Negativity in Cave Diving Politics

I have been cave diving since '08 - '09. I use to travel working so at best I got to cave dive 1 or 2 weekends a month. About 2 years ago I got on a job in Columbus, Ga. and that allowed me to start cave diving nearly every weekend. About 6 months after that the company I was working for wanted to send me to the West coast of Canada. I refused and took a job working locally in Panama City Beach where I had a home. I know cave dive almost every weekend and a few times in the week as my schedule allows. Once I started cave diving regularly and especially after finding some cave that others didn't want found by anyone else I saw some of the drama that I had always heard about. It is ridiculous and like I tell people I do this for fun and to me drama is not fun. I like teasing the BM divers and GUE crowd but that is just me having fun. Even after getting involved inadvertently in some cave diving drama I do not think it is nearly as bad as what it use to be. Just read through some of these infamous postings from the old days.

:blackbar

I have found people are generally nice and as long as you color between the lines they will listen to what you have to say. If you are blow clouds of bubbles at OW divers in the cavern and yelling at people on the surface you just shut them down. When you hang around someone new, you have to tell your cave diving story without bragging.
The only thing I ever had happen that I thought was strange was when a guy certified from one agency would not dive only because I was not of that agency, but was willing to do a checkout dive sometime. I just said okay and never went there again. My attitude has changed greatly over the years back n the 90's I would not dive with anyone but my regular buddy, Others could join to make a 3 or 4 man team. When he moved away and left the sport I needed to adjust me thinking. I've dove with some really cool folks since then. I think it makes you a better diver, more self reliant.

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Originally Posted by Squirrel Girl

I always say that 2/3 of Florida cave divers hate the other 2/3 of Florida cave divers.

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But isn't that 4/3? Does that mean that people that are not cave divers hate cave divers? must be the landowners.

I miss Trey.

[QUOTE=bamafan;282613]I have been cave diving since '08 - '09. I use to travel working so at best I got to cave dive 1 or 2 weekends a month. About 2 years ago I got on a job in Columbus, Ga. and that allowed me to start cave diving nearly every weekend. About 6 months after that the company I was working for wanted to send me to the West coast of Canada. I refused and took a job working locally in Panama City Beach where I had a home. I know cave dive almost every weekend and a few times in the week as my schedule allows. Once I started cave diving regularly and especially after finding some cave that others didn't want found by anyone else I saw some of the drama that I had always heard about. It is ridiculous and like I tell people I do this for fun and to me drama is not fun. I like teasing the BM divers and GUE crowd but that is just me having fun. Even after getting involved inadvertently in some cave diving drama I do not think it is nearly as bad as what it use to be. Just read through some of these infamous postings from the old days.

:blackbar

That was hilarious. I know who Bill Rennaker is, but who is the guy that posted all that stuff?

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Originally Posted by Tegg

I miss Trey.

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I used to read his stuff for entertainment. That really was ridiculous and I still wonder why anyone wanted to be in his "crew" or hang around somebody like this. I never met the guy but he must have had major issues.

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Originally Posted by bent

I used to read his stuff for entertainment. That really was ridiculous and I still wonder why anyone wanted to be in his "crew" or hang around somebody like this. I never met the guy but he must have had major issues.

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Totally different in person. Night and day.

Does anyone have video of Trey, other than what is on the 2004 GUE DVD's? Preferably some footage that was not shot in huge passage.
I'd like to see some smaller stuff where one can see his true abilities.

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Originally Posted by nakatomi

Does anyone have video of Trey, other than what is on the 2004 GUE DVD's? Preferably some footage that was not shot in huge passage.
I'd like to see some smaller stuff where one can see his true abilities.

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there's some old video of him and those guys in the smaller stuff in sally ward somewhere i think

From what I've seen/heard, he wasn't really a "finess" diver by our standards today. But he was undeniably good at project management, building a team, and getting stuff done safety.

Not exactly a sweetie pie on the internet but he had it where it counts.