Discover scuba without instructor

[BlueTrin]

MANY uncertified people died a terrible death when their friend, father, cousin, brother who weren't dive instructors took them diving when they shouldn't have done so. Aside from the legal issues, the most terrible thing after the death or somebody turning in to a vegetate state is the guilty feeling people have after they have lead to the death of the uncertified unknowing relative/friend. I know many of these people that live with the guilty feeling for the rest of their lives. Do NOT do it!!

Do you have statistics from official sources ?

Edit: ah just read your other post afterwards

 

[almostDIR]

I generally never let anyone borrow my scuba gear even if I know the gear works correctly and they know how to use it and they are certified for scuba. It is just that people tend to be more prone to accidents etc when using ANY gear they are not familiar with even if they theoretically know how it should be used.
That said, if they are not certified and are really interested in diving I would tell them everything I know about the subject if they want to know, then help them find further reading and local shops and instructors if they are interested. Then they can decide by themselves if they want to try DSD or get directly OW certified.

DSD is not expensive at all so if one cannot afford it they probably would not have budget to actually dive either and in that case the DIY test dive would be pretty much pointless anyway. I would encourage them to try snorkeling instead if scuba sounds too expensive and time consuming for them

 

[almostDIR]

as for the gear testing fatalities, it seems to be pretty common accident type for people to die in very shallow water when they are just "quickly testing out the new gear" . I remember reading couple of old local cases where people just quickly wanted to test their new kit in couple of feets of water like 5-6ft when someone watches over from the dock nearby and half an hour later the fire dept comes to pick up the body from the bottom. Some of the divers certified some not. Just a reminder that shallow water is not less dangerous, it is just easier to find the body when it does not sink to the ocean floor if something goes wrong


#one of the limiting things for uncertified or new divers going to very deep here is that it is pretty frigging cold down there and they will get cold so quickly in their cheap kit that they would never reach something like 40m or 50m... they probably would turn around after 10 or 15 meters depth with a newcomers gear and would surface with tank mostly full or at least would end the dive happily in shallow water like under 5m depth where the water is tolerably warm for a thin wetsuit.

In tropics it would be however be very easy to reach great depths even without realising it because there is no multiple thermoclines and 4 degree Celsius water and completely dark down there. Just nice and warm and easy until something goes wrong and you need to get up quickly
I would suspect the scuba accidents thus be more common in tropics where the depth adds to all other risks and the easier conditions encourage to test diver's limits

 

[BlueTrin]

as for the gear testing fatalities, it seems to be pretty common accident type for people to die in very shallow water when they are just "quickly testing out the new gear" . I remember reading couple of old local cases where people just quickly wanted to test their new kit in couple of feets of water like 5-6ft when someone watches over from the dock nearby and half an hour later the fire dept comes to pick up the body from the bottom. Some of the divers certified some not. Just a reminder that shallow water is not less dangerous, it is just easier to find the body when it does not sink to the ocean floor if something goes wrong

How did they die for example ? So I know what to avoid doing

 

[caruso]

How did they die for example ? So I know what to avoid doing

Avoid diving without taking a course through a licensed instructor.

 

[BoltSnap]

Not particularly surprising. No matter the triggering cause or the incapacitating cause, the ultimate cause of death usually is drowning - unless there's a medical incident like a heart attack. And that's what'll be noted down during the autopsy. Only a proper accident analysis can uncover the triggering cause, and often not even then.

Here in Libya they don't have a clue about diving and the various issues that can happen while diving, so anyone dies in the water is classified as "drowning" without further analysis. They don't know about lung-rupture/over-expansion injuries at all.

 

[BoltSnap]

I generally never let anyone borrow my scuba gear even if I know the gear works correctly and they know how to use it and they are certified for scuba. It is just that people tend to be more prone to accidents etc when using ANY gear they are not familiar with even if they theoretically know how it should be used.
That said, if they are not certified and are really interested in diving I would tell them everything I know about the subject if they want to know, then help them find further reading and local shops and instructors if they are interested. Then they can decide by themselves if they want to try DSD or get directly OW certified.

DSD is not expensive at all so if one cannot afford it they probably would not have budget to actually dive either and in that case the DIY test dive would be pretty much pointless anyway. I would encourage them to try snorkeling instead if scuba sounds too expensive and time consuming for them

Exactly!!

 

[BlueTrin]

Avoid diving without taking a course through a licensed instructor.

Um this is not helpful although I agree with this point

 

[almostDIR]

How did they die for example ? So I know what to avoid doing

I would need to find the original news articles which are not all on internet. they are also in Finnish so it would not help most of the Scubaboarders to link them here and most are so old that they are removed...

the common causes seem to be medical emergency or gear malfunction, the gear misuse being common if they are testing new equipment. pretty standard causes for any scuba accident I believe.
one interesting case was buddy separation in very easy conditions in about 2m water and the victim drowning because of his tank being empty and seemingly the victim not monitoring the tank pressure during the whole dive at all because having unfamiliar rental equipment with unfamiliar AI computer. seemed that the person also used a rental drysuit for the first time or one of the first times in his life along with the other unfamiliar gear.
(the lesson I learned from this case is that never take more than one new piece of gear at a time with you when going underwater)

one case where a person was demonstrating scuba diving for his non diving friends in shallow 7 feet water by being alone underwater and having a safety rope to the surface. the friends pulling him back to the surface after not seeing bubbles for a while and the person surfacing dead, no specific cause mentioned.

 

[caruso]

Um this is not helpful although I agree with this point

Yeah potentially saving your life isn't helpful, got it.