I had just experienced my first earthquake at 6 a.m. the previous morning, an eye-popping 5.5 shaker on the Richter Scale. So, when the phone rang at 6:30 a.m. the next morning, I leaped out of bed like a scalded dog and dove headlong across the room under the armoire. As I wedged myself beneath the cheap hotel-room furniture, I realized that it was just the phone ringing. It was my longtime friend Wayne Hasson of the Aggressor Fleet calling from Grand Cayman.

"Fred, they've called an emergency meeting of the Cayman Island Watersports Operator's Association. They're talking about a boycott of any and all advertising in Scuba Times."

As I sat on the hotel bed in Southern California, 3,000 miles from my Florida home, I contemplated the lugubrious situation.
"We're meeting again in two days," Wayne said. "You probably ought to be there."
"Keep the light on for me," I said without hesitation.
What a way to start the day, a Monday, of course. It was June 29, 1992.

The commotion had been caused by the introduction of our new, cutting-edge and controversial editorial section in the July 1992 issue of Scuba Times called the Advanced Diving Journal. In it, veteran technical diver Tom Mount had written about diving with nitrox, mixed gases and other renegade diving pursuits that were considered taboo by much of the dive community. Additionally, the ever-controversial and sardonic Bret Gilliam had written an article in which he piggy-backed a mini submersible down to 220 feet so he could take some deep-water photos of the sub. That was a clear violation of Cayman's 100-foot depth limit. Even though these types of articles can be found in almost every dive publication today, at that point in diving's time line, this kind of journalism was grounds for outright protests. And so, at the same time that technical diving was blasting from the closet like a flying squirrel on speed, the anti-technical diving liturgy began its short but hot burn right there in one of the world's greatest dive destinations - the fabulous Cayman Islands.
I can't really say that the premier issue of the ADJ marked the beginning of the technical diving revolution (aquaCORPS Journal, a controversial magazine devoted to hard-core divers had already been out for a couple of years.) but this was the first time a widely respected diving publication had lent credibility to a group of divers who had formerly only met in dark alleys and bomb shelters.
So, I juggled airline reservations and made my trek to Grand Cayman. Much of my discussions in Cayman revolved around the fine line between promoting this stuff and educating divers. I argued that we were educating readers of the risks and the need for education and training. Some folks didn't buy my logic and they yanked their ads. I respected their opinions and forged ahead. The few operators that kept advertising eventually witnessed almost total acceptance of technical diving and its flagship gas, nitrox.

Coming of Age

And now, as technical diving reaches nearly a decade in age, the concerns that were brought up in Cayman back in 1992 are beginning to resurface. Sure, quality education and training are now abundant. However, with more new divers joining the tech club, there's a fear that some of these wet-behind-the-ears techies are unprepared to glance at the edges of the envelope.

"Technical diving is a lifestyle, a sport of commitment," says Lamar Hires, chairman of the National Speleological Society-Cave Diving Section (NSS-CDS) and vice president of Dive Rite Manufacturing, Inc., a company which specializes in techie gear. "It's not for thrill seekers. That's where the accidents happen. I've had people who wanted me to train them for just one dive, like the Andrea Doria or to reach a certain number on their depth gauge. That's not commitment. It's misplaced focus."

Current deep-diving record holder, Jim Bowden agrees. "It puzzles me why people do this (use mixed gases) just for fun. It's more dangerous and it's more trouble. I wouldn't use this stuff (mixed gas) if I didn't need it to do my job. I can't understand people who think that just because they go through a course and pass that there's no risk. There is always risk and as we know from experience, even the best technical divers die."

Bowden speaks from personal experience. He was catapulted from second fiddle to a Guinness Book entry in 1995 when he and legendary deep diver Sheck Exley dove Mexico's Zacatón cave, the hole of all holes for cavers. Exley, the world record holder at the time was attempting to break the coveted 1,000-foot mark. Instead, his life was seized by the cave gods and he drowned somewhere beyond 900 feet deep in the hole. The speculation is that he was disabled by high-pressure nervous syndrome, a malady that he had experienced on a prior occasion. Bowden survived and, somewhat by default, was handed the world record for his 925-foot dive.

In typical pass-the-buck style which thrives insidiously in America, some people charge Bowden with Exley's death. Not only is this the same type of misplaced responsibility that pays people a million dollars for spilling hot coffee in their lap, but it's what will get technical divers hurt or killed very quickly. In other words, in this game you have to look after number one first. That job is nobody's but yours. And in the case of Exley, he knew those risks precisely.

At first blush, the future of technical diving appears rosy. Nitrox has become as accepted as neon pink wetsuits and more gear manufacturers are producing tech products. Technical diving training agencies are gaining credibility and have even introduced insurance programs for their instructors. Hell, Wayne Hasson and Bret Gilliam, who once battled like warriors, are even collaborating on installing nitrox systems on a number of the Aggressor Fleet dive boats. What next? A Lisa Marie/Michael Jackson family reunion?

This growth, of course, has a flip side which opens with the song, "Is daddy drunk drivin' that technical train into a deep-water pile up?" The concern is that mass acceptance is moving the focus away from risk awareness and more towards monetary gains.

"The people getting into the sport have definitely changed over the past five years," said Bowden. "Our creed used to be that we would not recruit people. Now it's becoming big business."

