A diver drowned on Friday diving the Channel Islands. It was only his 14th dive and he was diving solo from a regular dive boat. Without getting into the discussion of the dangers/merits of solo diving, I have two questions for the forum:
1. Should the diving boat be held legally liable for allowing a diver with only 14 dives under his belt to leave their boat solo?
2. Regardless of legal liability, if it was your boat, would you allow a diver with only 14 dives under his belt to leave your boat solo?
An interesting discussion is developing on the newspaper site. I, for one, am a strong believer personal responsibility and would not want some boat captain telling me that I could not jump in solo if that was what I wanted to do. However, a guy with only 14 dives??? If it were my boat, I think that I would rather risk losing a customer than incur the significantly increased risk of a newbie fatality due to obvious inexperience. What do you guys and gals think?
Here is the link:
Man drowns scuba diving off Anacapa Island : Local News : Ventura County Star
1. Should the diving boat be held legally liable for allowing a diver with only 14 dives under his belt to leave their boat solo?
2. Regardless of legal liability, if it was your boat, would you allow a diver with only 14 dives under his belt to leave your boat solo?
An interesting discussion is developing on the newspaper site. I, for one, am a strong believer personal responsibility and would not want some boat captain telling me that I could not jump in solo if that was what I wanted to do. However, a guy with only 14 dives??? If it were my boat, I think that I would rather risk losing a customer than incur the significantly increased risk of a newbie fatality due to obvious inexperience. What do you guys and gals think?
Here is the link:
Man drowns scuba diving off Anacapa Island : Local News : Ventura County Star