I just get tired of one or two people always posting death notices where nothing is to be learned. People did 50 pages on Coz accident and only thing learned is don't do it. Yes unfortunately I know this person through alot of other diver friends. Another note, I have been on several death dives and searches and still with personnel knowledge rarely was to learn anything about the cause. I guess I don't look at the newspaper everyday to see motorcycle accidents in this state and I know there are many more of them.
I couldn't disagree more.
My mom died while scuba diving. We were all new to the sport and I had no clue this forum even existed until doing some searches of the news stories and there was a discussion of that incident here. Welcome to ScubaBoard. Here's what this forum does:
1) provides a resource for people who may have NO idea about diving to learn about what may have happened to the deceased. There are a LOT of people unregistered reading these forums. I've seen several times (and in my own case) where someone began posting as a family or friend to a deceased in search of answers. This forum provides that. Regardless of whether YOU learn something, SOMEONE might.
2) Provides a starting point for discussion. So the news stories are often wrong. Yea, we all know that. But it's better than never acknowledging the fact that someone died and SOMETHING happened to cause that change in state of being. A lot of times we'll never know, you're right, but if even once the discussion here leads to someone changing something about the way they dive, or the equipment they use, to make themselves safer or to reduce their risk? Then it's worth it a thousand times over. Posting on here can even lead to more facts being disclosed as information becomes available. Is a piecemeal something better than nothing? I think so.
3) Makes the risks of diving real. You can read as much as you want about the dangers associated with diving, but until you're reading about real people in real situations that you can envision yourself in, who didn't necessarily do anything glaringly wrong, it still is hard to imagine it happening to you. It still seems somewhat disconnected. Not that we should be so paranoid about diving that we stop enjoying it, but we are air-breathing, endothermic animals with no adaptations for the water trying to stay for up to hours on end underwater, including to several hundred feet in depth. We can make that experience as safe as possible, but never 100% safe. Would it be better to sweep these deaths under the rug, pretend they never happened? Again, I don't think so. Better to know how it's still not safe than pretend everything's hunky dory.
I read this forum every day. And I learn something from reading almost every day, too. I have a much better understanding of risk factors and of what my limits are and of how NOT to do things.
So thanks, DandyDon. And keep doing what you're doing.
Dive safe.
