And... I for one am 100% AGAINST "the NANNY STATE" or , of making Diving decisions due to what some pencil necked geke with a law degree thinks.... ( no offense meant to the "good Lawyers--but the LAW needs to stay out of Adventure Sports in the Wilderness or Nature / Oceans
***1) ...
I will make my decisions based on Diving Knowledge and diving thoughts....not on lawsuits or nonsense from non-divers....and ....if you visit my house, and spill hot coffee on yourself, it's your own stupid fault if you did not know the coffee would burn you--and I am NOT going to have a sign in my kitchen....
Every time one of us gives in to the liability schemers, we make our own signs in our kitchens that much more possible in our futures....I think we need to fight for common sense.
***1*** Dangerous Example of the Nanny State in the Wilderness***
About 2 weeks ago, Sandra and I went to Mountain Bike at our preferred Mountain Bike Trail in Miami--Amelia Earhardt....unfortunately, it was flooded from a huge rain storm, and was un-ridable..so we headed back north toward broward and palm beach....and opted to try the Quiet Water Park mountain Bike trail we had not ridden for a few years--but it used to be a good mountain bike park.
So you ride a half mile to the beginning of the trail, and a fence is gated off, and there is a guy there asking for your pass for the day--$6 per person, per day....not big deal....so we have to ride a mile in another direction, to the Park cabin where they are doing this....in here, there is a big waiver that has to be sighed by each of us...sirt of a pain, but again, fine.....and then we see that we must also WATCH their 10 minute Safety Video in order to ride...this is the new thing in Broward County for mountain bike parks.
Here I draw the line....What do THEY know about safety in mountain biking, and who are they to tell people that have been active in mountain biking since the 80's anything.....But much more, this is the next step to having a government agency telling us we need to watch a safety video, before we can take a walk on a huge national or state forest, in the wilderness. It would be aimed at the clueless, the stupid, and those that are so without skills in the wild...that maybe they DO NEED to be visited by Darwin.....
I do not believe we should need to make the WILDERNESS safe for those who could not survive without videos telling them to avoid falling off of cliffs, or not to walk into trees, or all of the other nonsense some liability attorney could dream up.... The wilderness needs to remain how it was 200 years ago, or much further back.....that is what makes it WILDERNESS. The closer the geekes make it to becoming "civilized", "safe", and optimal for our lowest common denominator, the closer we are to being forced out of this Country, to look for a place not yet ruined by the Nanny State.
Oh, and obviously I told the Park people how ignorant this video was, and that I would NEVER mountain bike in a place as ruined as they had allowed Broward County to become. We still have great mountain biking in MIami, and Ocala, and in North Carolina...We don't need no Stinking Quiet Waters Park in Broward!!!!