Hey guys,
I've recently had a few arguments with a bunch of people because of diving in conditions that I consider unsafe, while everybody goes with the "meh, everybody does it"-thing.
A few examples of the situations:
1) South West Rocks in Oz is pretty notorious for diving with grey nurse sharks, and it has a nice "cave". There's no branching there, but turn your torch off and it's suddenly pretty dark. It's also pretty narrow at some points, on 2 tanks sidemount you have to be on your side in some places or you're not getting through. See here for the "map" (sorry, it's the site of a dive center). You have to show you have enough air to make it through the cave before the guide lets you go in, and everybody is required to have one torch, and turn it on before going in (checked by the guide as well). Does it seem crazy to not go in there with a single tank and single torch? Seeing those are group dives with insta-buddies (in fact, my buddy didn't even notice me), I was mainly by myself in there, and so were the others.
2) Group diving with more or less insta-buddies, I see a girl by herself, her buddy was 30m away at least, so I decide to stay "not too far" until her buddy comes back. When explaining to them that a buddy is supposed to be nearby, they simply didn't care. "I could see her, that's enough". Those weren't strangers, although I had never dived with them, we're members of the same club, before I get all the "mind your own business"-haters.
3) Same group diving, I notice 2 guys going in what seemed to be a ~30m swim-through at 15-20m down with absolutely no access to the surface. The 2nd one got in at the moment the 1st one got out. I was on single tank and told my buddy we weren't going in there and went around.
4) Diving on the Coolidge, people going to the engine room (48m, obviously IN the wreck) on a single tank.
Makes me wonder if I'm too cautious... thoughts? Safety first, but I feel like I'm too worried. And should you tell those people that their practice is considered unsafe to most standards? I had a few people questionning me on "but why do you take twins if we all use a single tank?", and even though they understood the explanation, I don't think it convinced anyone to change their diving (not that it's my goal, but I feel like some more safety wouldn't hurt too much).
I've recently had a few arguments with a bunch of people because of diving in conditions that I consider unsafe, while everybody goes with the "meh, everybody does it"-thing.
A few examples of the situations:
1) South West Rocks in Oz is pretty notorious for diving with grey nurse sharks, and it has a nice "cave". There's no branching there, but turn your torch off and it's suddenly pretty dark. It's also pretty narrow at some points, on 2 tanks sidemount you have to be on your side in some places or you're not getting through. See here for the "map" (sorry, it's the site of a dive center). You have to show you have enough air to make it through the cave before the guide lets you go in, and everybody is required to have one torch, and turn it on before going in (checked by the guide as well). Does it seem crazy to not go in there with a single tank and single torch? Seeing those are group dives with insta-buddies (in fact, my buddy didn't even notice me), I was mainly by myself in there, and so were the others.
2) Group diving with more or less insta-buddies, I see a girl by herself, her buddy was 30m away at least, so I decide to stay "not too far" until her buddy comes back. When explaining to them that a buddy is supposed to be nearby, they simply didn't care. "I could see her, that's enough". Those weren't strangers, although I had never dived with them, we're members of the same club, before I get all the "mind your own business"-haters.
3) Same group diving, I notice 2 guys going in what seemed to be a ~30m swim-through at 15-20m down with absolutely no access to the surface. The 2nd one got in at the moment the 1st one got out. I was on single tank and told my buddy we weren't going in there and went around.
4) Diving on the Coolidge, people going to the engine room (48m, obviously IN the wreck) on a single tank.
Makes me wonder if I'm too cautious... thoughts? Safety first, but I feel like I'm too worried. And should you tell those people that their practice is considered unsafe to most standards? I had a few people questionning me on "but why do you take twins if we all use a single tank?", and even though they understood the explanation, I don't think it convinced anyone to change their diving (not that it's my goal, but I feel like some more safety wouldn't hurt too much).