Public Service Announcement against quarry diving

[UnixSage]

A little background, I started diving a little over a year ago. I have following the sport for years and I finally took the plunge got certified and am enjoying it. My non-diving wife understands the risks and is supportive in this new sport I have chosen to take up. I sold my motorcycles and bought dive gear. Most of my diving that is not at a tropical destination is in flooded quarries.

This scene opens, my wife and I are in a waiting room at the doctor's office. The TV was running which I was mostly ignoring while chasing my 3yr son. When all of a sudden over the TV I hear flooded quarry's are no place to play and diving is dying. Needless to say my head snapped to look at what the heck was that about and I see pictures of divers in drysuits. My non-diving wife also heard this and paid attention to the announcement and shot me a look. Not being at home and not being able to use the DVR to roll it back I was looking for it to show up again. After explaining to my wife that the quarries that I dive in are safe and that is why admission charged. My wife is not an alarmist and is wise to the media's occasional moutian-molehill tendencies.

Fast forward to this morning. I am in the computer room and the TV is running watching ESPN (wife is a sport fan) and that add came on and I was able to see most of it. It seemed to convey the same message and again the diving is dying slogan. Kinda miffed I go to find it and I did.

The PSA is here:
http://www.dgsweb.state.pa.us/streaming_links/sosa/sosa.asx

The webpage is:
http://www.depweb.state.pa.us/stayoutstayalive/site/default.asp

I was able to see the ad from the start, to their credit they did say trespassing which I agree could be dangerous but if you missed the opening seconds of the announcement you get a different different picture.

Given the source for the announcement it appears that it is only playing in Pennsylvania area, are other states running their own? I am wondering if anyone else has seen the PSA and if it has caused any problems?

 

[darylm74]

Strange, I haven't seen this yet. There are definitely a lot of old mines and quarries around here and I can definitely see the concern. I definitely agree with you that they are talking about abandoned ones where a diver would have to trespass to get to and not the ones that have been scoped out such as Dutch Springs, Bainbridge, etc. I also got the idea from seeing the Ad is that it seemed to pertain to kids that are going ATVing or perhaps swimming in the quarries. I know back home in Tennessee, where I grew up, they shutdown the quarry from divers because leaving it open for divers allowed kids to go swimming there and they were getting drunk, driving their cars off in the quarries or diving and hitting a shallow rock or something.

 

[darylm74]

Oh just rewatched the video and I think they mean "diving" as in jumping off the edge. If you notice, the guy in the drysuit is a rescue diver. He is dragging up a body. You can see the hair of the guy he is bringing up and almost looks like the guy's head is split open. You have to watch closely to catch that.

 

[mike_s]

I wonder if the woman in the video is up for re-election or something?

The reason I ask this is for example the secretary of state where I live right before the election started using taxpayer money for TV commercials with her talking about voter rights. She clearly got her name "out there" a lot with these ads.

The ad's seem to have most of the publics interest at heart, but are not fair to say that all quarries are "death zones". It's clear that they were not responsible enough to research the issue at hand.

If you look at the top right of that web page, there is a "Contact US" link were you can send your feedback or comments about this PSA. send to RA-epcontactus@state.pa.us

Though I don't live in PA, I plan on sending them a response as this sheds a negative light on diving everywhere.

 

[UnixSage]

Oh just rewatched the video and I think they mean "diving" as in jumping off the edge. If you notice, the guy in the drysuit is a rescue diver. He is dragging up a body. You can see the hair of the guy he is bringing up and almost looks like the guy's head is split open. You have to watch closely to catch that.

Oh I get what they are warning against, I went to school with a guy that drinking and diving (not scuba) and was crippled for life. It is just the ad is a bit general. Now I will admit that I might read into more than most. but I bet that friends and familys of divers will read it just the same as I and my wife did. Espically when you miss the first 10 seconds that use the word trespassing. I might "tresspass" onto someones property and get bitten by a dog (probably far more common) and I dont see PSAs against that.

 

[Damselfish]

the warnings against "diving" in quarries always seemed targetted against the kids jumping in abandoned quarries sort of thing, not "scuba" diving. (I'm orig from PA.)

And it's a good idea for a public service announcement kind of thing. Kids discover these places and think it's cool. Many kids (ok some adults too) don't think about things like there might be a ledge a couple feet under the water they're going to hit with their head, or whatever. Stuff happens. I think most people understand these to be about swimming type activities in unknown possibly dangerous places and don't even think scuba unless maybe they know someone who scuba dives. You may just have to clarify things for confused people.

 

[Gary D.]

Look close at the video and the warning is not about Scuba diving. It is about jumpers and those falling in.

That is not a dry suit on the guy in the ambulance but pants and a shirt. It also shows him in the water with the PSD.

Gary D.

 

[ckjacques53198]

As somebody already mentioned I think theyare referring to diving as jumping off the edge into the water. The dude in the drysuit appears to be a rescue attempt.

 

[WasWild]

Phew! Glad that's straightened out...being from Pennsylvania, quarry diving is one of my only options at present.

That said, I remember kids that would cliff dive into quarries and reservoirs. Being a tad afraid of heights, I could never figure out why they did it.

That PSA was confusing, though.

 

[scubadobadoo]

As an actor, I have done a lot of commercials and PSA's. I agree, this one is not very clearly written or edited.