For my first post on this forum, I don't think your reply was very positive. No offence.
Hi David, no offense taken. My initial reply was that there is no book in print,
rather a pdf file that can be bought and downloaded. And the sarcastic remark
about the depth gauge. Wasn't meant to reflect on you enjoying or recommending
the book or anything else CV writes.
I think Mr Verdier has a lot of qualifications in diving, has done a lot of explorations and expeditions and has taught a lot of courses.
Indeed he has all of that. Actually, I did also write
'Appearantly he dove 170 something meters, quite an achievement imho,..." which goes to show that I do respect those kind of dives. Deeper than I'll ever go. And I never said that he wasn't qualified or the wrong person to get trained by. I'm perfectly aware that in order to do the dives he's done one needs a lot of skill, knowledge, experience and balls. No arguments there.
I find a little bit sad that the only comment about this book you want to do is about a fight between its author and another diver many months ago.
I haven't read the book, hence I won't comment on it.
I find your reply very provocative.
I am surprised by this answer.
Well, the answers were to a questions asked.
Regarding CV, I couldn't care less if he and his former dive partners get along or not. Nor do I care what label he uses to sell his products or services.
I do however have problems when it comes to claims regarding extreme dives that don't quite pan out. Not because I despise lies, or have any moral problem or the like with it.
These dives were far beyond manufacturer's specifications for the equipment.
By claiming these achievements he claims that the equipemnt used operated at these depth, in these extreme conditions. That, imho, is wrong, bordering on dangerous. More so in the small world of life support equipment known as rebreathers, where formal testing tends to be the exception and customers are frequently the crash test dummies.
At least one manufacturer posted the use of their product just about as soon as the achievement became known. It has since been removed from their website, at least was last time I visited.
Anyway, that's the major problem I have with the whole story, and the fact that CV is as experienced, as skilled and as good as he is makes it worse from where I'm standing. Same with the fact that he is an instructor, an educator.
It's just my opinion, he, you, every- and anyone can disagree, I won't take offense.
Doesn't mean the book isn't worth reading, either. By all means, read it and learn from it. Then pick up the next one and do it all over again. Doesn't make a difference if it was written by Pyle, Mount, Bozanic, Verdier, Jablonski, or a couple decades ago by Hass, chances are you'll learn something you didn't know before.
Safe for Verdier, whose "marketing" I rather not support financially at this point, I've read books and articles from all of them and always learned something.