Dody
Contributor
There seems to be a commun wisdom in the diving community that we should avoid risk because it will kill you. Diving should be fun and safe. However, the perfection of risk is a very personal thing. The risk itself is not an absolute concept. Some divers will rapidly gear up if there are told there is group of longimanus lurking underwater, a bit like surfers are attracted to the biggest waves. I would not. Other divers like me, enjoy rough conditions, current, surges and even long surface dive in choppy waters. We feel alive, we find it fun but not to point of being dragged miles away in open sea. Some dive solo even at 50 years old plus (what about the risk of heart attack) and feel perfectly safe. Some rec divers have the same routine diving 39 meters or 12 meters while for others below 15 meters is too dangerous. I am not even talking about technical diving, especially cave diving. It is not only a matter of experience and training. It is a matter of perception rooted in ourselves from our life experience, personal fears, comfort under water, personality, scientific knowledge… For example some consider that diving on air is dangerous below 30 meters given the gas density and the CO2 retention. Or that it it is better to dive nitrox (32 I guess not 36) at this depth. Everybody has the same data (Gavin Anthony and Simon J. Mitchell) but not everybody reaches the same conclusion. The mistake that some commentators make is transposing their personal vision of the risk to everybody else. Mistaking absolute and undeniable risk if that exists with perception of what absolute truth is… This does not mean that we should disregard the risks. It’s just a bit more complicated than that.