I know that you feel that you will be safe diving in the absence of your parents. The issue isn't really one of
your safety, it is an issue of
your parents' peace of mind while they are away. My advice: you are 17 -
man up. Being an adult is about taking **** and dealing with it. Tell your parents that if you were to go diving you would be safe, but you understand that they would be worried, so
you chose to make them happy by not diving in their absence. Perhaps suggest that they might want to contribute to a pizza fund as a concession.
In Canada I believe that, at 16, you can declare yourself an emancipated minor and move out of the house, conferring upon yourself the status of maturity before you hit the age of majority. However, you would still be a minor living away from home. You don't want to do that for many, many reasons.
FYI, re-posted from
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/basic-scuba-discussions/296690-skydiving-scuba-safer-4.html
Taken from an alertdiver.com summary of a study conducted by Dr. Petar J. Denoble, Neal W. Pollock, Panchabi Vaithiyanathan, Dr. James. L. Caruso, Dr. Richard Vann and Joel A. Dovenbarger, R.N., published in the medical journal Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine in December 2008:
1. Comparisons with other sports are problematic since the measures of exposure (e.g., the number of dives, hours of jogging, etc.) are not always available. For example, the annual rate of 16 fatalities while diving per 100,000 divers is comparable to the 13 deaths while jogging (per 100,000 joggers). However, a jogger may run several times a week, but a diver might only dive two to three weeks a year;
2. Fatality rates for scuba diving and driving a car are nearly identical when calculated per number of participants. However, the vast majority of us will spend much more time in traffic situations than in diving; and
3. The rate of injury among divers is much lower than the rate of injury amongst most other sports. However, the likelihood that a diving injury will result in death is much higher than for most other sports.