Diving without Certification (A RANT)

[DBailey]

Two points:

1. I wonder what the replies would have been if the untrained diver would have been injured or died?

2. More importantly, I think to keep scuba diving mostly unregulated by politicians, we need to avoid having non-instructors take untrained divers out on a dive. All it takes is that one death for a politician to step in. From there, the politicians have their foot in the door and will become a snowball effect of legislation. Then all of our lives will be impacted.

My view of society is that we want someone to blame and pay. If an accident happens in the OP story, then the scuba industry as a whole will be blame and regulation sets in. Society will think that the diving community if full of loose cannons that take risks and get people killed.

If the accident happens with a trained, insured instructor, then somehow society will accept that, and say shame on you and make the insurance pay. Society is a fickle ***** in that manner.

That is just my take on it.

 

[Thalassamania]

Two points:

1. I wonder what the replies would have been if the untrained diver would have been injured or died?

2. More importantly, I think to keep scuba diving mostly unregulated by politicians, we need to avoid having non-instructors take untrained divers out on a dive. All it takes is that one death for a politician to step in. From there, the politicians have their foot in the door and will become a snowball effect of legislation. Then all of our lives will be impacted.

My view of society is that we want someone to blame and pay. If an accident happens in the OP story, then the scuba industry as a whole will be blame and regulation sets in. Society will think that the diving community if full of loose cannons that take risks and get people killed.

If the accident happens with a trained, insured instructor, then somehow society will accept that, and say shame on you and make the insurance pay. Society is a fickle ***** in that manner.

That is just my take on it.

I find it is quite the opposite. If someone dies doing something that many folks find stupid or reckless, people tend to shrug and say, "well ... what do you expect?" Were you tend to run into regulator problems is when it is recognized that people are being injured or killed doing things that are expected to be "safe."

 

[redacted]

2. More importantly, I think to keep scuba diving mostly unregulated by politicians, we need to avoid having non-instructors take untrained divers out on a dive. All it takes is that one death for a politician to step in. From there, the politicians have their foot in the door and will become a snowball effect of legislation. Then all of our lives will be impacted..

I often wonder if we would not be better off with government intervention rather than letting the for profit industries (training & equipment) manage it.

 

[shoredivr]

I often wonder if we would not be better off with government intervention rather than letting the for profit industries (training & equipment) manage it.

Awap, we have that in Quebec, do a search on it on SB, te acronym in French for the regulatory body is FQAS. It is *not* a safety thing, rather a revenue generating item. I am opposed.

 

[gcarter]

Awap, we have that in Quebec, do a search on it on SB, te acronym in French for the regulatory body is FQAS. It is *not* a safety thing, rather a revenue generating item. I am opposed.

Many people don't bother with the FQAS, but I dive regularly in Quebec and whether the "scuba police" are actively on the hunt or not, I like being legal. When I did my AOW this last weekend, I wrote the test and paid the fee. It really is just a tax.

 

[BLoaf]

Depending on conditions, I dont feel OW cert is needed. Honestly, the stuff in the course is so drawn out.. Should be a self prep with a two hour class and one dive, pool or otherwise. It's not rocket science...

 

[Bob DBF]

I find it is quite the opposite. If someone dies doing something that many folks find stupid or reckless, people tend to shrug and say, "well ... what do you expect?"

Which pretty much sums up SCUBA back in the day. The fact that private enterprise found a way to make money off of certification, and froze government out before the bureaucrats got their hand in, is a tribute to human ingenuity.

Were you tend to run into regulator problems is when it is recognized that people are being injured or killed doing things that are expected to be "safe."

Product liability can make a laywer rich.



Bob
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I may be old, but I’m not dead yet.

 

[TMHeimer]

From there, the politicians have their foot in the door and will become a snowball effect of legislation. Then all of our lives will be impacted.

****************
Yes. The laws have been piling one on top of the other for too many decades. Once regulations are in place, how often do you see any of them removed? I feel the lesser of two evils are for the "for profit" industries to run scuba rather than more govt. rules. Private enterprise freezing govt. out was indeed ingenius. The Quebec thing is silly. I saw a sign on I-80 in Ohio mid 1990's: "Speeding fines doubled in work zones". Thought--good law. And still think that. Is there a state or province that doesn't have those signs now? That's how it can spread. In NJ the sign just says "fines doubled"-not "Speeding fines doubled". So I guess they figured out a way to make more money there. I could get twice the fine for not wearing my seatbelt in a work zone. Now seatbelts--there's a topic.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I often wonder if we would not be better off with government intervention rather than letting the for profit industries (training & equipment) manage it.

I never wonder that. If you think scuba is expensive now, wait'll the government gets its hands on it ... and just wait till a bunch of non-diving politicians get to decide how you can dive ... somehow I just don't find that prospect very appealing ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[adurso]

I often wonder if we would not be better off with government intervention rather than letting the for profit industries (training & equipment) manage it.

Because the government does such a wonderful job with everything they get their mitts into?