Why isn't John Chatterton in the scuba hall of fame?
- Thread starter slackercruster
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
JeffG
Contributor
Its PADI's fault.
A better question is why aren't I?
why *should* he be in the hall of fame?
No idea, but my educated guess: the day John let them publish in a book (Shadow Divers) that he once penetrated a wreck at 230 feet by taking off his tank, pushing it through a tiny opening and then going through, and then ran out of gas whilst on the other side, he pretty much sealed his reputation as a bete noir amongst "respectable" divers like the sort of PADI board members who end up in the Scuba diving hall of fame.
Reading through the list (very few of whom I confess I recognise), there does seem to be a strong bent against tec and deep divers. No Pascal Bernabe, no Nuno Gomes, no Mark Elyatt, no Sheck Exley, no Gary Gentile, no Peter Gimbel, no Richie Kohler or John Chatterton, no Billy Deans, no Tom Mount and no Dick Rutkowski.
The message is clear: people who invent evil gas mixes like trimix or do nasty things like found Tec diving agencies, or who penetrate great depths, deep wrecks or dark caves, are generally unwelcome.
The message is clear: people who invent evil gas mixes like trimix or do nasty things like found Tec diving agencies, or who penetrate great depths, deep wrecks or dark caves, are generally unwelcome.
Last edited:
The initial class of the Scuba Hall of Fame was bigger than the initial group of the baseball hall of fame. Is the initial batch of divers more famous among divers than the initial group of baseball players were to fans? Probably not. So what does the Hall of Fame exist for?
I am reading Deep Descent, by Kevin McMurray. The author repeats several times that the recreational scuba establishment wants to promote scuba diving as a safe sport, and therefore does not look kindly on anyone who exceeds the generally-accepted "safe" limits, and that goes double for people who push to the very outside limits of survival, and occasionally beyond.
The public, reading about people who have died diving, might fail to distinguish between the risky sport of deep diving, and the much safer sport of "recreational" diving, and be turned off to the sport. If you owned a hall of fame, and your livelihood depended upon the sport's popularity, you probably would not regard as heroes people whose activity you feared might turn the public away.
I think such fears are misguided. I love to hike in the mountains and will never attempt to climb a really high mountain, but I love reading about people who do. Likewise, I have zero interest in deep diving personally, but I enjoy reading about people who do, and what's involved. I think people who push the limits while showing respect for the environment they enter and acting responsibly towards their companions, deserve recognition. But I understand the opposing view.
Just my opinion.
Daniel
The public, reading about people who have died diving, might fail to distinguish between the risky sport of deep diving, and the much safer sport of "recreational" diving, and be turned off to the sport. If you owned a hall of fame, and your livelihood depended upon the sport's popularity, you probably would not regard as heroes people whose activity you feared might turn the public away.
I think such fears are misguided. I love to hike in the mountains and will never attempt to climb a really high mountain, but I love reading about people who do. Likewise, I have zero interest in deep diving personally, but I enjoy reading about people who do, and what's involved. I think people who push the limits while showing respect for the environment they enter and acting responsibly towards their companions, deserve recognition. But I understand the opposing view.
Just my opinion.
Daniel
SparticleBrane
Contributor
Similar threads
