Diver0001 once bubbled...
Well,
The association is clear but I'll spell it out for you. George Irvine is as much "Mr. DIR" as JJ, PA, MHK or anyone else. What GI says reflects directly on the GUE due to the DIR/GUE/WKPP link. (two hands on one belly as the Dutch would say)
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Let me see if I can offer some thoughts for consideration, and I suspect JJ will also add his thinking as well. Scuba forums have evolved over the years from their infancy when it was a good way to share diving protocols from one geographic location to another, and as a way for divers to interact that would otherwise have no resources. To that end, it has now evolved to the point where many have staked out a claim to a position and will argue, to the exclusion of logic and reason, irrespective of facts and/or experience. That applies to all sides on nearly every board that I frequent. This particular list has moved to the forefront of my favorite since absent a small few, most on this list are well-meaning and well-intended. However, many try to create a nexus for self-serving purposes. For example, George and JJ are both synonomous with creating, growing and implementing "DIR".. In that regard both have "ownership", such as the term applies to a concept. George is the head of the WKPP and regularly puts his life on the line doing dives that are well beyond the scope of anything 99.9% of the diving world will ever see. In his capacity of Director of the WKPP he runs a no nonsense team [ trust me I know first hand how pissed he gets when you make a mistake ;-)]. Moreover, in his capacity as Director he has advanced diving to obscene levels in terms of what is released to the general diving public. So in that regard, he regularly encounters divers that have no clue what he does, what the WKPP does, or why some of the industry protocols bear little resemblence to logic, but want to feverishly argue with George, WKPP protocols and concepts that are routinely accomplished at Wakulla week in and week out. So in his capacity of WKPP Director he takes no nonsense from his team members and takes even less from those that want to simply argue without information and posture on the internet. Take for example one exchange that stands out in my memory. An instructor from another technical agency was feverishly arguing with George about CNS toxicity and was telling George how stupid he was and that you could only spend 45 minutes at a PP02 of 1.6 and so on. This guy was telling George how he was going to die [ sound familiar??], how George was a moron and so forth, until George posted his profile from the week before showing how he exceeded the NOAA limits by some 10,000%.. In other words, there is a different way to approach the issue but this guy had no clue so assumed that George also had no clue and was acting reckless. In any event, George is self-employed, he is the head of the most widely successful exploartion teams in scuba history and he jointly created the DIR concept with Jarrod Jablonski so he is in the position to represent himself and the WKPP as he see fits. If some get offended by his comments I suspect you'll find that if you e-mail George privately or ask him a direct question you'll get a courteous reply. If you want to publicly challenge and argue with him I suspect you'll get treated accordingly. He has no problem answering questions, but after 10 years of answering every question imaginable it gets old having some newly minted "tech" diver or "cave" diver telling George he has no clue what he is doing because it says so in some training manual.
Jarrod on the other hand was/is a dive educator by profession and chose a different path. Jarrod chose to use his "ownership" of the concept and create a training agency around that concept. When Jarrod speaks he speaks on behalf of the agency he created, GUE.. When George speaks he speaks on behalf of the project that he is the Director of, WKPP.. While I grant that there is an overlap and a commonality of shared diving beliefs, the point is that JJ has just as much right to censor George as he does the man in the moon. George is a self-made man, he works in a family business, heads the WKPP and has no ownership in GUE, Halcyon and/or Extreme Exposure.. Accordingly, JJ has no ability to control how George represents his projects or his image. The red-herring is that unless JJ can control George then there is a tacit endorsement of his conduct..
From my personal perspective George and I didn't see eye to eye initially until I took the time to take a step back and realize that he's seen things and done things that I hadn't even contemplated doing. I took the time to meet him, and he was very gracious, and since we've formed a friendship, we dove many, many times together, I joined the WKPP and I've learned a ton from him, in fact we'll be together next week in Seattle where George will, once again, donate his time to fly around the country to speak to his diving protocols.. The point being is that the nexus that some are trying to create, in my view, is a red-herring.. But I totally respect your right to have an alternative point of view and I'm not sure how fruitful it will be trying to have added exchanges to try to change some minds that have long ago been made up..
Hope that helps..
