How Dangerous is Scuba Diving?

[parkerco]

So my question is this: Is scuba diving a "dangerous" sport? Relative to what? Does anyone have any data? How does scuba compare with other activities?

As others have mentioned here, part of the problem is that you cannot really quantify this without knowing the denominator. Even with the data you do have from sources like DAN, you have to understand that under the umbrella of "diving" is everyone from shallow water recreational divers to technical divers -- that's the equivalent of including race car incidents in driving safety statistics. For example, I was reading at the end of Haberstroh's "Fatal Depth" last night about how the DAN stats for 98-99' (think those are the years they mentioned) were skewed by something like 17% of the deaths being tech divers. If you aren't a tech diver, does that mortality stat apply to you as an OW diver?

If you are looking for stats where you can point out how much safer diving is than something else you're not going to reassure anyone that cares about you or dispell headlines they've read. "Well look, it's 20.69x less dangerous than climbing Mt. Everest but 2.78x more dangerous than eating the bacon cheese fries at Outback Steakhouse" is not reassuring to people. Having had this discussion come up with friends and family personally (including with the mother of my dive buddy who explained how as a CSI she had the expertise to make sure they'd never find all of the pieces of my body if anything happened to her daughter while diving with me), I think if you are looking to reassure people that love you about what you are doing then explain that your focus is on safety, not pushing the envelope, and further training, experience and refining of your skills (and make those your focus).

As an aside, when diving with worriers at home, stay in touch -- at Christmas my gf's mother expressed to me how appreciative she was that every day weve been diving out of the country we emailed her to let her know we were having a blast and were safe.

 

[boulderjohn]

For example, I was reading at the end of Haberstroh's "Fatal Depth" last night about how the DAN stats for 98-99' (think those are the years they mentioned) were skewed by something like 17% of the deaths being tech divers. If you aren't a tech diver, does that mortality stat apply to you as an OW diver?

I realize you were writing at the same time as I. That is essentially my point. Tech divers are always included in the statistics, so they are always skewing the results. So are obese divers and divers with cardiac conditions. You cannot take an overall risk percentage in any such activity and get a meaningful risk assessment for the individual.

 

[SailNaked]

Statistically you are more likely to be killed by a donkey than by Scuba. obviously you have a much less chance of either if you never participate with either.

Anything you do is dangerous, breathing air can kill you if you live near a chemical plant, walking is dangerous in a city, basketball now that is a dangerous sport.

I would not put the dangers of Scuba up there with base jumping, or nascar, but it is definitely dangerous if you are not able to think under pressure (yes it is a pun).

Scuba equipment is relatively safe, Rappelling expecting all that little thread stuff to hold you is a leap of faith(yes another pun).

In Rec Scuba the risks are that our primary regulator stage will fail, and you will have to either swim to your buddy on no air, or swim to the surface. That your inflater gets stuck or your weight belt falls off and you rocket to the surface. If you run out of air or swim past 130ft then it is a Darwin thing, sorry, the dive boat leaves you in the ocean and you do not have an eprib because you were too cheap to spend 200 on one (maybe Darwin again), CO in your tank(Darwin?). Others?

I tried swimming 60 ft after breathing out it is certainly possible. Making a bad decision underwater is definitely not a good idea, try not to do it.

I would put Scuba at about the same as riding a bike for dangerous. Besides dangerous for you is not the same as dangerous for me.

 

[ptyx]

When I talk about diving with friends and relatives, they all seem to have the same view: They think that recreational scuba diving is a dangerous sport.

I think scuba diving is perceived as more dangerous than it is because its risks are not obvious without training.

Hunting, car racing, horse riding, skydiving, swimming, golf, bowling... anyone with common sense can understand accidents. Regular rules apply: don't go too fast, avoid impact at high speed with blunt objects, make sure your gear doesn't explode, etc... It's not that those activities are simpler or require less training, but in most cases it's easy to imagine a way a particular accident could have been avoided.

Diving accidents are a lot harder to explain, and might appear undeserved to non divers. There is only a small step from there to "if you dive, you can die randomly for no good reason".

 

[paddler3d]

This is still going!

Frankly I think personal fitness, or lack thereof, is what increases the chance of any injury involving SCUBA.

To date any accident I have been 1st hand to has been an individual who is overweight and not in the best of shape. Which put an not needed stress on the rescuers.

 

[Web Monkey]

This is still going!

Frankly I think personal fitness, or lack thereof, is what increases the chance of any injury involving SCUBA.

To date any accident I have been 1st hand to has been an individual who is overweight and not in the best of shape. Which put an not needed stress on the rescuers.

While it would be nice if everybody was fit, aside from actual non-preventable medical events, I think a lot of problems can be handled with additional training.

For example, if a really-old, obese or otherwise not-so-fit diver surfaces and find the boat a good distance away and into the current, they would be much better off to simply inflate an SMB, get the boat's attention, relax and wait for pickup after everybody is on board, instead of attempting a useless and dangerous swim into the current.

The reality is that everybody gets old, and as people age they have a lower exercise tolerance, and need to modify their behavior to reduce their risks. There's no reason to "give up" and turn into The Human Blob, but there's also no reason to kick Darwin in the b***s and dare him to come fish you out of the gene pool.

FWIW, I've personally handled three or four rescues (depending on your definition) and they all involved bad judgement or a lack of skills, causing panic.

Terry

 

[paddler3d]

The reality is that everybody gets old, and as people age they have a lower exercise tolerance, and need to modify their behavior to reduce their risks. There's no reason to "give up" and turn into The Human Blob, but there's also no reason to kick Darwin in the b***s and dare him to come fish you out of the gene pool.

I made no reference to age, only personal fitness.

 

[Herk_Man]

Let me end this. Scuba diving is fun. Not very many people die doing it the way it is supposed to be done. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Ha Ha, you would have to be Herk_WOman and you would have to sing!

 

[Web Monkey]

I made no reference to age, only personal fitness.

I mentioned it. Personal fitness is related to age.

Unless you're willing to kick all the old people out of the ocean, you're going to have to deal with varying levels of physical competence.

Terry