Hearing about Kimber has really shaken me up

[merxlin]

I've been riding motorcycles since I was able to. After 35+ years, seeing friends hurt or killed, and a lot of near hits, you learn to improve your technique and expect the unexpected. I just started diving again after a long hiatus, and am learning with every dive how much I don't know. What is common to both, and a host of other hobbies/lifestyles, is to do everything you can to manage the risks involved. How each of us does that is a personal thing, but certainly you cannot remove all the risk from everything, everyday. People always quote the chances of getting hit by lightening as having a low probability factor. Yet very frequently people are hit by lightening. So as long as you have to face risk, you may as well face it doing what you love to do, and hopefully the pleasure of the experience outweighs the anxiety of the risk. When the perceived risk outweighs the reward, it's time to quite. jmho/ycrmv

 

[limeyx]

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.

Did your buddy forget their spool too? i'd have just signaled my buddy to shoot a bag and drifted (at least that's what I hope I would have done)

 

[do it easy]

Well, I forgot my buddy on the boat too.

This involves buddies, redundancy, protocols, training and practice.

I realize this might sound hypocritical, but there are some risks that I mitigate with a buddy and there are some risks that I assume without one.

 

[isurus]

A friend of mine was a millitary pilot and by all accounts a very good one, one night after a few beers he was telling me about a number of close friends he'd lost as a result of what they did and the jist of it was of his very close friends at (whatever the pilot equivalent of) graduation a couple were left. Then last year he was diagnosed with cancer and died 6 weeks later. Whats my point? At some point something bad will happen to all of us so why should we let that put us off doing the things we love as safely as we can?

hope that wasn't too morbid and still wishing kimber all the best (and thinking about BJD).

 

[drbill]

Joel's statement in the thread started by Phil (MaxBottomTime) has revealed what I heard as well... Kimber's situation appears to be a medical situation that occured on a dive boat but not necessarily dive-related.

Therefore there is no need to consider giving up diving, Ellen. You'd have to give up all life activities to prevent this from potentially happening to you.

 

[ItsBruce]

It is not dying about which we should worry, but rather about not having lived before doing so.

 

[fairybasslet]

Joel's statement in the thread started by Phil (MaxBottomTime) has revealed what I heard as well... Kimber's situation appears to be a medical situation that occured on a dive boat but not necessarily dive-related.

Therefore there is no need to consider giving up diving, Ellen. You'd have to give up all life activities to prevent this from potentially happening to you.

I could never give it up. Especially before having an opportunity to dive with you.
BTW, my trip to San Francisco is out. Budget cutbacks at work, so they'll be no driving down the coast to go diving with you.:shakehead

 

[limeyx]

Well, I forgot my buddy on the boat too.


I realize this might sound hypocritical, but there are some risks that I mitigate with a buddy and there are some risks that I assume without one.

Ah, so you mitigated the problem of deco in a current and having a spool along by diving solo, got it

 

[do it easy]

Ah, so you mitigated the problem of deco in a current and having a spool along by diving solo, got it

Yeah, I was trying to reduce the number of failure points. It certainly wasn't my proudest moment.

 

[serambin]

Any diver that has an accident or mishap I hope the best for them and have a chance to wet again.

By reading and doing research on scubaboard im sure that I will get alot complaints about the following. Its my 2 cents though.

In my position at work I know all about accidents. As project manager I am directly responsible for everything that happens onsite including accidents. Whenever an accident/mis-hap happens its amazing how fast I get all of the factual details....were talking about minutes to an hour at the most I am in the complete know of everything. But with hours - days after that the story has skewed. And what is actually reported is/may be a different then the actual events.

What's irritating in the scuba world is all this "lets not speculate crap". Fact is the longer that the truth is hidden the less actual facts we will hear. Anybody in a senior management position that works within a dangerous environment will probably agree. Most law enforcement, safety personel, insurance personel, managers want to hear the speculation and any tip, lead, pin drop, lie ect cause within lies the truth.

In the end we may suffer the same result. Buy hey it was worth it cause we didn't speculate and hurt somebodys feelings. I know this sound harsh but I/we live in the real world. No body wants to hear the truth, truth hurts, we want hear lies or hear nothing at all cause it makes us feel good.

I trust that at some point the facts of the matter will be revealed. If they are not, it would be a shame, because our collective lives are in the balance. If a seasoned member of our community suffers an accident, it is our obligation to find out what happened. Why it happened. Because I cannot imagine a member who would want his fellow divers to suffer the same event to the pain and suffering of their families.

Families of deceased or injured divers deserve our respect and space, but I think I speak for most of SBs members, in that if you can improve your survivial chances by studing my mistakes, then I give you total access to the information about what happened to me. Without reservation. You've earned; you deserve it. Learn and live!

Stan