Is Scuba Diving Dangerous ?

[bilby]

captjohnr once bubbled...
The most important things I try to teach them are buoyancy and compass navigation. Among the most important rules I teach are:
1. Don't dive 2 deep!
2. Don't stay 2 long!
3. Don't come up 2 fast!
4. If that little voice in the back of your head begins to talk to you, listen before it starts yelling!....Remember that a scuba certification is nothing more than a license to learn. Continue your education, continue to learn.
>>>>>>>
I endorse these ideas and add one more:
If you think diving is never, ever, dangerous.......now that IS dangerous! (Complacency is the mother of DCI).:boom:

=-)

 

[Dxtreme]

Again, anything can happen even before you hit the waters.

HOw do you detect the carbon monoxide in your tank ??

except for the smell test, which doesnt accomplish much, i think we are all at the mercy of the fill shop ??????? Is there such equipment to determine the quality of the air in your tank ?

 

[pentiumchic]

I'm new but so far all I've heard is never never let just any Joe Snuffy fill your tank make sure that it's a reputable dive shop or PADI shop or the other schools answer to PADI.It's a safe bet they don't want to kill off there business.They also don't tend to mind if you ask questions about their filling methods.But on the flip side you'd think they had a simple test kit out there somewhere to double check does anyone know if they do?I mean I know for a fact the military have air test kits but is there an open market one out there?Thanks.
Jen

 

[Ian Wigg]

To put things in perspective though I remember reading somewhere that statistically the most dangerous hobbies, in terms of deaths per year, are gardening, golf and bowls. Also, in one of those wonderful but bizarre set of stats which turns up from time to time, apparently there were nearly as many death due to 'trouser related incidents' in the UK last year as diving related!

Whether these include being caught with them downby irate spouse/partner wasn't mentioned!

 

[Jean-Paul]

The only thing you can do to limit danger is by preparing yourself the best you can.
In diving this means skill practice, making dives continue your education and staying within your limits.
This doesn't mean that diving can't be dangerous.
A sport in wich you are depending on equipment, skills and a buddy can be dangerous period!
Staying at home however isn't an option. You can still fall of the stairs.

Keep wet

 

[dc4bs]

Question:

In "Bowling related deaths", do heart attacks, etc. at an alley count towords this number? If so, why?

Do they count a SCUBA related when they occur under water? If so, why?

They are "heart attack" related deaths, not "fill in your sport of choice" related deaths IMO...

OK, well MAYBE a panic attack 60 feet down the alley could trigger a cardiac event but how does that relate to diving?

I'm trying to picture how to kill yourself with a bowling ball some way other than simply picking it up and then grabbing your chest and collapsing. Other than some VERY unlikely but humorous scenarios I've dreamed up, I just don't see it.

Maybe a guy fixing the pin setting machine could get killed accidentaly but I just don't see other equipment related deaths coming from bowling.

It just seems like a 'far side' comic concept. "Whoops, the ball washing Machine got another one... Dang! I hate when that happens."

Hmm, can't let you have the lane untill you get a hydro done. Your ball's out of date.

Maybe complications from a popped blister infected by "sharing the ball" with other users.

Sure, they disinfect the shoes but... Ever see anyone cleaning the gunk out of the finger holes on those "alley" balls.

Comparing bowling to diving is not comparing apples to oranges. It's like comparing two very dissimilar activities.

OK,OK, it's like comparing Russian caviar to, oh, say Nascar racing! - Sorry, just finished reading another current thread...

See, the above sorts of thoughts tend to occur when lack of sleep due to the purchase of a new video game is a major contributing factor...

Don't let your kids stay up too late playing video games... Even if they are 35. What WERE you thinking Mom, letting me stay up like that last night?

 

[victoriawtx]

if we had let fear stand in our way?

I do agree that safety is the number one priority with diving. But the same can be said for driving a car. If you do things carelessly, you can get killed.

I think Darwin called it "survival of the fittest". (just some humor...LOL)

 

[dc4bs]

victoriawtx once bubbled...
Would we have reached the moon
if we had let fear stand in our way?

No.

On the flip side, I don't see us having reached it via a government agency (NASA) without the political necessity of "beating the Russians" either.
There just isn't much economic reason to go there.

I don't see any major push to go beyond Low Earth Orbit (comm satelites and such) for anything other than pure research ventures untill someone comes up with a money making reason to go there.

Maybe a method of mining asteroids econmicaly and figuring out how to get the results back to earth safely could make going further then LEO a good investment.

What am I thinking!?!? It'll just be made illegal by laws pushd for by the space arm of the environmental lobby by the time it's possible to do anyway, right?.
Gotta be carefull not to pollute the solar system after all.

 

[slowdiver]

If scuba was not dangerous, we would not need all of the release of liability forms.

 

[dsgobie]

ORM..... Operational Risk Management....

Fishing is dangerous too... Ever see someone get stuck with a hook?