TSandM -- Her Greatest Posts

[bryanmc57]

This one keeps coming into my mind, one of her last posts... Lynne being Lynne. Reassuring a person getting ready to start dive training but getting "wigged out" by everything he's been reading about the dangers of the sport...

You know, when you look at the number of people who dive, and the number of dives done worldwide per year, and how many of those people are intermittent divers at best, you realize diving is a surprisingly safe sport. You can make some BIG mistakes and live through them, if you don't compound them -- I know, because I did! On the other hand, there's no particular need to make big mistakes. Take a good class that gives you time in the water to get a handle on buoyancy control. Discipline yourself to check your gas. Don't let anyone talk you into doing anything you don't feel comfortable doing. Follow those rules, and you are very unlikely to get into any significant trouble.

 

[Akimbo]

I don't know about an individual post but this thread is one of the best on Scubaboard:
Panic in the experienced diver?

 

[CT-Rich]

I don't know about an individual post but this thread is one of the best on Scubaboard:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/advanced-scuba-discussions/378868-panic-experienced-diver.html

I was reading this thread this morning and it was almost spooky reading what Lynne had written in some those posts and she was the originator of the tread. I think that if someone was willing to edit her posts, there would be enough to put together Her version of "Zen and the art of Scuba Diving." Her posts were always a great mix technical, philosophical and medical. And she never came across as condescending, she was the consummate student of diving, always willing to learn and teach.

It would be a big challenge. She posted over 36,000 times.

 

[Kevrumbo]

I don't know about an individual post but this thread is one of the best on Scubaboard:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/advanced-scuba-discussions/378868-panic-experienced-diver.html

I was reading this thread this morning and it was almost spooky reading what Lynne had written in some those posts and she was the originator of the tread. I think that if someone was willing to edit her posts, there would be enough to put together Her version of "Zen and the art of Scuba Diving." Her posts were always a great mix technical, philosophical and medical. And she never came across as condescending, she was the consummate student of diving, always willing to learn and teach.

It would be a big challenge. She posted over 36,000 times.

Lynne's prophetically haunting yet calmly lucid & reassuring post --both in the context of that particular thread and in the wake of her passing:

I wonder, from my own experience, whether panic is something that happens early, or whether you can devolve into it . . . thinking about drifting with no boat, I would think that, if I were reasoning through things like using my signaling devices and getting positive, that I might become increasingly discouraged and frightened, but I'd be unlikely to panic, maybe because there is no action available that's going to change anything when one panics.

In both diving and in my work, the worst fear for me seems to be instant -- once I'm settled down to working out a solution, the fear retreats.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ad...8-panic-experienced-diver-10.html#post5855600

I still remember that day very vividly. My instructor and I went to do our first descent (which I was, of course, doing on my back) and I got caught in current and blown away from him, landing on the bottom in 45 feet of water, very much alone. I sat up, looked around, and thought, "Hmm. No buddy. They taught me a procedure for that . . . " which I proceeded to execute. I don't know whether I don't have enough imagination to be frightened, or whether my medical training has raised my panic threshold, but that's kind of the way I've been throughout my diving career.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/basic-scuba-discussions/510064-ten-years-4.html#post7452133

These posts are fitting as well:
#148
#159
#191

 

[Mike Boswell]

After her initial certification, Lynne DIDN'T just dream of warm reef dives in some tropical paradise. She dreamed bigger, tougher, more challenging things:

From Dec. 12, 2005: December 12th, 2005, 12:56 PM

My diving fantasy life

What with travel, work and dry suit issues, I haven't been in the water in almost a month. But I've had a bunch of night shifts with a lot of down time.

What do you do with an idle hour at two in the morning?

Well, of course . . . you browse diving-related bulletin boards. You follow links and watch scuba videos. Specifically, cave diving videos.

LOTS of cave diving videos.

Then you read articles about cave diver training courses.

Then you put cave diving photographs as the wallpaper on your computers.

I think I'd better get back to real diving soon.

So, what's YOUR diving fantasy?​

 

[Mike Boswell]

I wonder how Lynne affected each of us here on Scubaboard.

A little bit of Lynne will always live in my head. Every time I tell a story, or argue a point, or make a joke, Lynne is there, urging me to be a little clearer, a little more patient, and a whole lot kinder.

I don't always succeed. My ego often gets the better of me. Pride and selfishness and competitiveness often win out: I'm not a born nurturer or teacher, after all. But I can learn. And I DO want people to like what I write. And nobody was better at that, than our TSandM.

