Are you a Dive Hypocrite?

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As a new diver, I stick within the edge of my comfort zone. Meaning, I push it a little bit beyond, but NEVER sacrifice my safety, or my dive buddy's. He has twice as many dives as I do, which still isn't much by some standards, so I try to keep up with him.

Some things I have done early on were the cold water dive in a wetsuit. It was fun, had a free flow incident we worked through CALMLY. At no time have I panicked underwater. I am sure that may well happen eventually, but for the most part, I play it safe as a rookie.

I think a healthy respect for what we do goes a long way to keeping you safe. I keep my head on a swivel down there.
 
I have not read all the posts to here so forgive this post if it is out of place.

(I do not know how to put the little box in that covers a rant here)

Personal freedoms are limited when it costs an insurance company enough money that they feel they want to protect their investments. the government is run by the insurance companies as they have the money to pay for senators and lobbyists. Our opinion is meaningless. if you want to be free then do not have insurance for whatever risk you want to take and accept the consequences for it.
take for example the helmet law for motor bikes, what social cost is there if you ride with your bald head blowing in the breeze. now what is the fiscal cost if you crash and hit your head? who is at risk? answer is the insurance companies and that is why you must wear a helmet or show proof of being self insured. ever ask how society put that little clause in the law? ok to kill yourself if you are self insured? I was under the delusion that laws were to protect society. I was wrong, laws are to protect insurance share holders.

Dive deep on air, but do not have any insurance and you are free to take the risk. Coming soon to a small print clause near you "void if diving on air".

ok back to your normal programming.

I enjoy a little risk, like breathing on scuba gear trusting my computer to do the NDL calc for me on dives above 90 ft. Finally after 2 years of talking about it I will take deco proc. in May, and then I will really risk my life on dives above 140 breathing voodo Nitrox gas. maybe one day I will go insane and breath that balloon gas and talk funny when I get to to the surface again.
 
...To what extent do you believe in personal freedom? What level of risk do you feel that a diver can assume? What do you think?

Interesting question.

The debate about motorcyle helmets is similar, I think. Most would believe that a person should be free to ride with or without a helmet. The choice is their's. However, motorcyclists routine cost taxpayers millions of dollars every year in medical bills from acute care of head injury and long-term care of traumatic brain injury.

As a society, we either say that a motorcylclist will not receive emergency care if they don't have insurance, or we mandate that all motorcyclists wear a helmet and have medical insurance. Clearly the former is inhumane, the latter is the law, and neither is irresponsible.

All risky sports, including technical diving, should be handled in the same manner. Do what you want -- but have the insurance to cover the costs of your mistakes so that expenses are not borne by the taxpayer. Failure to do so will result in government scrutiny and regulation.

Fortunately there are so few technical divers that it is unlikely that the mistakes of the uninsured will generate much attention of lawmakers.
 
This insurance thing is very interesting. Seat Belts, Helmets, etc. Having these laws now does seem to make some sense to me. Without them I guess premiums would be much higher. On the other hand, how much higher were car insurance rates without seat belt laws in 1978 (in '78 dollars)? How did we develop the need for all this insurance in the first place? Was it here in 1921?
Were medical costs lower (in 1921 dollars)? Did people sue less?
 
Interesting question.

The debate about motorcyle helmets is similar, I think. Most would believe that a person should be free to ride with or without a helmet. The choice is their's. However, motorcyclists routine cost taxpayers millions of dollars every year in medical bills from acute care of head injury and long-term care of traumatic brain injury.

As a society, we either say that a motorcylclist will not receive emergency care if they don't have insurance, or we mandate that all motorcyclists wear a helmet and have medical insurance. Clearly the former is inhumane, the latter is the law, and neither is irresponsible.

All risky sports, including technical diving, should be handled in the same manner. Do what you want -- but have the insurance to cover the costs of your mistakes so that expenses are not borne by the taxpayer. Failure to do so will result in government scrutiny and regulation.

Fortunately there are so few technical divers that it is unlikely that the mistakes of the uninsured will generate much attention of lawmakers.

Let's play this game some more. I'm willing to bet that the sheer numbers of fatality in automobiles that have built-in roll cages/crumble zones/seat belt/airbags are a lot higher than that of motorcyclist's death. Should we ban car?

A motorcyclist pays for his license & registration plus the tax on the gasoline that his vehicle consumes. Therefore he's entitled to any public services such as police/fire & rescue. It ain't free to him.

As far as medical insurances go, what about obese people that drive up these costs? What about smokers/drinkers?
 
To what extent do you believe in personal freedom? What level of risk do you feel that a diver can assume? What do you think?

Divers who THINK are usually open-minded to the choices of others. Divers who KNOW usually are close-minded and believe that the choices others make are somehow inferior to theirs.

I think that if a diver has a good reason for the risks he takes, then who am I to think less of him since I may not know what he is thinking.
 
I think each individual should be free to make his or her own choices. Even if they are the wrong choices. That's what makes Darwinism so great. We as a people don't have to regulate or control anything - nature takes care of it for us.

"The problem is stupidity. I'm not saying there should be a capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?"
 
I was under the delusion that laws were to protect society. I was wrong, laws are to protect insurance share holders.


Actually your wrong there. Laws don't protect anyone. Laws define crimes. Like restraining orders, defines the crime of being too close to a individual. If someone decides to violate it, it affords no protection. Protection is a gun with the ability and will to use it.
 
To what extent do you believe in personal freedom?

As long as it doesn't affect me, people can do what they want and it's no skin off my back.

What level of risk do you feel that a diver can assume? What do you think?

As long as it doesn't affect me, people can do what they want and it's no skin off my back.

:D

Regarding the topic:

Are you a Dive Hypocrite?

I like to think that I do as I say, but I'm sure that I'm guilty of some hypocrisy now and again.
 
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