diveski01
Contributor
The on-going issues regarding divers inappropriately (no deep plan filed, inadequate training/experience, inadequate gear, etc) going over the wall at Gilboa started me thinking about ways to protect divers from themselves. Obviously, the first line of defense is with education and training. After that, there are no controls when diving in areas that do not require guided dives.
I think EDUCATION and especially PREVENTION could go a long way in mitigating many of the close calls and actual accidents.
The ski industry has had Ski Patrols in place for decades. Depending on the scale of the resort, the patrollers are either paid full-time professionals or volunteers with compensation in the form of benefits at the facility such a meal discounts, season passes and free lift tickets for friends.
Dedicating a bunk house for volunteers to stay overnight, annual passes and a few guest diver passes would be simple enough for a start-up benefits package. At our little hill the local patrollers provided their own equipment, medical supplies and built their own patrol room so the costs to the owners was basically nothing and their insurance was dramatically lowered so the costs to the owners were offset.
While they don't like to be known as Snow Cops, an essential part of the Patroller's responsibility is enforcing the rules of the ski area. Primarily, they are there to prevent accidents and treat patients' injuries and prepare them for subsequent medical care when accidents do occur. Along with that are unlimited opportunities to set good examples of proper technique, encourage addtional training and just to build a rapport with the skiing public and the establishment.
The National Ski Patrol has a very mature system for skiing ability training as well as medical care training with mandatory annual assessments of both. It would take a huge effort to mimic the entire system but the fundamentals could be implemented with minimal effort at any dive facility.
A system could be developed where volunteers cover the weekends during the busiest months. There would need to be a few buddy teams each day but diving teams could go out on "patrol" along the top of the wall &/or just over the wall looking for problems and intervening where necessary. Dive profiles and surface intervals would need to be managed, but with rotations of teams that shouldn't be too much of an issue. Surface monitoring of bubbles from a kayak would help too. DM or higher on each buddy team is probably necessary to deal with significant problems that might arise during intervention with divers in trouble.
Divers who meet the requirements for deep dives would have some type of a marker on their gear given by the office upon filing of their deep dive plans. Divers over the wall w/out the proper marker would be told, nicely, to abort their dive and report to the office for a discussion about the rules of the facility. Failure to comply would result in loss of priviledges to dive at that facility at the owners discretion, of course.
Feedback please!
I think EDUCATION and especially PREVENTION could go a long way in mitigating many of the close calls and actual accidents.
The ski industry has had Ski Patrols in place for decades. Depending on the scale of the resort, the patrollers are either paid full-time professionals or volunteers with compensation in the form of benefits at the facility such a meal discounts, season passes and free lift tickets for friends.
Dedicating a bunk house for volunteers to stay overnight, annual passes and a few guest diver passes would be simple enough for a start-up benefits package. At our little hill the local patrollers provided their own equipment, medical supplies and built their own patrol room so the costs to the owners was basically nothing and their insurance was dramatically lowered so the costs to the owners were offset.
While they don't like to be known as Snow Cops, an essential part of the Patroller's responsibility is enforcing the rules of the ski area. Primarily, they are there to prevent accidents and treat patients' injuries and prepare them for subsequent medical care when accidents do occur. Along with that are unlimited opportunities to set good examples of proper technique, encourage addtional training and just to build a rapport with the skiing public and the establishment.
The National Ski Patrol has a very mature system for skiing ability training as well as medical care training with mandatory annual assessments of both. It would take a huge effort to mimic the entire system but the fundamentals could be implemented with minimal effort at any dive facility.
A system could be developed where volunteers cover the weekends during the busiest months. There would need to be a few buddy teams each day but diving teams could go out on "patrol" along the top of the wall &/or just over the wall looking for problems and intervening where necessary. Dive profiles and surface intervals would need to be managed, but with rotations of teams that shouldn't be too much of an issue. Surface monitoring of bubbles from a kayak would help too. DM or higher on each buddy team is probably necessary to deal with significant problems that might arise during intervention with divers in trouble.
Divers who meet the requirements for deep dives would have some type of a marker on their gear given by the office upon filing of their deep dive plans. Divers over the wall w/out the proper marker would be told, nicely, to abort their dive and report to the office for a discussion about the rules of the facility. Failure to comply would result in loss of priviledges to dive at that facility at the owners discretion, of course.
Feedback please!