result, the cave diving history on which Jarrod reports is frequently nothing more than hearsay. Inasmuch as this is the case, I'd like to correct the most glaring errors Jarrod makes in his posting.
Specifically, Sheck Exley died before the term "DIR" was used. Furthermore, in the beginning of DIR, the basic configuration was the same as Hogarthian, although differences did come into play later. As far as the coining of the term "Hogarthian configuration" is concerned, the mastermind of those words was John Zumrick and not Bill Gavin. And, finally, the main theme of the original WKPP members was of minimalism and the complete elimination of danglies. The poor gear configuration of which Jarrod writes in his post was definitely not characteristic of the initial WKPP group, and again, Jarrod wasn't around to even witness what our gear configuration was.
In closing, Jarrod has been a part of some big events in cave diving and has made some incredible dives. However, I have always believed that if you must report on or write about parts of cave diving history, you will make fewer mistakes if you were there.
William Hogarth Main
