Safety is obviously a big concern for all of us when we dive but how ho safe do you guys actually feel when you go diving?
Safety should be a concern no matter what you do in life. On the other hand, there's such a thing as overdoing it, which can then become counterproductive in that it can defeat the whole point of the activity in question.
1. Is safety a big concern to you when you go diving?
It depends on what you mean by "big concern". Diving comes with certain risks. Some are predictable, others are not. A big part of "safety" involves preparing for the predictable risks and making sure you have the skills and knowledge to deal with the unpredictable ones if something should go wrong during the dive. But an equally big part of "safety" involves using good judgment ... deciding when conditions make the dive not worth doing ... knowing and staying within the limits of your training, experience, skill level, and equipment. These are not concerns so much as they are simply developing good diving habits.
2. Do you take care of your own safety or do you rely on others to guide you?
Never ... ever ... rely on someone else to keep you safe. Dive guides aren't there to take care of your safety ... they're there to guide you through a dive you're unfamiliar with, and to point out critters you might not otherwise see or recognize as the things you came to see. Your safety is strictly your responsibility.
3. Have you ever thought about how you could make yourself safer when going diving?
Constantly ... particularly when diving at an unfamiliar site or putting myself into a new environment. That's why I think about appropriate training for the type of diving I want to do, and why I'm always conscious of the human tendency to think ourselves more skilled at pretty much everything than we actually are. Most of what I do to "make myself safer" involves my mental approach to diving, which falls into the categories of (a) planning, (b) preparedness, and (c) awareness.
4. If a new technology was available that could make you safer would you use it?
It depends on the technology. If it's technology that makes the equipment more robust or reliable, then I certainly would. But most advances in dive gear would fall into the category of convenience features, and wouldn't necessarily make me feel any safer. Many convenience features can actually make you less safe by giving you a false sense of security, or by making it easier for you to grow dependent on using technology when you should be using your brain to keep you safe.
5. Can you think of a technology that could make you feel safer whilst diving?
Again it depends on what you mean. We rely on technology to keep us safe whilst diving at all levels. But technology is only tools, and your safety is less about the tools you have than it is about how you use them.
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
