So, just who is George Irvine III?????

[Tortuga68]

Tortuga...the thing is, I am not re-inventing him....

The man, no. The myth - aka the WWF 'media' hero who just wanted to get a message accross - yes you are putting a lot of effort into trying to do just that

too many people, seem to be saying the GUE and the world would be better without GIII.....I don't like revisionism.....Too many are ready to forget that without GIII there would be no DIR, and No GUE, and no bp/wings ( which became market driven as a result of DIR)
And it is NOT well documented, as many are "sort of succeeding" with their revisionism....and...if you look at Wikipedia, it is as if George's arch enemy Bill Renaker was allowed to write the History of the WKPP and of George, so poorly was this documented, and so obvious as to the agendas in play.

Again, this has nothing to do with your "WWF Wrestler/media manipulator" personification. Funny that you quoted wiki in another thread as 'defining' stroke; now wikipedia is a tool to discredit George that has been hijacked by people with an agenda

Nobody with any credibility would say that George didn't influence technical diving today. It's his method that is in question. He should (and perhaps, by his silence, does) own it - and so should you. Enough WWF analogies, please

 

[danvolker]

I guess the reason I can't see your side of it is, that I don't believe Bill was being unsafe. George's perspective was that Bill's teaching were going to get people killed. Well, we're 20 years into the future. Bill never did sign on to George's way of thinking, but Bill Rennaker's survival record from his students is still pretty amazing.

You mean you don't get how if you put a Televangelist ( outspoken Christian) in the same room with a militant Islamic , you don't see why the two of them could not form an agreement about the way our lives should be led?

Bill had a "religion" of sorts in his preaching about the way you should dive, and so did George...they were diametrically opposed to each other.

 

[Superlyte27]

Well, truth be told... I was his student towards the end of that era. The group of people cave diving wasn't very large. Everyone knew everyone. We did know a few people who screwed up, got scared and quit. But for the very large part, the people who were cave diving then quit cave diving due to old age, finances, kids... or just outgrew it.

I miss that group of guys.

---------- Post added August 9th, 2013 at 04:29 PM ----------

 

[shoredivr]

Bill R. in my opinion was the best thing to happen to sidemount diving up to that point, and probably for some time beyond. If there was a more heated debate than from George and Bill, I never read it. George believe because Bill was sidemount and solo that the end of the world was coming. He hammered on that drum over and over again. Guess what, 20 years later, there's more sidemount and solo divers than ever. Are they making up a mass numbers of deaths?

So Bill Rennaker was teaching sidemount as well as solo back then? All I knew was that he was teaching solo caving - I thought that was the only reason why the "avert" cross with garlic was always being shown when his name was mentioned. Perhaps partially explains the lack of SM in GUE? Thanks for filling in this bit of history!

 

[DiverHowie]

The whole GI thing reminds me of that line from Shakespeare "[FONT=arial, sans-serif]The evil that men do lives after them; [/FONT][FONT=arial, sans-serif]the good is oft interred with their bones[/FONT][FONT=arial, sans-serif]"[/FONT]
[FONT=arial, sans-serif]George may have done some things that progressed diving - no question - but I'd s[/FONT][FONT=arial, sans-serif]ay his lasting legacy has been totally destructive to our sport. The negative byproducts of his influence still exist in some remaining DIR attitudes and spill over, to a lesser degree, in GUE. The worst of these effects is a terrible sort of elitism that has drifted into the sport, that there is only one way to dive, one way to configure your gear, one kind of "good diver", one level of skill that does not deserve derision. GI took some practical concepts that were broadly useful and turned them into a inflexible almost fanatical code, which perverted any good sense that might be in them. It discouraged a divers own independent thinking about his/her own kit or what might be "good practice" in a particular circumstance (which I believe is the way a diver truly improves). And the worst legacy was insult - insult of anyone who thought or practiced diving skill differently. This venom not only applied to less skilled sport divers, but some great diving pioneers and legends such an Exley- Rob Palmer, and Bret Gilliam being other examples, who might have dived or recommended something different from GI. He insulted whole nations divers, he did so with the British cave divers.
His advice, good or bad, can be taken and considered.... his attitude was unforgivable, and sadly lives on. [/FONT]

 

[PfcAJ]

Good grief.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Of all the transgressions that I have endured and subsequently been forced to forgive..........


an attitude has always been one of the easiest.....

 

[kensuf]

Delete.. Nothing good comes from dredging this crap up..

 

[tursiops]

Everyone will remember Clinton for saying "Read my Lips"

I had to laugh when I ran across this statement....since it was Bush I who said it, not Clinton.

 

[RJP]

I had to laugh when I ran across this statement....since it was Bush I who said it, not Clinton.

Yes, but which Bush?