If we truly wish to honor her, it seems to me that we should strive to live up to her high standards, and pass them forward, as "random acts of kindness".

For me, that will be her legacy.

Sept. 11, 2011

Why are we so mean?

I was reflecting on this the other day, after going back to check a thread where someone had put up a picture of the shiny new kit he had bought, and he got a bunch of fairly short, critical, and not very friendly responses, a number of them from people I know are "us".

I'm a pretty solidly committed DIR diver, myself, and I think there are a lot of good reasons why we use the equipment we do, and the procedures we do. I like the system, and I think everybody on this board knows that I push it (hopefully not too obnoxiously) wherever I see the opportunity to do so, here and IRL.

But my mother always taught me that you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. And if we want to try to communicate a message, it seems to me it would work far better if we were pleasant about it. What's wrong with congratulating someone on their new equipment? And if you must, making a couple of pleasant and constructive observations about long inflators or quick releases, pointing out the reasons why the person might eventually rethink his setup? He's already bought it, anyway; jumping on him about it is much more likely to elicit a defensive reaction and a dislike for "us" than to change what he's bought.

I see this over and over again. Where it comes to things which relate to true safety (like air at 200 feet) I can understand getting short, critical or even just plain unpleasant. But for the simple stuff like wearing a snorkel, having quick releases, and other things relating to recreational diving or even the beginner techie who's doing his first doubles dives, do people really think it's necessary to be so rude? I don't think it makes us any friends.​

 

[SeaHorse81]

Mike, the only reason I haven't added to this thread is because Lynne had so many great posts that I couldn't begin to sort through and choose just a few for this. Interestingly though, the one you just posted above is the one that was most in my head. I should have posted it here, but I'm really glad you did. Glad to see someone else remembers it.

It's still just crushing to think she's gone.

 

[Antarctic-Adventurer]

I was reading this thread this morning and it was almost spooky reading what Lynne had written in some those posts and she was the originator of the tread. I think that if someone was willing to edit her posts, there would be enough to put together Her version of "Zen and the art of Scuba Diving." Her posts were always a great mix technical, philosophical and medical. And she never came across as condescending, she was the consummate student of diving, always willing to learn and teach.

It would be a big challenge. She posted over 36,000 times.

Rich, that's a great idea. I don't know if anyone is up for taking on the task, but a collection of her top posting wisdom would make a very valuable read for anyone interested in diving, and honour her memory too. Any takers from those who knew her well?

It's hard to understate just how many people she positively affected. There are those of you closer to where she lived who no doubt knew her personally, but there must be many hundreds more people such as myself, who live far away (Japan), didn't interact directly with her much, never met her, and yet passively read much of what she wrote. I think the big appeal was that she also was a beginner herself ten years ago, and seeing her transition from OW diver to GUE Fundies and finally cave diver I really felt I could relate to her experiences as I myself grew with diving. Many of her calm, rational and logical opinions and thoughts have stayed with me, and have been integrated into the 'diver' that I am today. It's almost as those there is a little piece of her with me whenever I dive. I can't believe she is gone...

 

[SeaHorse81]

Rich, that's a great idea. I don't know if anyone is up for taking on the task, but a collection of her top posting wisdom would make a very valuable read for anyone interested in diving, and honour her memory too. Any takers from those who knew her well?

I thought it was an excellent idea when CT-Rich first wrote it, and immediately thought, "That's a book I'd want to have." The unique opportunity is not only to have so much top-quality material organized and assembled, but that it is the record of one particularly astute person's journey in diving, from the very beginning progressing through to an unusually high level of skill and understanding. I think it would be remarkably beneficial reading for many people, in addition to being a nice remembrance of her for those of us who enjoyed interacting with her over the years.

I suspect it would really need to be done by someone who knew her personally, and that's the rub. My own experience in doing some review of her work to contribute to this thread is that right now, it's just making me incredibly sad to review her words and know that she's not here to offer any more of them.

Again, it's a remarkable commentary on who she was and the difference she made that so many of us are feeling this way and discussing such ideas.

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

One of my favorite people on scubaboard. Does anyone know what her nickname stood for? TSandM? I had a lot of conversations with her regarding agency and diveshop politics that I felt would not be suitable on open forums due to people getting excited. She was as balanced, neutral and full of information in her pm's as she was on the forums. I always wanted to ask what TSandM stood for but never got around to that.

RIP.