It's a Magazine Thing

In tracing technical diving's growth curve, one can look to the publications (including this one) that reported on the movement. Unfortunately for aquaCORPS Journal, the big business of technical diving never quite arrived, or they just never found it. After a five-year roller coaster ride, aquaCORPS Journal finally went defunct. The magazine's demise also dragged down its sister dive show, known as the tek.'94 or tek.'95 or, okay you get the idea. Of course, their failure did not reflect the booming technical marketplace. It was probably due to mismanagement and as the accountants say dryly, they just kept spending more money than they were taking in. Eventually, that catches up to you.

After the failure of the show and the mag, the founder of both, Michael Menduno, who was on many companies' most wanted list, bolted to Thailand to sow his seed on Asian soil with a show called tek.asia. He recently bounced back to the U.S. to organize a rebreather forum in California which, at best, has received spotty support from the rebreather community.

Yet, even before aquaCORPS Journal slipped deep into the abyss, a number of competing technical magazines popped up, such as immersed, Deep Tech and Sub Aqua Journal, to supply hard-core techies with the latest ninja diving news. While these magazines helped to legitimize technical diving and provide some credibility, it was a twisted turn of fate from the most unlikely of sources that provided the greatest boost. It began with an all-out, anti-technical diving propaganda blitz from diving's oldest and fattest magazine, Skin Diver.

Soon after the Advanced Diving Journal/Cayman Island debacle, Skin Diver began running a series of articles denouncing nitrox and hammering deep diving, basically claiming that diving beyond 130 feet was not only morally wrong but a sin against grandmothers and apple pie. At first, members of the tech community were shocked by Skin Diver's mad-dog-like attack on their profession. They were scared that the negative publicity would kill the tech revolution or at least damage it irreparably. In fact, it did just the opposite. Instead of cutting tech's jugular, the magazine effectively introduced technical diving to the entire worldwide diving community. Suddenly, technical diving took off. It was as basic as the first lesson in the bible - everyone wanted a taste of the forbidden fruit.

Soon afterward, NAUI embraced nitrox (as did PADI eventually), aquaCORPS seemed to show rapid growth and the tek.show gained major sponsors. Even major manufacturers began producing nitrox-compatible products as well as other technical-diving gear and several resorts started utilizing nitrox in their dive packages. The revolution was thriving. And, interestingly, as technical diving grew, Skin Diver had yet another change of heart and joined the club.

The Here and Now

Which basically brings us to the present-day world where technical diving is bordering on going mainstream. You'd think that a collective sigh of relief would finally be heard from the technical community. Yet, while some are pleased to finally be sitting at the adult dinner table, others are less willing to go public with their tight-knit fraternity.

"A lot of these folks are the people who say they're going to go skiing next year and sky diving the next," said Bowden. "This is a discipline and an obsession, not a fad."

Gilliam, president of Technical Diving International (TDI), a technical training company, and CEO of Uwatec, a technical diving equipment manufacturer offers a different perspective.

"Technical diving has been around for over 30 years. It just didn't have a catchy name until recently. Back in the old days, if you wanted to expand your horizons, you pretty much had to teach yourself this stuff and for a lot of people that was a face-slamming exercise in classic Darwin natural selection. But, since the introduction of formalized tech training around 1990, the accident and fatality rate has not gone up as some have claimed. "It's ridiculous to think that we're going to have divers coming out of tech classes whose next jaunt will be a 1,000-foot cave dive on open-circuit gear. It's nonsense. And please, leave explorers like Exley and Bowden out of the discussion. Those guys are professionals, not simply more advanced divers. Yes, inevitably accidents will happen on the edge of the envelope. But each diver makes an informed choice about his activities and should take that responsibility seriously."

Training, Education, Experience

As Scuba Times has preached for many years, all divers - whether newly certified or diving trimix - should dive within the level of their training and experience. And, these days there's no excuse to dive nitrox, deep air, mixed gases or do a cave penetration without first taking a comprehensive course in those activities. Agencies like IANTD, TDI, PSA and ANDI focus exclusively on technical diving. All the major agencies, including PADI, have nitrox courses. Instead of a world gone mad, it's a new universe of possibilities. However, no matter how much training, education or experience you have, the consequences of a mistake in technical diving are far greater than those in basic recreation diving.

"Mistakes in technical diving can be fatal," Bowden said. "They aren't dumb mistakes like some people claim. They are human mistakes. And, we all make mistakes." One could liken technical diving to learning to drive a car. While a 16-year-old kid is likely to have a few injury-free fender benders, when an Indy car driver, who may not have crashed in 20 years, slams into the wall at 200 miles per hour, the consequences are usually grim. Climbers continue to die on Mount Everest every season, yet there's a surge in applications to challenge the world's tallest peak. The same is true with hang gliding, rock climbing, motorcycle racing and yes, technical diving. And with this growth, divers need to keep the risks in perspective.

"Just because you go through the course doesn't make it safe," Bowden said. "Believe me, at 500-feet deep, there's risk, a lot of risk, no matter how much training you've had."

In the end, safety is one's own responsibility which includes the courage and personal choice to say, "This is not for me." But without growth and without explorers, just like the fabric of human desire, diving might just die on the vine. "Out of the entrepreneurial, exploratory spirit of technical diving comes new technology, products and a wealth of education," Gilliam points out. "This is precisely what diving needs. Otherwise, we'd all still be using dive tables, duck feet and black wetsuits."

Fred D. Garth is a technical diving instructor and publisher of Scuba Times.