Disturbing trend: glorifying horrible dives on social media.

[Bubblesong]

There have always been people doing irresponsible, dangerous and downright idiotic things.

Crossing Niagara on a tightrope, Victorian pole sitting, African boy can’t become a man without killing a lion with a pocketknife.
The Daredevils of Niagara Falls

I’ll respect their right to live or die as they choose.

It is the lifetime sentence of paralysis, bedsores and gofundme pity calls that they are choosing, when they go for “diving glory” without putting in time, effort and money for proper training.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Crossing Niagara on a tightrope, Victorian pole sitting, African boy can’t become a man without killing a lion with a pocketknife.
The Daredevils of Niagara Falls


It is the lifetime sentence of paralysis, bedsores and gofundme pity calls that they are choosing, when they go for “diving glory” without putting in time, effort and money for proper training.

Valid point

 

[Kevrumbo]

. . .To step from a daily life that is carefully bounded by laws and safety locks and guardrails into a predicament where your life hinges on your own ability to assess a dangerous situation can be both disconcerting and exhilarating. . . there is a profound desire for this kind of self-reliance among many people who live in an era when, in the Western world anyway, there is very little opportunity for it. In a difficult or risky situation in the wilderness, the total reliance on oneself . . .and the need for total focus -whether climbing a rock face, skiing a steep chute, or paddling a whitewater canyon- brings a crystalline awareness of the world around . . . One hears it again and again: that at moments like this the participant feels acutely alive.

There are risks of course -risks of all sizes- and sometimes the participant pays the ultimate price for them. . . there are no sure answers, no solid black lines to demarcate caution from boldness, and boldness from foolishness, or rather that those lines constantly shift depending on circumstance and the individual . . . So why go in the first place? -->It is here where you must utterly rely on your own judgment:

. . .Ultimately, each person who ventures out must make his or her own decisions about how far to go and what point to turn back. There's an old saying among prospectors who comb the hills for gold here in the American West: "Gold is where you find it". You can say the same about adventure. For that matter, you can say it about risk, about death, and about being acutely alive. . .

(Abridged, from the Introduction in the book, Last Breath: Cautionary Tales From The Limits of Human Endurance by Peter Stark)

 

[Colliam7]

In the last few days/weeks I’ve noticed an uptick in some very strange dive stories involving some trust me deep dives into deco, people running out of air with deco obligations, . . .

I haven't seen any of the specific items you mentioned - were these on SB, or elsewhere?

But, I have been experiencing a vague sense of discomfort about the very issue you raise. And, I cannot tell if there has been an increase in dive experiences of the kind you mention, or if the ubiquitous availability of social media outlets simply makes 'sharing' them easier.

I do think, admittedly without hard data to support my conclusion, that there are people who dive and flirt with disaster, without ever realizing just how close they came to the terminal event in their mortal existence. I wonder if they see diving as the equivalent of an amusement park ride, where you get exhilaration without real danger - 'it must be safe or they wouldn't let us do it'.

Maybe, there are just more people around now who a) take pride in the 'Hey, y'all, watch this!' behavior that we usually associate with rednecks, and b) get a sense of satisfaction from sharing their behavior on YouTube, Facebook, SB, and elsewhere, instead of walking away, thinking about what they did wrong, and vowing never to do something that stupid ever again.

Kev's excerpt from Pete Stark's book is excellent, and characterizes explains why some people pursue challenging endeavors. From my perspective, what seems to be missing in some of the examples that I see, perhaps some of the examples that Eric has alluded to, is a critical element in Peter Stark's introduction:

" . . . where your life hinges on your own ability to assess a dangerous situation . . . "

I am not sure that some of the divers in question actually assess the danger of the situations in which they place themselves. But, maybe I am just being too conservative.

 

[Neilwood]

I think it is a human weakness that we will always, as a whole, have people that will ignore long held safety guidelines because they a) know better b) can't be bothered learning or c) don't care about the consequences.

In most activities, especially those where there are risks to life and limb such as diving, skydiving, climbing etc, the safety guidelines have been learned through other people paying the price for mistakes (often with their lives). That is what a lot of people don't appear to realise or choose to ignore.

Every time we step in the water we are playing a game of chance (something may happen even an "undeserved hit" or equipment failure) so why not do as much as is reasonably practical to minimise the chance of problems instead of going out of your way to maximise the chance of those issues?

 

[Damselfish]

"Hold My Beer" - Jeff Foxworthy - mid 90s

 

[Superlyte27]

Instructors should be weeding this out long before these students get a card. Instead, they’re so worried about getting repeat business or referrals or not getting paid, that everyone that pays get a card.

I get paid the first five minutes of class. If your inability to dive, or your lack of common sense precludes you from diving, you won’t get a card. I don’t need repeat business or referrals to survive. I teach for the joy of new people seeing underwater caves, not for income. If you have a card with my name on it, it’s because I believe you are as close death proof underwater as possible.

In all my years of teaching, there is just ONE student that I wish I didn’t certify. He did everything right for class, and then threw every peice of common sense out the window in the following year. He dives beyond his limits and his training. He makes HUGE jumps in complexity from one dive to the next. I worry that he’ll be my first fatality.

I think instructors need to be more cautious about who gets a card. If students don’t have the skills or the mindset for diving safely, they need serious remedial work or expulsion from class. However, I’m not sure you can fix a bad mindset.

 

[Soloist]

Here is one such video of a highly skilled diver crossing paths with the most savage and cunning predator of the sea, the dreaded remora. Gasp!

 

[Superlyte27]

Here is one such video of a highly skilled diver crossing paths with the most savage and cunning predator of the sea, the dreaded remora. Gasp!

That’s friggin awesome.

 

[Nick Steele]

I believe most of this stems from the availability to record and show off to the world combined with not knowing any better. When I was in middle school we would make flame throwers out of chemical spray bottles for fun. As I grew older I found out that the flame could get sucked up into the can and cause it to explode

Regarding the instances the OP mentions I believe the girl who went into deco and almost ran out while her husband did and blew deco obligations either 1) is use to diving like that (wasn’t the first time she posted a story like that) or 2) she enhanced her story to get more readers to visit her blog. Either way can lead to deadly outcomes.