Thanks for so many great responses! I particularly liked those from Mike, NW Grateful Diver, drrich, TS&M,
but many others were good, too. And all were respectful, I appreciate that.
I see that many of you were also saddened by the death of Quero, and most were sobered as well. And our sincere condolences to those who are struggling with disease, or who have lost loved ones. I know how both of these things feel!
A few comments on your comments
.
Some of the comments compared diving to alternatives like Doritos, knitting, or not living at all. Those are false comparisons for us. If we stop diving, we wouldnt be sitting eating Doritos, or simply spending more time at the office. We have a full life. Diving is part of that, but it is not the most important thing, or even the second most important. We would be doing the things we love to do together (key word: together)
like seeing nature in any form (hiking, biking, travel, wildlife watching,
). we plan to move to Africa, then to France for a year or two after we both retire
. we love classical music
. I could go on
.
Yes, living is inherently dangerous. We must accept risk as a fact of living. But that does not mean we accept any risk no matter how large, if it offers us pleasure in return. Some folks are willing to accept the risks for motorcycle riding, skydiving, etc. not me. Thrill sports have never been my style. Being at one with nature is more my style.
We are not thinking of death every time we enter the water, nor every time we get up in the morning. But there are quite a few candles on the cake, and we do want to maximize our healthy together time. After reading all the comments, I realized that whether diving is, in general, safe, is not the primary consideration. Whether diving is safe for us is the primary consideration. Mikes comments on Rescue Diving course hit home. We are going to look for a few more well-taught courses before we decide to maybe hang up the regs for good. Well try one more time, maybe even two or three more times. But we do need to get a better handle on the risk of diving, and Ill say again that the scuba industry has not been very helpful in this regard.
It still bothers me that even experienced divers die diving. Not just Quero, either. I dislike those comments above that seemed to have a tone akin to "they should have been smarter than that". That's the point, friend! Quero was smarter than that. But something else happened -- we may never know what. This "something else" (panic, perhaps) could happen to every one of us, no matter how well-trained.
Even if we get the best possible training, we could still succumb. After the course(s), we still have to evaluate our skill and comfort about diving. I have experienced a level of panic (call it very high anxiety) that need not have occurred given the circumstances, but then again could have been much worse if the circumstances had been a bit more challenging. Obviously, I am not the only one! Again going back to Mikes response, our disposition to panic might be too much to continue. I am aware that sometimes panic can be generated from not knowing what to do so maybe the Rescue course will help with that.
For now, we plan to continue, especially with training, and with strict limits for visibility. Well re-evaluate after that.
Thanks again for all your thoughtful comments.
Bill
