Diving after 55 - split from: Tavernier fatality - Florida Keys

[Steve_C]

I dive the same BCD I got when I started diving. It does have the trait that it takes a minute to drain the large amount of water in the pockets. So my pause on the ladder is not because I am 71 and cannot go the rest of the way up. It is just shedding a few pounds before I do so. Why work harder than I have to. If the situation required it I could go up without pause.

 

[Bob DBF]

Seems like after 55, diving is like a Russian roulette.

Kind of like getting up in the morning.

I am 53, and I plan to get a stress test before next dive in Spring just because I would hate to ruin another diver's vacation with my poorly timed death, if I can, I will avoid that social gaff.

Cuts down the chance of a surprise heart attack, but does not prevent you from dying while diving.


Bob

 

[boulderjohn]

Kind of like getting up in the morning.
Cuts down the chance of a surprise heart attack, but does not prevent you from dying while diving.

Meet the Press host Tim Russert had a complete check with a cardiologist, including a stress test, on April 29. Everything looked normal. He died almost instantly of a heart attack on June 13. He was not diving.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

One of my buddies is in his 80s. He dives more often that most here on Scubaboard and still climbs the boat ladder with a large wrench and crowbar in his tool belt and if he's lucky, a brass item off the wreck he's been diving.
Merry and I are still slinging camera rigs that weigh more than our weight belts. I'll be 58 soon and she's 68. We're doing just fine.

 

[tursiops]

This thread is on the fine line between unnecessary and just stupid.

 

[drbill]

At age 55 I was just beginning to do deep air dives to 200 fsw. Dove far more in my 50s than I did in my 30s. At 69 my body is just beginning to fall apart so I hope I have another 10 years or so at the least. Know divers in their 80s and 90s not to mention Leni Riefenstahl who dove into her 100s. I've seen twenty-somethings in far worse shape than many of us old geezers.

 

[boulderjohn]

At 81, this record-breaking diver isn’t done exploring the ocean's depths

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

This thread is on the fine line between unnecessary and just stupid.

I think it is going along just fine.

 

[The Chairman]

Me 2.

 

[doctormike]

54 here... feeling my age but just certified on a CCR this year. Love it, looking forward to diving it as long as I can. Happy not to have to schlep around two sets of double 119s also.

The idea that there is some arbitrary age at which diving should be prohibited or restricted or discouraged is silly.

But it's also silly to pretend that the OUTCOME of a given cardiac event at depth is the same as the outcome of the same event on a golf course. Let's not fool ourselves here. Whenever we hear of a diving fatality that is found to be related to a medical event, many of us say that it could have happened anywhere. But that misses the point that any event is less survivable if it happens underwater.