Christmas has taken such a toll in writing, stamping, and mailing, that my
wife and I have instituted new rules for net dive tragedies.  First off
(and this isn't necessarily aimed at Brad) no flowers or memorial check for
anyone recovered from a cave wearing bondage wings or breathing the short
hose or lacking a full cave certification; and second, no sympathy card for
anyone who hasn't been on the list for at least six months unless I really
like 'em....

At 07:22 AM 12/13/00 -0600, Chuck wrote:
>  Taking a new diver down the throat is just an accident waiting to happen
 and I suspect it will eventually.  What will happen when someone goes OOA
half-way?  Where do they get air or even let someone know they need air?  I
dont like that dive for that reason. Too many times the other divers are
OCN that are halfway through their air supply before they ever enter.  Toss
in some narcosis and it is a dangerous place to be (but that is just MO).
>
        I lost Mary Ann, the perfect dive buddy (5'0", no body fat, big hair, and
very pretty - she dove without weight and could do two dives on an 80.), to
the Devil's Throat.  Before she got married she insisted that her fiance
get certified, and so we all went to St. Vincent to shoot macro and so her
fiance to do his check out dives.  On June 19, 1994, Mary Ann and I were
quite deep looking for a cherub fish, a very attractive, very tiny species
of angelfish, to shoot on a wall called The Wall when what did we see below
us but her fiance.  At depths below 100 fsw I like to keep my alternate air
supply very close, so I reached out to her and pointed to the 142 on my
depth gauge and then to her fiance.  She was quite as alarmed as I was.  It
wasn't my business but it seemed senselessly risky (as well as against
standards) for both the instructor and her fiance to be beyond the "limits
of sport diving" on an open water check out dive.  Afterwards, her fiance
complained of ear discomfort, but he was ready to dive again after a few
months, but not many dives later, in Cozumel.

        First dive, first day, where else, the Devil's Throat....  BK and I
weren't there, but when Mary Ann related the story to us, she said the
divemaster motioned her husband into the Throat when he had less than 500
psi on his spg.  Mary Ann, who wasn't diving because of a head cold, said
she became very distressed at how long her husband had been underwater.
He'd always had a problem with air consumption, and she suspected the
worst.  Needless to say, she felt better but was still distressed when she
saw him pop up on the DM's octopus.  Apparently, he came out of the Devil's
Throat on the wall with no air.  Mary Ann blamed the DM and her husband,
but I would have put more of the blame on her husband.  The way I see it is
that since no instructor or DM will be taking any divers place in the
casket then it's up to the diver to decide where he'll dive and won't dive.
 Personally, I won't go into anything that wasn't discussed in the dive
plan.  I don't care if they won't let me do the next dive or if they ban me
from the boat, and at 54, fat, and happily married, I don't care what kind
of gutless coward people think I am.  I'd rather not have my wife hear,
"It's really too bad.  How big was he anyway?  You know I really thought he
could get through both Satan's Corset and Fat Man's Misery."  I've declined
both tunnels and the interiors of wrecks, and so far, knock on wood, it
hasn't even been mentioned back on the boat.

        Anyhow, Mary Ann lost her enthusiasm for diving with her husband and
consequently for diving with everyone else.  Her husband, unfazed by the
risks associated with diving, decided his ears bothered him too much to
continue diving, so he quit diving even before Mary Ann.  The last dive I
did with her was Creole Rocks in St. Martin on the night of the 1998 coral
spawning, and I suspect she hasn't been diving since.


>    -----Original Message-----
>    From: J. Kelly Cunningham <[log in to unmask]>
>
>
>    Do any list members feel cave certification is required for Cozumel's
Devil's Throat (or the like)?
>
        It's not a cave dive; it's usually not even a difficult dive (though I've
only done one real Devil's Throat and three fake ones); but that doesn't
rule out using good sense or having a little experience with similar dives.


DPTNST,


John