Diving like this is fun?

[H2Andy]

Why won't more people admit that?

possibly because that's not the motivator for those other people

in my case, i think of myself as doing weenie dives. yeah, they're in caves...
but come on.. i'm not doing trimix dives down to 300 feet, or doing 10 hour
dives including deco... that's pushing it

me going into a cave 1400 feet at max depth of 100 feet... well... that's just
not that impressive

why do i do it? well... seems like a shame not to dive caves when i am
surrounded by them

 

[daniel f aleman]

I dive deep for the same reasons that I was a ranger in the Army and a paramedic: I wanted to be different. And I wanted to see if I was tough.

What did you find out?

 

[beezwax]

I tend to agree, but you must remember that people with poor viz have to come up with lots of procedures to stay entertained, especially the really bright people. Thats what I have decided. In many ways, they ARE better divers. More fun? I am still trying to decide on that one. One reason I ask for ice divers to post their pictures recently, is I wanted to see if they were smiling. They seem to like cutting the hole the best....you know, getting out the chain saw. It is definitely a male bonding thing from what I can tell. And the GEU website? ...More male bonding. I am sure there are some women around someplace, but you cannot help but wonder if men go to the tropics to be WITH women and the ones that are tech diving, go to get AWAY from women.

C'mon now Catherine, I won't even go into the "tech diving to get away from women" thing because it's been addressed by the twenty posts since, but do you really feel that anyone pushing the limits must have a testosterone imbalance? I live two thousand clicks from the sea, and I cut holes in the ice because for much of the year that's what stands between me and the water. It's not a "male bonding" thing, it's a diving thing. Here are a couple ice dive pics for you from a few weeks ago, taken moments apart. You can't see my face, but no I am not smiling. I am, however, having a very quiet, personal moment and feeling more serenity than adrenaline. I'm thinking about the way people and places haunt our lives because it's a ghost world I'm about to enter. It's a mine pit that I'm diving, and I'm dropping down on some crushing/sorting structures at 100-150 feet that are left over from the mining days. I'll be ice diving again tomorrow, but I can tell you that cutting the hole will not the best part.

 

[Blitz]

I found out that tough is relative. Everyone has their own definition. Since I met all of the challanges that I set out to do, I guess that by doing what I thought took a tough person to do, I was tough. Looking back, I did some things to be proud of; things not many people can claim. I am just me, if that makes me tough, then yes. I guess that I am tough.

 

[Vayu]

Did someone say nudi? :14:

Ok ok... all tech divers are not gay, but a whole lot of them are. You know who you are - and it is OK.

Wait, wasn't this thread about side mounting?

-V

 

[H2Andy]

Wait, wasn't this thread about side mounting?

oh dear LOrd

please don't nobody make that joke...


:14:

 

[do it easy]

It's the shallow dives that scare me- 80' with 1 reg doesn't sound as safe as 160' with 2 regs.

 

[Blitz]

It's the shallow dives that scare me- 80' with 1 reg doesn't sound as safe as 160' with 2 regs.

There is something to be said about that logic. I feel safer with my doubles, too.

 

[TSandM]

I think it was catherine who made the comment, "Just don't tell me it's about diving safely."

Well, when you take extraordinary risks, you often take extraordinary precautions. You accept risk beyond what daily life entails, and then you do what you can to minimize it. Procedures, equipment and protocols are developed to render the insane merely dangerous, and then people go and do it. And feel maximally alive at those moments.

 

[micknewton]

The alternative of diving just a few months under ideal conditions or diving only when we can afford to travel is not even on the radar screen as an option. Is it a male bonding thing?

It's a lifestyle thing. For some people diving is their lifestyle. For others it's only part of their lifestyle. Either way is okay by me... as long as you're polite.

Personally trying to be a diver on a few vacation weeks per year would be a dream squandered and IMO an accident waing to happen.

It would only be a dream squandered if being a diver was the end of your dream. Why limit yourself to being just a diver? Why not be a diver, and other things too?

I also disagree that just because a person chooses to limit their diving to vacations that it automatically means they're an accident waiting to happen. It all depends on the person. I'd be willing to bet there are lots of "vacation divers" out there that are damn good. Probably a lot damn bad ones too, and everything in-between, but that's what you get with humans. They're really just a bunch of rude, pink, hairless monkeys after all.
:monkeydan