Great Inarticulate Diving Inaccuracies of Our Time, Vol 6: To 'Pre-breathe'...

[Mr T.]

Having addressed, in another recent thread, the US corruption/convention of 'we dove' (as past participle of 'to dive'), and as with my spanking of [hushed tones] Sheck Exley's moronic, patently unsupportable and ill-conceived quote, about him being able to see the back of cave simply by 'having to go there', whereas, according to him, both Mars and the Darkside of the Moon were visible with the naked-eye by him from the vantage point of deep within the recesses of his favourite chamber in the Florida cave systems, I now debunk and bring you another example of how those, who choose to, are slaves to the perennial, ill-thought out, irrationale and lazy practice when dealing with the pre-dive practice of their rebreather: "To Pre-breathe".

Present tense verbs notwithstanding, there is no verb or construction (other than under the US rules of "fuck it, because we've not thought this through sufficiently, we'll simply manufacture a syntactical construction, assume a tense conjugation, prefix-verb alliance and hope that no one notices") to 'Pre-breathe' - whereas, to breathe, is a perfectly serviceable verb with as many tenses and conjugations as the rules allow.

Consider: to pre-breathe - what, so you breathe before you breathe? Even where breathing is a natural (to say nothing of essential) act, either above or below the water?

Here's the [BSAC] description of 'to pre-breathe' - though, importantly, note it doesn't actually describe, precisely (one is left to guess or assume a knowledge), what to 'pre-breathe' actually means or entails:

Originally Posted by BSAC

Why should a rebreather diver always pre-breathe the rebreather before diving?

Pre-breathing the rebreather warms up the absorbent material towards its optimum working temperature before the dive begins.
Pre-breathing also allows the diver to confirm that the rebreather is functioning correctly whilst you are safely out of the water.
Very importantly, pre-breathing is your only check for CO2 contamination before you dive. If you get a CO2 hit whilst pre-breathing on the boat or land you will survive. Underwater might result in a different outcome!

So when is the prefix 'pre' viable?

Pre-school - yes
Prepubescent - yes (indeed this one's so long-standing and commonplace it no longer needs a hyphen prefix)
Premenstrual - yes (ditto)
Precognition - yes (ditto)
Precaution - yes (ditto)
Pre-War - yes

All these prefixed (hyphenated or not) descriptive terms have a root and meaning: pre-breathe is just lazy and an acceptance that you're happy to use just about any jingo/parlance/jargon as long as you don't have to think too hard.

The practice of using rebreathers, for diving, dates, primarily, to the Second World War; although the term 'pre-breathe' was coined by...wait for it...the NASA space programme for the practices undergone by astronauts on pre-flight (that one's correct) checks. NASA? USA? Get the connection yet?

I await the gainsayers with baited pleasure...

[Surrey_diver]

Oh dear. Mr Tierney's pissed out of his brains again. He's decided to pile into an area of diving he knows absolutely nothing about, barring his armchair-divery on these boards, and for some utterly bizarre reason has decided that the terminology used by those who actually GO diving is not up to his exacting standards.

Notwithstanding the fact that this particular rant has that certain.... indecipherability (sic) that all his posts do once he's got half-way to the bottom of the bottle - the Stereophonics post did have a certain golden glow to it, let's face it - I'd like to take this opportunity to spell it out to the esteemed legend-in-his-own-mind.

It's none of your fucking business, knobhead. Go and find somebody else to irritate. You don't dive CCR. I doubt that you ever will, given that one of the prerequisites of Mod1 is being able to stay sober for more than an hour at a time.

If you want to argue semantics, fill your boots with all the other alcoholics at the local bus shelter.

[ahar]

Originally Posted by Surrey_diver

Oh dear. Mr Tierney's pissed out of his brains again. He's decided to pile into an area of diving he knows absolutely nothing about, barring his armchair-divery on these boards, and for some utterly bizarre reason has decided that the terminology used by those who actually GO diving is not up to his exacting standards.

Notwithstanding the fact that this particular rant has that certain.... indecipherability (sic) that all his posts do once he's got half-way to the bottom of the bottle - the Stereophonics post did have a certain golden glow to it, let's face it - I'd like to take this opportunity to spell it out to the esteemed legend-in-his-own-mind.

It's none of your fucking business, knobhead. Go and find somebody else to irritate. You don't dive CCR. I doubt that you ever will, given that one of the prerequisites of Mod1 is being able to stay sober for more than an hour at a time.

If you want to argue semantics, fill your boots with all the other alcoholics at the local bus shelter.

Not sure if Surrey_Diver is serious here or not .....

He's dead right about Mr T being pissed again though. Repeat after me (though probably quietly and in a darkened room) "I must not post while pissed, I must not post while pissed"

[Hazel W]

Originally Posted by Surrey_diver

Oh dear. Mr Tierney's pissed out of his brains again. He's decided to pile into an area of diving he knows absolutely nothing about, barring his armchair-divery on these boards, and for some utterly bizarre reason has decided that the terminology used by those who actually GO diving is not up to his exacting standards.

Notwithstanding the fact that this particular rant has that certain.... indecipherability (sic) that all his posts do once he's got half-way to the bottom of the bottle - the Stereophonics post did have a certain golden glow to it, let's face it - I'd like to take this opportunity to spell it out to the esteemed legend-in-his-own-mind.

