Shadow Divers – Exposed U 869

[wrybosome]

Then we'll have to agree to disagree.
Banging on an encrusted, unstable oxygen tank right at the end of the story has an element of contrived hyperbole, when taken in context against the background of his previous super caution, safety training and meticulous planning.

I listened to the audiobook version of SD, and at the end there is an extra interview where the author asks Chatterton and Kohler questions. When asked about how their spouses deal with their more dangerous dives, something pretty close the following exchange happens-

Paraphrasing:

Chat. - I always told my wife that the other divers called me 'Mr. Safety', till someone let the cat out of the bag and told her they really call me 'Mr. Wacko'

Kohl. - I can vouch for that.

FWIW, the rest of the book did not make me think Chatterton was 'super cautious' either. There are numerous incidents in the story where I would have been far more cautious.

 

[The Chairman]

I say we give the new guy a break. He's not a Tonka Troll... or doesn't seem to be. It's OK to disagree about such things.... I don't think Mr Xray is trying to besmirch as much as he is trying to understand.

 

[Scott L]

I say we give the new guy a break. He's not a Tonka Troll... or doesn't seem to be. It's OK to disagree about such things.... I don't think Mr Xray is trying to besmirch as much as he is trying to understand.

I getting a whiff of a sock puppet/troll. In his first day here he is proficent with vbulletin mechanics including the ignor function, etc.

 

[mike_s]

I getting whiff of a sock puppet/troll. In his first day here he is proficent with vbulletin mechanics including the ignor function, etc.

I was thinking the same thing... even before I read your post.

new poster, and quickly finds this thread? and already putting people on ignore. hmmmm

 

[vladimir]

I was thinking the same thing... even before I read your post.

new poster, and quickly finds this thread? and already putting people on ignore. hmmmm

If you do a google search for "shadow divers exposed" you'll quickly find this thread. If you're active on, say, a military history forum you might be proficient in all the vBulletin features. Why a non-diver would join Scubaboard just to argue, however, I can't readily explain. I guess that Xray99 is more likely Tonka than Gary; if so, it's nice to see he missed us too much to stay away. I'll have a steak in Tonka's honor for dinner tonight.

 

[The Chairman]

Agreed... vBulletin is the leading software out there for a BBS, and he did mention he was bored. Of course, I have access to the man's IP and other information,: he does not seem to be a troll from my enlightened view. But what do I know?

 

[adurso]

 

[diversteve]

I getting a whiff of a sock puppet/troll. In his first day here he is proficent with vbulletin mechanics including the ignor function, etc.

I was thinking the same thing... even before I read your post.

new poster, and quickly finds this thread? and already putting people on ignore. hmmmm

Maybe he's used it on one of the other 40,000 .vbulletin forums?

Not to mention that googling Shadow Divers Scuba returns ScubaBoard as the 11th hit. Or we're #102 out of 308,000 results with just Shadow Divers as the search term. #5 out of 262,000 if you google Shadow Divers forum. Our SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is dead on...so it's not difficult to understand how the poster ended up here?

 

[Chaseh]

I say we give the new guy a break. He's not a Tonka Troll... or doesn't seem to be. It's OK to disagree about such things.... I don't think Mr Xray is trying to besmirch as much as he is trying to understand.

Nice, I like the expression "Tonka Troll". Can we get a Tonka Troll doll to dive with instead of Mooney?

 

[Xray99]

In his first day here he is proficent with vbulletin mechanics including the ignor function, etc.

And complex things such as quotations too !
Um,,, This isn't exactly my first experience in a forum.
Diving forum, yes.
Military forums, truck forums, metal detecting forums, guitar forums, guns n roses forum, firearms forum, German Shepard forums I have been using for years, most with the same style & functionality as this one ,,, And I can easily imagine the type of forums you're involved in with a nym like "Valhalla".

I was actually dreading this Tonka guy getting involved, having read through the thread and not thinking too much of his confrontational and juvenile style ,,, But at least the guy kept mostly on topic, abrasive & annoying tho he was/is.

The oxygen tank thing is incidental, about the only thing in the whole book that set off my BS meter.
I mentioned it in passing, and it was some of you guys who blew it up into some kind of issue, not I.
My main questions, which I asked in my first post here and have so far gone unanswered, was why did Gary feel so slighted about this, as if he had some major, undocumented part in the whole thing ,,, And have others died diving the wreck since the book was written.