Hearing about Kimber has really shaken me up

[do it easy]

I started thinking, maybe I should give up diving. I know I won't, but the thought crossed my mind. Do any of you have this reaction? I know this is really kind of a silly question. I mean, when I hear about a car accident, I don't think about giving up driving. Same with plane crashes.
(Thinking about you Kimber and wishing you a full recovery.)

I have had this reaction with diving, specifically and generally. Although never after hearing about a plane or car crash. The difference for me is that I have control more over the dive- I don't have to dive if I don't want to. Once I choose to board a plane, there is little within my control if things get funky, and I would be merely riding it out.

I have considered giving up the fins after making some normally innocuous mistakes that made my dive unpleasant. Once, I forgot the spool to my marker, and it just so happened to be the dive that the mooring broke free, I lost the upline, and the boat manuevered to pick up divers. This left me doing deco in blue water and I didn't know how strong the current was or wasn't. Worse case scenario, I would do my deco and surface and hope the boat would find me, but it just burned me up to have the bag but to be missing the 10' of line to shoot it- on top of that, I brought the spool onto the boat, but I simply forgot to take it in the water. Mentally, I was second guessing myself that if I could forget something like that, what else could I overlook, what other mistakes could I make. For about 15 minutes, I was convinced that I would sell my gear and give up the habit.

What brings me back to the water is that I try to mitigate the risk so that accidents are survivable. This involves buddies, redundancy, protocols, training and practice. We all want to think that diving is safe, and it can be safe, but we have to be honest with ourselves and remain vigilant and respectful of its danger.

 

[cmalinowski]

I started thinking, maybe I should give up diving. I know I won't, but the thought crossed my mind. Do any of you have this reaction? I know this is really kind of a silly question. I mean, when I hear about a car accident, I don't think about giving up driving. Same with plane crashes.
(Thinking about you Kimber and wishing you a full recovery.)

If someone told me it would be 50/50 that I would come back alive from a dive I would give it up in a hearbeat. Heck, if someone told me it would be 90% chance that I'd come back I would give it up as those odds suck.

I get concerned when I dive. But I also get concerned when I get behind the wheel of my truck. Or when I do a lot of things. My concern revolves around my daughter and being fearful that I may do something stupid that would cost her her father. I don't dwell on it, nor does it truly impact my life more that making it a thought every now and again. I try and make sure that I have as much control over my life as I possibly can.

If I die, then so be it... but it won't be due to lack of trying to stay alive.

This is in response to the thread question originally posted. This post has nothing to do with Kimber's situation. I am sure that Kimber took all of the necessary precautions that she could and was in no way recless. While I don't know that for sure, I feel it in my heart of hearts. She was a mom. Parents just take that extra precautionary step. Others do too, but I think parents have that ingrained in them. I would die for my child in a heartbeat. I would fight just as hard to live for her.

Chris

 

[lamont]

This is in response to the thread question originally posted. This post has nothing to do with Kimber's situation. I am sure that Kimber took all of the necessary precautions that she could and was in no way recless. While I don't know that for sure, I feel it in my heart of hearts. She was a mom. Parents just take that extra precautionary step. Others do too, but I think parents have that ingrained in them. I would die for my child in a heartbeat. I would fight just as hard to live for her.

From what Joel has posted on the facts, it sounds like this was a medical event that happened to occur while diving. That's the risk we inherantly run for living, not just for diving... Hope she pulls out of it...

 

[Walter]

From what Joel has posted on the facts, it sounds like this was a medical event that happened to occur while diving. That's the risk we inherantly run for living, not just for diving... Hope she pulls out of it...

There's no way for us to know, that's certainly a possibility.

 

[cmalinowski]

From what Joel has posted on the facts, it sounds like this was a medical event that happened to occur while diving. That's the risk we inherantly run for living, not just for diving... Hope she pulls out of it...

That's how I read it at first, but then re-read that sentence and figured it could be either way (diving or non-diving related).

That is not of concern to me at this point though. While some will argue that facts will be lost, I just don't think that it's as important as people's wishes that we not discuss the causes of the accident. She was not test piloting jets. The odds that whatever happened would impact us immediately from a diving safety perspective is a farce and the facts are not necessary at this point. Sorry to rant...

Chris

 

[gangrel441]

A few months shy of 4 years ago, I almost took my last car ride. By brother-in-law and I were on a weekend trip, and on the way back, a drunk driver hit us and put us nose first into a limestone cut. I busted my arm up pretty good, and the dash wound up a few inches cloer to me than it was when the car was intact.

If there is one thing I learned from that experience, and from watching my brother-in-law's reaction in the coming months, it has been that nothing good comes from living your life in fear of death. It is ok to be shaken up, it is ok to want to learn from events like this and find ways to make them safer. But to try to isolate activities and separate them from your life out of fear is in many ways letting a part of you meet that same fate anyways. To this day, my B-I-L refuses to drive on that stretch of highway, and hesitates to drive on any highway at all. I would say that in many ways, that was the biggest injury he sustained in the crash. My physical injuries were quite a bit worse than his, and I thought they may have ended my diving career, but I never allowed myself to be defeated. Now the most painful part of this series of events is the emotional scarring my B-I-L has taken.

My thoughts and prayers are with Kimber, but I am sure whatever her condition, the last thing she would want is for her incident to cause her friends to want to give up something they love so much. I am positive that is how I would feel.

 

[Jim Ernst]

I started thinking, maybe I should give up diving. I know I won't, but the thought crossed my mind. Do any of you have this reaction? I know this is really kind of a silly question. I mean, when I hear about a car accident, I don't think about giving up driving. Same with plane crashes.
(Thinking about you Kimber and wishing you a full recovery.)

NOPE!!!!! i can die in my sleep, my kids may kill me, i may die in a car wreck, i may die when one of my students loses control of the rig, OR i may die diving,the best way to go if i have to go!! doing somthing that i live and love!!!

 

[drbill]

Joel's post here: http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=145172

mentions:

(Honestly, this makes me a little more worried about Kimber, but much less worried about scuba diving in general...)

This link did not work for me. Anyone else have trouble with it?

 

[El Orans]

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=144994 - Post 127

 

[lamont]

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=144994 - Post 127

fixed it in the original post.