Okay. It's getting late here in Florida and it's been a long day.
Let me start by saying there were some great speakers at the workshop. The four that jump to the top of the list are Jeff Bozanic, Simon Mitchell, German Yanez, and Don Shirley (in order of appearance).
Jeff did a talk on cave diving safety, present and future. According to him, the focus of the five guidelines of accident analysis have changed in recent years. Technology has created an environment in which cave divers can do a lot more too soon. Divers with very little experience are buying scooters, RBs, etc and taking them to their limits soon after training. Jeff also mentioned he had approximately 140 hours on a RB before he ever went in a cave with it. And that first dive in a cave with his RB made him realize he wasn't ready for that and he ended up spending more time on the RB before taking it inside a cave. Unfortunately, not very many other divers think that way. And it's thinking like that that is leading to many of the fatalities that have been occurring. Excellent presentation with a lot to think about. Way too much to post here, but I came out of that presentation thinking about a lot of things that he mentioned.
Simon Mitchell is just a phenomenal speaker. He knows how to deliver a joke and exactly when to do it. It's obvious he does a lot of these. He is also a very intelligent, well-informed expert in his field of anesthesiology and hyperbaric medicine. His talk concerned DCS. And I couldn't even begin to repeat everything that he covered during his TWO presentations. His talk on PFOs was very enlightening. He was only scheduled to do one presentation, but due to a no show, was asked to do a 2nd and complied (lucky for us!). He went over his time limit both times...not because he is long winded, but because we wouldn't let him step down. There were so many questions everyone had, he could have spoken the entire weekend and that still wouldn't have been enough!!! Definitely a must see if you ever get a chance!
German Yanez did a presentation on the caves of Cozumel, including the life in them, the developments going on above them, the INAH, the laws of Mexico, etc. Very informative, lots of photos. I bought a DVD from him and will be doing some guided dives on Cozumel with him when we return to Mexico. I was also fortunate enough to speak to German twice over the past couple of days in personal conversation. He is a very nice gentleman who is very passionate about Cozumel, the caves there, and his country. I haven't been diving with him, but after seeing this presentation, I definitely recommend him as a guide. The surface intervals alone will be worth it!
Finally, Don Shirley did a great presentation on the death of Dave Shaw that occurred in Bushman's Gate in South Africa a couple of years ago. Don was Dave's dive buddy and was the second diver down (after Dave) on that dive. It is obvious that Don is still very affected by his friend's death. However, despite that, he was able to give a very professional, objective presentation. I have read about the incident and seen the video before, but Don's presentation shed more light on the incident. This coupled with Simon's follow up presentation and his analysis of the incident was excellent. I was also able to buy a copy of the book Raising the Dead autographed by Don!
That's pretty much it. There were other speakers that had some good information. Jarrod Jablonski did a good presentation on the WKPP and their past accomplishments and future endeavors (heading south towards the gulf). And we missed a few presenters, one during the day due to having to run home and let the pups out and give them an afternoon snack, and the last 3 of the evening because we were just beat. The workshop started at 5 Friday night (we arrived at 6) and ended at 10. It resumed at 7:30 Saturday and was supposed to go until 10pm. We stayed until 6pm with a 2 hour break in between. It was to resume at 7:30 with 3 more speakers, but we guessed, based on the course of the day, that it wouldn't end until sometime around 11pm. We opted not to return. Besides, we're going diving tomorrow morning!
Hope this helps, Peter! I'll try to think of some more specifics to post over the next couple of days.
