We might stop diving

[dive_turkey]

A bigger risk zone is the diver who has the cards but not the experience. I think that a statement I read once about investigations into crashes of privately piloted aircraft really summarises what went wrong here. This statement, in a 1974 US National Transport Safety Board report, pointed to "a pilot's inexperience mixed with a dose of overconfidence as a fatal mix". I am pretty sure that this can be applied to divers who think they are far more experienced than they really are due to the type and number of courses they have done and this overconfidence leads to them doing things they should not otherwise do.

This is a very interesting idea. However, I think that depends on the diver. I have found, that both in diving as well as my career, that taking a course that "qualifies" me for task a task doesn't necessarily build my confidence. If anything, I ususally walk away from the courses more concerned then when I arrived.

I'm all about challenging myself in order to improve my skills and knowledge, as well as gaining new experiences, but the courses for me only serve to demonstrate just how much I don't really know. Very rarely have I been truly satisifed with the depth of knowledge provided by a cookie cutter course and I often find myself researching on my own well beyond the reasonable scope of the course.

 

[boulderjohn]

If you read the annual DAN fatality reports, you will see that not all that many fatalities are new divers. A bigger risk factor as I read it is the occasional diver, the diver who diver who does not have many dives in comparison to the amount of time since certification. These are people who may not have the recent training or adequate experience needed to respond appropriately to an "event." I recently completed a class on essentially this topic, and the class differentiated between a scuba "event" and a scuba "emergency." To put it simply, if you do not handle an event properly, it becomes an emergency. Going out of air is an event. Handle it properly, and it is a non-issue. Handle it improperly, and it is an emergency. DAN's research shows that the biggest preventable cause of death among divers is an embolism following a panicked ascent (probably holding the breath) following an OOA event.

Contradicting that is the large percentage who have a lot of experience, including tech divers and instructors. Reading through the details of these fatalities brings the word "complacency" to mind. These divers often intentionally do things that violate normal procedures, apparently feeling they are good enough to ignore them.

Still, the largest factor is related to health. Cardiac events lead all other causes. The two factors most associated with fatalities by far are age and obesity.

 

[flots am]

Still, the largest factor is related to health. Cardiac events lead all other causes. The two factors most associated with fatalities by far are age and obesity.

I'm not sure those rate being included as a SCUBA fatalities, since the diver will still be old and/or fat after the dive and could easily drop dead the next week while watching television, which would not be labelled a "television fatality."

flots

 

[boulderjohn]

I'm not sure those rate being included as a SCUBA fatalities, since the diver will still be old and/or fat after the dive and could easily drop dead the next week while watching television, which would not be labelled a "television fatality."

flots

Sure, but they are included in the official numbers.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I think two of the biggest factors in scuba diving accidents are ignorance and hubris. Ignorance is taking risks because you don't know they're risks. Hubris is knowing they're risks, but thinking you're better at dealing with them than you turn out to be. Most accidents I've known about since I started diving are to some degree attributable to one or the other ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Max Speed]

I am pretty sure most accidents can be attributed to lack of air.

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