Steve:
What you're missing here is that this is a pretty blatant violation (perhaps on your part, perhaps on the part of the DM / dive op, perhaps both) of widely accepted safe diving practices for recreational divers. I'm really very sorry that you don't see that others before you with a great deal more experience developed these "rules" for a multitude of reasons. You'll note that while Doug does a good job of rationally explaining a few things, he isn't advocating or making excuses for this occurrence, either.
Right now, North American diving has a great deal of leeway since it is self-regulated. That is, there is no law requiring you to be certified to go diving. There is no law restricting a divers experience to skill / certification level. There are only industry best-practices. The risk situations like yours cause is that of "what if..." -- if you had not been so lucky and an incident occurred here, it's quite possible that it would have become a government-flunky's pet project to regulate scuba diving.
If we had been lucky, it would have been only around the Molokini MLCD. That, however, likely would have meant either the generally accepted standard of AOW (or similar, recent experience) and sufficient drift and deep training to qualify to dive the Backwall, or perhaps even a higher standard. There would be no leeway for the dive op to say "I think this guy can do it." This would close out the experience to many divers who, while capable, haven't sought the further training. Penalties would have been put in place, likely including potential jail time for blatant violations (I'm only comparing this to some of the dive flag law stuff, where jail is possible for repeat offenders).
If we're not so lucky, it would be a Federal flunky, and there would be laws enacted covering the entire country as to diving experience and practices.
What do you think such regulation would do for dive prices? Do you think you could still afford to go diving if the charters doubled in price due to further reporting and verification procedures?
What do you think would happen to the small operator that relies on a maximum of six divers per day to pay for his boat, fuel, crew, etc.?
This is why I've become so heated here. There are a few individuals endorsing, advocating and encouraging these activities without regard for the consequences.
I'm going to put this even more bluntly than I already have. Do the diving world a favour. If you want to risk your life unnecessarily, purchase a revolver and play a game of Russian Roulette. At least that way, the only people you'll affect are your loved ones.
What you're missing here is that this is a pretty blatant violation (perhaps on your part, perhaps on the part of the DM / dive op, perhaps both) of widely accepted safe diving practices for recreational divers. I'm really very sorry that you don't see that others before you with a great deal more experience developed these "rules" for a multitude of reasons. You'll note that while Doug does a good job of rationally explaining a few things, he isn't advocating or making excuses for this occurrence, either.
Right now, North American diving has a great deal of leeway since it is self-regulated. That is, there is no law requiring you to be certified to go diving. There is no law restricting a divers experience to skill / certification level. There are only industry best-practices. The risk situations like yours cause is that of "what if..." -- if you had not been so lucky and an incident occurred here, it's quite possible that it would have become a government-flunky's pet project to regulate scuba diving.
If we had been lucky, it would have been only around the Molokini MLCD. That, however, likely would have meant either the generally accepted standard of AOW (or similar, recent experience) and sufficient drift and deep training to qualify to dive the Backwall, or perhaps even a higher standard. There would be no leeway for the dive op to say "I think this guy can do it." This would close out the experience to many divers who, while capable, haven't sought the further training. Penalties would have been put in place, likely including potential jail time for blatant violations (I'm only comparing this to some of the dive flag law stuff, where jail is possible for repeat offenders).
If we're not so lucky, it would be a Federal flunky, and there would be laws enacted covering the entire country as to diving experience and practices.
What do you think such regulation would do for dive prices? Do you think you could still afford to go diving if the charters doubled in price due to further reporting and verification procedures?
What do you think would happen to the small operator that relies on a maximum of six divers per day to pay for his boat, fuel, crew, etc.?
This is why I've become so heated here. There are a few individuals endorsing, advocating and encouraging these activities without regard for the consequences.
I'm going to put this even more bluntly than I already have. Do the diving world a favour. If you want to risk your life unnecessarily, purchase a revolver and play a game of Russian Roulette. At least that way, the only people you'll affect are your loved ones.