It's none of your fucking business, knobhead. Go and find somebody else to irritate. You don't dive CCR. I doubt that you ever will, given that one of the prerequisites of Mod1 is being able to stay sober for more than an hour at a time.

If you want to argue semantics, fill your boots with all the other alcoholics at the local bus shelter.

Did this strike anyone else as being completly over the top? Or maybe the number of posts to this estemeed members name gives them the right for such a reaction to a humurous post.


Hazel

PS ...yes i know he posts under another name!

[SoggyFox]

what an excellent post, bait flung out to the masses and a sucker caught nearly immediately.

who really cares about the semantics of pre-breathe its there to describe a technique for a small group of people.

[Janos]

Originally Posted by Mr T.

Having addressed, in another recent thread, the US corruption/convention of 'we dove' (as past participle of 'to dive'), and as with my spanking of [hushed tones] Sheck Exley's moronic, patently unsupportable and ill-conceived quote, about him being able to see the back of cave simply by 'having to go there', whereas, according to him, both Mars and the Darkside of the Moon were visible with the naked-eye by him from the vantage point of deep within the recesses of his favourite chamber in the Florida cave systems, I now debunk and bring you another example of how those, who choose to, are slaves to the perennial, ill-thought out, irrationale and lazy practice when dealing with the pre-dive practice of their rebreather: "To Pre-breathe".

Present tense verbs notwithstanding, there is no verb or construction (other than under the US rules of "fuck it, because we've not thought this through sufficiently, we'll simply manufacture a syntactical construction, assume a tense conjugation, prefix-verb alliance and hope that no one notices") to 'Pre-breathe' - whereas, to breathe, is a perfectly serviceable verb with as many tenses and conjugations as the rules allow.

Consider: to pre-breathe - what, so you breathe before you breathe? Even where breathing is a natural (to say nothing of essential) act, either above or below the water?

Here's the [BSAC] description of 'to pre-breathe' - though, importantly, note it doesn't actually describe, precisely (one is left to guess or assume a knowledge), what to 'pre-breathe' actually means or entails:


So when is the prefix 'pre' viable?

Pre-school - yes
Prepubescent - yes (indeed this one's so long-standing and commonplace it no longer needs a hyphen prefix)
Premenstrual - yes (ditto)
Precognition - yes (ditto)
Precaution - yes (ditto)
Pre-War - yes

All these prefixed (hyphenated or not) descriptive terms have a root and meaning: pre-breathe is just lazy and an acceptance that you're happy to use just about any jingo/parlance/jargon as long as you don't have to think too hard.

The practice of using rebreathers, for diving, dates, primarily, to the Second World War; although the term 'pre-breathe' was coined by...wait for it...the NASA space programme for the practices undergone by astronauts on pre-flight (that one's correct) checks. NASA? USA? Get the connection yet?

I await the gainsayers with baited pleasure...

More importantly: Where are the full-stops? Is there a pre-Christmas shortage? I'd better start rationing mine!

Janos

[nigelH]

Originally Posted by Mr T.

I await the gainsayers with baited pleasure...

Sadly you're right from a linguistic point of view but this one will stick as any more correct form would be much longer.

"Are you ready yet?"

"Just a pre-breath."

"Round again skipper..."

Now if you offered us something shorter....

[Mr T.]

Originally Posted by Surrey_diver

Oh dear. Mr Tierney's pissed out of his brains again. He's decided to pile into an area of diving he knows absolutely nothing about, barring his armchair-divery on these boards, and for some utterly bizarre reason has decided that the terminology used by those who actually GO diving is not up to his exacting standards.

Notwithstanding the fact that this particular rant has that certain.... indecipherability (sic) that all his posts do once he's got half-way to the bottom of the bottle - the Stereophonics post did have a certain golden glow to it, let's face it - I'd like to take this opportunity to spell it out to the esteemed legend-in-his-own-mind.

It's none of your fucking business, knobhead. Go and find somebody else to irritate. You don't dive CCR. I doubt that you ever will, given that one of the prerequisites of Mod1 is being able to stay sober for more than an hour at a time.

If you want to argue semantics, fill your boots with all the other alcoholics at the local bus shelter.

LOL

Oh dear, joint effort again Rob/Helen/John???? By your writing style shall ye be known - although given the time it was posted, and knowing at least one of you is a raging insomniac...

You guys just can't stay away from the place can you? If you're gonna keep this up, at least choose different insults than your stock ones - these are old guys - rather like your patter and your lies. Kinda why you all got binned form YD in the first place.

Still bitter? Obviously.

Get over it and move on.

[Mr T.]

Originally Posted by SoggyFox

what an excellent post, bait flung out to the masses and a sucker caught nearly immediately.

Surprise, surprise - after checking 'Surrey Diver's' IP address, it just happens to be that of...wait for it...Rob Evans.

Ah well...

Sad.

[Janos]

Isn't "pre-breathe" just a contraction of "pre-dive breathe." Anyway, in the words of the Humpty Dumpty. "Words mean what I what them to mean. Nothing more, nothing less."

Janos