How dangerous is diving?

[tye1138]

Yea I mean SCUBA diving isn't an "injury" sport. I've never hurt myself diving in any way, keep an eye on your air, have a backup plan and don't dive super deep... I've had the best dives in 40 feet of water. If you've gotta surface due to an emergency from 40 feet, you're probably gonna be OK.

My normal sporting activities; Roadracing, motocross, paintball, cycling, those are "injury" sports and yea, I've been seriously injured before doing those.

 

[boulderjohn]

boulderjohn, I would agree with you, as I certainly got banged up enough playing basketball, and nothing that I can think of yet with scuba. How would you rate these other activities vs. scuba regarding fatalities?

If you look at the statistics cited earlier, you will see that scuba is much more likely to cause death than some other sports, such as basketball. Many of those other sports are more likely to cause injuries.

In all of these sports, the possibility of a fatality is extremely small. In Scuba, the highest percentage of deaths are related to a previously existing health condition, and I am sure the same is true for basketball and volleyball as well. Fatalities actually associated with the dangers of the sport are very low.

So in terms of the overall discussion, both sides are right. If you are talking about injuries, scuba is comparatively a very safe sport. If you are talking about fatalities, not so much.

 

[vladimir]

You don't usually have to get stitches, or bones set, but barotrauma of the ear is common enough, and that certainly qualifies as an injury.

 

[CT-Rich]

You don't usually have to get stitches, or bones set, but barotrauma of the ear is common enough, and that certainly qualifies as an injury.

I'll go along with that. Usually we think of sports injuries as shin splints or stitches, but for diving the injuries are not related to impact... Most are things like sinus squeeze and reverse squeeze, stitches related to falls and marine life/wreck are probably fairly common also. the problem is these almost never thought of as sports related injuries, same is true for stings. with the exception of serious cut requiring stitches, most people won't ever bother to see a doctor about many of these things. Of course that also points out that these are much less significant than a torn ligament or stress fracture. Which goes back to the inherent safety of the sport. It is probably almost as safe as hiking, not as dangerous as rock climbing.

 

[DCBC]

I think that the greatest majority of the danger is not in the diving, but how we dive. Similarly to skiing, if you go past your personal safety envelope and go out on the edge, it might be your last day on the planet. Most of the danger can be mitigated by keeping it between the lines and not taking unnecessary risks. Using a little common sense can go a long way to keeping you safe and insuring an enjoyable experience.

 

[boulderjohn]

I'll go along with that. Usually we think of sports injuries as shin splints or stitches, but for diving the injuries are not related to impact... Most are things like sinus squeeze and reverse squeeze, stitches related to falls and marine life/wreck are probably fairly common also. .

Some of the diving injuries being discussed are not considered sports injuries because they are so minor they really aren't thought of as injuries, just as sore muscles the day after your weekend basketball game is not thought of as an injury.

As for those "common injuries" like a serious ear barotrauma and stitches caused by falling on the dock, I have never seen either, and if any of my friends have, they haven't mentioned it. So far the most serious scuba injury I have experienced is the time my hand slipped pulling on a too tight wet suit, with my thumbnail making a slight cut on my arm. The closest I have come to a serious problem was documented on this site years ago.

 

[CT-Rich]

Some of the diving injuries being discussed are not considered sports injuries because they are so minor they really aren't thought of as injuries, just as sore muscles the day after your weekend basketball game is not thought of as an injury.

As for those "common injuries" like a serious ear barotrauma and stitches caused by falling on the dock, I have never seen either, and if any of my friends have, they haven't mentioned it. So far the most serious scuba injury I have experienced is the time my hand slipped pulling on a too tight wet suit, with my thumbnail making a slight cut on my arm. The closest I have come to a serious problem was documented on this site years ago.

Like I said, I consider your average recreational dive about as dangerous as hiking. I remember when I started diving and forgot my gloves, I sliced up my hands pretty good. My Brother managed to burst an ear drum skindiving when we were kids (with not a clue what we were doing...). are any of these things that common? No, but that is my point. Occasionally hikers get stuck and need to be rescued on rarer occasions they get lost and die of exposure because they failed to heed warnings of park rangers, were doing stuff without proper training or simply were ignorant of the risks (flash flood areas, sudden temperature changes, rock slides, bears, dangerous climbs etc.) Although hiking is usually very safe, there are situations where good judgement is required. I live near a state park and a university, every year some idiot college kid tries to climb one of the rock faces and ends up getting lowered to safety by the local rescue team. Too often they are on a stretcher.

This is the same scenario we see with diving. Divers don't see the inherent risk a particular dive until they are in trouble. Sometimes they get away with nothing worse than a good scare and a lesson learned. Othertimes they get banged around by the surf or get a nasty sinus head ache for there indiscretion. On rare occassion they get bent or die. Most of this depends on the judgement and training of the diver. Most divers pay attention to the limits at least well enough to avoid serious injury. The ones that don't become object lessons to the rest.

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Of course there are the few that die in the changing room.... but it is hard to learn from them.

 

[diverrex]

I also look at simple recreational diving similar to hiking. The problem we have making comparisons is we don't have good numbers for the participants. Out here in LA County we average something like 4 - 6 scuba deaths a year. I'd say we only have 1 - 2 hiking deaths a year. I may be wrong but I think we have more hikes than dives each year. If so the death rate is higher in scuba.

 

[nimoh]

I was thinking of this thread this past weekend when I was out diving, and walking through a rocky shore entry with my steel doubles strapped on. Some injuries might be considered diving injuries even if not in the water...drop a tank on your foot, fall over carrying your gear, etc. could result in some broken bones.

I was also a little sore the next day after carrying my gear up the hill to the parking lot

 

[dadediver]

I am always amused at people who think diving is either dangerous or macho. I've never found anything dangerous or macho about it. You don't even have to be in shape or anything close to do it. Fat people, skinny people, obese people, old people, young people, in shape and out of shape people. It's just another hobby like fishing or hunting as far as I can tell. You want real macho and danger, check out this guy. Alex Honnold. The best free climber in the world. Now this is danger and macho!

This is only macho and dangerous because he has no safeties. He slips and falls, he decks out and game over.

If he were to have the "normal" triade gear (ropes, cams hexes, harness) this is would be considered a sport that is practiced by a lot of people. You slip, you fall and you recover and continue. The same conversation takes place over at Rock Climibing.com on the risk invovling top roping, sport climb, triade climbing and free climbing. There are a lot of climbers being injuried top roping versus traid climbing due to the lack of experiance and complancency in the preconceieved notion that top roping is a safer sport than triade climbing.