Catherine,
Not to pick on you, but to correct a misconception. Other sports/hobbies are every bit as critical of idiots in their presence. When in Texas, and trying to convince my wife to let me try skydiving, I hung out with quite a few skydivers. They would constantly rant about idiots who chose to jump without taking such a simple precaution such as jumping without a reserve because it saved them $1000. Hmmmm, $1000 for a great life insurance policy, Hmmmmmm. Not a hard decision to make. They already spent $3-5K+ for their main and pack. They also ranted about all types of other "stupid" risks that people took for no other reason but ego.
Another perfect example is when I was doing big wall climbing in California. We constantly ranted about fools who would take risks by climbing unroped on 3000ft walls or even small 30-50ft climbs. We had 2-3 "Pros" die each year by falling doing things like this. It wasn't that it costs a lot to have a rope and some gear, but ego. You would have "pros" die on simple 30-50ft climbs that they had done hundreds if not thousands of times roped up. Heck, they could do the climbs in their sleep. What did them in is not the things within their control but simply holds breaking off, or slipping off a hold that was wet, but they couldn't see it because of the type of rock.
The reason for these rants is because these people can greatly influence newcomers in a sport and when somebody like these two fools diving that deep on air for no other reason but their ego angers many of us not so much that they do it, I for one could really care less who goes out and tries to kill themselves doing whatever they choose to do. It angers me because they advertise their stupidity not thinking of the fact they might end up getting somebody else killed because they see it done and figure "hey, can't be too hard if these guys are doing it with no special equipment or gasses".
Not to pick on you, but to correct a misconception. Other sports/hobbies are every bit as critical of idiots in their presence. When in Texas, and trying to convince my wife to let me try skydiving, I hung out with quite a few skydivers. They would constantly rant about idiots who chose to jump without taking such a simple precaution such as jumping without a reserve because it saved them $1000. Hmmmm, $1000 for a great life insurance policy, Hmmmmmm. Not a hard decision to make. They already spent $3-5K+ for their main and pack. They also ranted about all types of other "stupid" risks that people took for no other reason but ego.
Another perfect example is when I was doing big wall climbing in California. We constantly ranted about fools who would take risks by climbing unroped on 3000ft walls or even small 30-50ft climbs. We had 2-3 "Pros" die each year by falling doing things like this. It wasn't that it costs a lot to have a rope and some gear, but ego. You would have "pros" die on simple 30-50ft climbs that they had done hundreds if not thousands of times roped up. Heck, they could do the climbs in their sleep. What did them in is not the things within their control but simply holds breaking off, or slipping off a hold that was wet, but they couldn't see it because of the type of rock.
The reason for these rants is because these people can greatly influence newcomers in a sport and when somebody like these two fools diving that deep on air for no other reason but their ego angers many of us not so much that they do it, I for one could really care less who goes out and tries to kill themselves doing whatever they choose to do. It angers me because they advertise their stupidity not thinking of the fact they might end up getting somebody else killed because they see it done and figure "hey, can't be too hard if these guys are doing it with no special equipment or gasses".
