Peter and I have talked about the "boat diving" specialty a lot, as one which is easy to make fun of as being worthless. In fact, if you look at the specialty instructor's manual, there is a LOT of stuff you can teach in the boat diving specialty. You can teach about steering the boat, using the radio, tying knots, docking procedures and other things that might be useful for the student who is either thinking of buying his own boat, or dives off friends' boats. Peter teaches SMB deployment in his boat diving specialty, since the ability to send up a marker is awfully nice when you get blown off the wreck or reef. Different types of entries, and the arrangement of granny lines and deco stations and the like, can be part of boat diving.
The problem with the specialties is the same as the problem with the majority of dive training. They are taught TO THE MINIMUMS to keep cost and time down, and often taught by people who don't have a great deal of experience with the topic they are teaching.
See, That would be useful, relevant information for a diver who wants to use their private boat as a dive boat.
The problem is your second paragraph. I think that provides a great end to the discussion on this specialty- know what you're buying, and if it will be useful.
SO even if the data supports what I said, you're going to debunk it.
OKAY....
The problem is, the statistics
don't show what you think they do. That's what we're trying to explain to you.
The problem is that youre drawing your information from a pool that does not include the general population; only diver deaths. To accurately state that new divers are more likely to die, youd have to show that a greater percentage of new divers die more than experienced divers. Without access to the number of divers around the world,
this is meaningless.
Second, and most tellingly, your conclusion is flawed. We know that only 35% of the fatalities were certified less than two years. 1/3 of the sampled diver deaths were new. 2/3rds were over two years, who are more experienced divers.
When only a third of deaths are new divers and 2/3rds are not new, this does not support a conclusion that new divers are more likely to die.
So lets break down the deaths, using the DAN information. 11 were OW, presumably new, but not conclusively. 18 were advanced, and 8 were dive professionals! And five of the deaths were students, under the same supervision and care of a professional that you think is needed.
A whopping 12 were technical divers, a group that would include the most experienced and well-trained divers. That's more than the new divers. Are tech divers more unsafe or more likely to die? It's an interesting point, because there are definitively less tech divers than new divers, yet they account for more deaths than new divers.
The data does not support your conclusion. You looked just at the graph; you didnt read the text. You didnt apply critical thought to this. There is no group most likely to die. To echo the DAN report;
The primary lesson to learn is that every diver, regardless of experience, must maintain vigilance and adhere to safe diving practices.