Nacd journal

[shellmoundal]

I just received my NACD Journal and I must say it was some of the best reading cover to cover than anything I have seen. It truly focuses on cave diving and also has a fictional story that will continue issue after issue. Can't wait to get the next one to see what will be the outcome of the OW Diver.
Rob Netto had a very good article on the "Pull and Glide". I was taught by a very well known local Cave Diving Instructor that if you swim in a cave you are not properly cave diving. This was pounded in my head from Cavern to Apprentice. I attended 2 different workshops, NACD and NSS/CDS and heard the same thing; protect the cave when diving. The "Pull" is used in a very high flow situation. The "Pull and Glide" I was taught was so that the diver would be conserving his gas by not swimming. My initial cave and cavern diving was always a "Pull and Glide" method of propulsion. I am embarrassed to admit that but that is what I was taught and had no idea how wrong it was.
Michael A. had a great article on Cave Conservation. If this forum was not available and students or new cave divers did not ask questions, they would be doing what they were taught. I now know that no matter how long the instructor has been diving the "Old School Method" it should not be taught to new students. There are new and more conservational methods in todays cave diving. This same instructor says that SM is a fad. I believed that until I tried it. I am now a Full Cave Certified SM Diver through Edd.
No matter what agency you are with you have the right as a student to ask questions and get other opinions from cave divers if you think your instructor is teaching you wrong.
I will not give the name of this instructor but I am sure that almost all of you know him well or at least by reputation.