I find it most odd.

[Mark Chase]

I find it most odd the things some of us do as divers do that no body bats an eyelid at and the things some of us do that we get slated for.


The recent thread on DCI and calling it in has brought on a fair bit of criticism and questions as to my ability to asses a bend.

Your not qualified some people shout?

Yet strangely I am able to cut a decompression profile using custom gradient factors and yet I have never been formally trained in the mechanics of decompression theory? Like most I have smattering of knowledge and a software program and thats enough. I don't feel the need (thow I have to admit I have tried) to get my head around the actual mechanics of it.

20 years ago if you wanted to do a 70m trimix dive you had to contact an expert in decompression theory. You handed over a large sum of money and he produced a table.

No any old fool can punch the numbers into Decoplanner or V Planner and go diving.

Do 90% of the people who use V planner understand bubble mechanics?

I somehow doubt it.

Regulator servicing, 02 cleaning, gas mixing these are all things unqualified people do regularly following a manual of the Oxygen Hackers guide book, and when found out we get slated by the masses for doing something best left to the "experts".

But tell me how many of you have had regs come back from service that dont work or have been badly set up? I know I have. I have visions of some spotty kit on a YTS program striping and reasembling my beloved life suporting regs behind the sceens.


We have buddy pairs or even single divers getting on unorganized dive trips who don't really have a clue about the tides, currents, boat handling, emergency radio procedure etc etc. and thats apparently acceptable and yet when someone gets on a boat and says they can actually look after them selves, apparently thats not?

I do find this attitude odd.

There are no doubt bods like me everywhere, servicing my own kit, doing 02 cleaning in the dish washer, blending gas on the sly (probably with welding grade) and cutting my own deco tables. Id advise them to keep their heads down.

I have apparently now committed the ultimate sins of teaching myself to dive a MCCR and teaching my self DCI analysis. I am likely to be cast down and rent asunder

Till recently I had taught my self CPR and 02 admin. Then my M8 offered me a formal course in it so I did it. I had asked Paul Oliver years ago for the same course but it took me this long to get it sorted. I was pleased to note It was as I understood it would be and yet the last time I did CPR I was 16.

Maybe BSAC should sort out a DCI analysis course as part of their new expedition level training. That would be useful in remote locations and maybe if I had a bit of paper to say I could do what i beleive i can do already, people would leave me alone

Still waiting for Mark Powell to sort out the Gas blending and 02 cleaning course. Come on M8 get your finger out, I might get my next mix wrong and blow my self up with a dirty valve


ATB

Mark


PS Many thanks for all the support on the DCI thread to all who greened me.

[al kennedy]

Sorry i can't green you again!

[Buoyant Babe]

Originally Posted by al kennedy

Sorry i can't green you again!

I can

[weazelz]

easy now, you'll be advocating people think for themselves next!!

[access]

Originally Posted by Buoyant Babe

I can

And me

[P B]

Don't post often, but this has to be worth a green,

[NotDeadYet]

Originally Posted by Mark Chase

The recent thread on DCI and calling it in has brought on a fair bit of criticism and questions as to my ability to asses a bend.

When I had to go to the pot even the doctor their said he has a hard time telling what is a bend and what isn't without recompressing. That's good enough for me.

Your not qualified some people shout?

I gave up on qualifications a long time ago

I don't feel the need (thow I have to admit I have tried) to get my head around the actual mechanics of it.

In yet another case of someone who knows a lot more than me confessing that they know f*** all about it, Richard Pyle once said something along the lines of, why do people get so anal about dive tables when it's all chaos theory? Again, good enough for me.

20 years ago if you wanted to do a 70m trimix dive you had to contact an expert in decompression theory. You handed over a large sum of money and he produced a table.

Which was why XS came about, though by that time you could either pay someone to cut tables or pay someone else a load of money for an exceptionally shite piece of software. I produced an article which goes step by step through how deco software works because I was amazed at how much faith people put in such mysticism.

We have buddy pairs or even single divers getting on unorganized dive trips who don't really have a clue about the tides, currents, boat handling, emergency radio procedure etc etc. and thats apparently acceptable and yet when someone gets on a boat and says they can actually look after them selves, apparently thats not?

I had this argument a few years ago on a trip organised by an instructor where the skipper had asked me to make up numbers. The instructor didn't even know how to use a fender, had no idea where we were diving, couldn't even stand under his own twinset and yet he insisted I dive with his trainee divemaster. Fine... rebreathers make disappearing underwater very easy...

I have apparently now committed the ultimate sins of teaching myself to dive a MCCR and teaching my self DCI analysis. I am likely to be cast down and rent asunder

Well I'm double f***ed because I've taught myself to dive a MCCR and now I'm teaching myself to dive an ECCR that's older than I am.

I must admit, my patience level is exceptionally low when people try to be my diving conscience. Well, my patience level is low generally

[Moz]

Are you actually qualified to post on the internet though.....thought not.


Have one!

[wreckferret]

Hi Mark,

Good post.

When I got my type 2 bend everbody had different ideas but I rang a doc and he sorted it out.
Too many people think they know but very few have a clue.

Ref your paragraph about the boat - that made me smile, very true.
Have a green.

[Sparky750]

Mark excellent post unfortunately i'm not qualified to green you i have to spread the love