I've been following this thread from the sidelines for a while. Those of you who know my back story and have read my posts before will probably already know what I think regarding C-cards.
I have never considered basic, recreational SCUBA diving to be "inherently dangerous." At least no more (and probably considerably less) than driving a car, flying a small plane, riding a bicycle on a busy street or any of a myriad other human pursuits we all do on a daily basis. Yes, there are rules that one must follow or a fatal accident can result. But this is true in virtually everything else we do day-to-day. Our parents taught us to take small bites, chew our food well and swallow carefully. Why? Because, if you're careless, you can choke on your food and die. We were taught as children to cross the street only at the corner and stop, look and listen for approaching vehicles before stepping onto the street. Why? Because a moment of inattentiveness could be very dangerous, even fatal. Every day, we routinely engage in activities that are far riskier than SCUBA. Each of those activities has its own, unique set of safety rules that must be followed or bad things happen. Do we think of the danger? No, because these are things we do every day and and those safety rules are ingrained and we follow them automatically.
For many years, the basic instruction a new diver would get for his first dives would be little more than "Breathe normally at all times. NEVER hold your breathe on compressed air. Pay careful attention to your down time and don't exceed the NDL on your Navy dive tables. Come up slower than your smallest, slowest bubbles." We had J-valves and no SPG, so we used an arbitrary SAC rate of 1 cu. ft. per min. when figuring air supply in minutes. This was generally conservative and unless we did it on purpose, we seldom had to turn on the reserve. I learned to dive this way in 1965 and I still dive this way now. I have never been bent (Knock on wood
)
40 years ago, when someone asked an old-style SCUBA diver if diving was dangerous, they would usually just laugh and say "Nah! Ya wanna try it sometime?" The old timers were always eager to introduce someone new to the underwater world. But nowadays, I frequently hear newly minted OW divers pontificating on how dangerous the sport is and that diving without being certified will get you killed. I'm beginning to think it's an ego thing. I suppose this makes sense from a business standpoint. If new divers can be convinced that they belong to some kind of special, elite group, maybe they'll be more willing to drop those thousands of dollars for more training and tons of unnecessary gear.
Every time there is a diving accident somewhere in the world, the elitists come forth with their "See? I told you so!" as if the occasional accident proves how special they are and how dangerous their sport is. Now, don't get me wrong, I am always saddened to hear of a diver's death. But let's get real! On any given day, there are tens of thousands of recreational divers swimming in the world's waters. When you consider the relatively low numbers of divers who have some sort of accident against the astronomical number of man-hours spent underwater, it becomes quite obvious that recreational diving is one of the safest sports. Just because someone occasionally has a lapse of judgment doesn't make the sport inherently dangerous.
There have been several posts here discussing panicked divers. Perhaps if new SCUBA students weren't bombarded with so much hype about diving's supposedly high danger factor, maybe their anxiety level wouldn't be so high.
Instead of negatively harping on "if you do this, you're gonna die!" maybe we should go back to the old, positive approach and say, "This is the way you have to do this. If you don't, you could really hurt yourself but if you follow these rules, you'll be just fine!"
The man who taught me to dive was never certified and neither was I for my first 11 years of diving. I finally got certified for one reason only: Starting in the mid 1970s, I needed that damned card to get my tank filled.
Recreational SCUBA diving is not rocket science and it doesn't require supermen with genius level IQs to learn how to dive safely. You don't even have to understand the physics behind the rules, though it does help to reinforce their importance. Will divers do stupid things? Of course they will. It's human nature. No amount of training will ever cure stupidity and a pocketful of little plastic cards won't make a penny's worth of difference.
One thing that I think is lacking in current SCUBA training is the lack of snorkeling skills. I honestly believe that people should master the art of snorkeling before moving on to SCUBA. Once a person can consistently free dive to 30 feet or so and feel relaxed and at home in the underwater environment with only fins, mask and snorkel, the transition to SCUBA is a piece of cake. If you can free dive to 30 or 40 feet holding your breath, then a CESA from recreational depths becomes little more than an annoyance.
Please note that the above does not include cave, wreck or deep diving. These are entirely different animals and in this area, I wholeheartedly agree with those who advocate extensive training and specialized dive gear. And I don't know much more than the basic principals of CCR, so I cannot comment on this subject.
I will now climb down from my soap box and don my flame proof suit.
