ever took a non diver to a shallow dive?

[DivingsInMyBlood]

Is this supposed to be funny?

[Walter]

What part?

[Ana]

Fair enough. I guess phrasing it "Diving without at leas the notion that diving has the potential to be dangerous is a bad idea." Theres plenty of potential for a diving emergency during even the simplest dive.

None of what I've said in this thread has been a personal stab at anyone, and perhaps I phrased what I meant incorrectly. Although, its when people start to think "diving is so easy/safe/second nature" that they start to get lax in diving procedures and theres potential for someone to get hurt.

Even if they dont get lax, they do everything right... theres still a chance something could go wrong.

Thats all I'm sayin'.

I understand, I don't take things from this or any board personal. I ment to respond to the words on your post not necessarily to you personally.

I even agree with your last statement, you can do everything right and still get hurt. But that is just life, hence my comment about the shower. Follow procedures, do things the proper way and you'll survive to do another dive, or take another shower, whatever the case may be.

I'm against the safety freaks, specially the ones that refuse to engage their brain and think things thru; intead they follow someone's rules blindy.

[Ana]

If I were to have to choose between learning from the average instructor or from Zieg or Ana, I'd choose Zieg or Ana hands down.

This has to be the funny part.

Walter you know I'll do anything for you, but if you had to choose someone to learn, it would mean that we weren't diving friends to begin with.

Let Zieg do the teaching, you know I don't have patience with non-divers.

[AbyssalPlains]

Yep. Been there, done that. 12 feet max. In the days when I was much less experienced, much younger and much more immature. Came back from an aborted dive and two friends greeted me on the shore, badly wanting to give it a shot. I thought "Why let 2000 psi go to waste?" One of them got hooked, later certified and has loved it ever since. I wouldn't do it these days, though.

[rollerboi]

Follow procedures, do things the proper way and you'll survive to do another dive, or take another shower, whatever the case may be.

I'm against the safety freaks, specially the ones that refuse to engage their brain and think things thru; intead they follow someone's rules blindy.

What if you follow someone else's rules BECAUSE they make sense? How do you distinguish the blind followers from the knowing-what-they're-doing followers, and is that necessarily a bad thing?

I think the whole point of these rules is to make sure that we live to do another dive another day. And if there's a rule that doesn't make sense to us now, perhaps there's a deeper meaning that we don't understand at that point in our training.

For example, the holding your breath thing. Say you're on a Discover SCUBA thing and they tell you not to hold your breath when coming up. You don't understand, because it's just like swimming underwater, after all. You engage your brain, think it through, and decide that that's a stupid rule. Then you surface and die from barotrauma, all because you didn't understand Boyle's Law, not having been exposed to it yet.

Would it have been better for this example if you blindly followed or mentally evaluated?

I know that there's stuff I've been trained on that I don't quite fully understand, but I'm still going to follow the way that I've been trained. If something that comes up contradicts the way I've been trained, I'm going to find out why BEFORE I implement it.

[captain]

SCUBA DIVER is what it says on my card. .

I have one of those cards too, from 1970 which was 13 years after I started diving. And I am in the dark too as to how many dives I have done.

[Ana]

What if you follow someone else's rules BECAUSE they make sense? How do you distinguish the blind followers from the knowing-what-they're-doing followers, and is that necessarily a bad thing?

It isn't up to me to distinguish, it is up to them notto attempt to stuff their rules down my throat when I'm not asking for them.

I'm not suggesting for every single diver to pick a person, strap a bottle on their back and shove a reg in theyr mouth. But the other extreme is just as unreasonable, many people started a life of diving with a non-instructor showing what was it like, eventually certifications came by.The only thing wrong about it is the potential for lawsuits depending on the country, but it is not the end of the world if an experience diver shows a friend what is it like to breath underwater.

[spectrum]

Have you taken a friend of yours to a shallow dive without a OW before? I'm talking about like 20-30 feet or so.

and after showing her the ropes on the pool...

just curious

No I have not...... would I consider it?

Mmmmm if it were just your first paragraph I'd say no, they can stand or float in the shallows and blow bubbles.

Doing the pool time (which can be hazardous in it's own right) makes me think I'd consider it for the right person if they really had it together in the pool. Even then 10 feet or so would suffice on the dive. When in doubt let a pro do a Discover Dive with them.

Before you can decide if you would do this I think you really need to confident that you understand all that can go wrong. If you think there is no risk don't do it.

Pete

[JahJahwarrior]

I let others play around in the pool with it, but that's 6 feet max, and I never have them ptu the weight belt on, either they don't have it on and are basically snorkeling with a tank on, or they can sit on the bottom and hold onto it. Done it with both my brothers, with my parent's watching, and heck they seemed mor enatural than 2/3 of my OW class! Also done it with two good friends, one of whom wants to dive but has alot of troubles equalizing, another who thought he might like it but I don't think he did much....it was cold

Usually they stand in the deep end, so their head is only a foot or two under.

Could there be problems? Yes. But you know what, I've had others hold onto the steering wheel while I've done something else, like button a shirt or tie a shoe. My dad has let me fly his plane, I've even pretty much taken off and landed without him doing anything but sitting there ready to grab that yoke if I screwed up. He's also let me taxi through airports that weren't necessarily busy, but other planes were around and hitting one could cost a million or three I filmed a movie set in medevil times and was constantly walking backwards through intense fight scenes carrying a boom mic, and one day had to be an extra in a fight scene without any training.

I figure it's reasonably safe, all things considered, to let people mess around with my scuba gear in the pool.

And when we get to a spring and they want to, I steer them towards freediving and we see how deep they can go Gets their mind off of it and keeps me from having to tell them no.