1,000 Ways to Die: Is Diving One of Them?

[dmcutter]

There's risk in every activity-I've been hit twice on my bicycle in the last 5 or so years, and I don't consider cycling to be an especially hazardous activity. I've done high risk stuff most of my life-I dabbled with skydiving back in the days before tandem jumps; I've been riding crotch rockets since 1983, somtimes at very high speeds; I played with an awful lot of high explosives as a combat engineer in the Marines; I was an avid rock climber until I tore my rotator cuffs. I guess the outcome of a major gaff at 120 ft is about the same as at 140 mph, it just takes longer to die. We do whatever we can to mitigate risks in any of our chosen activities, but sometimes things just go wrong. If you spend all your time worrying about how what you're doing might kill you, you won't enjoy it very much...

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

So what's the stupidest way you've almost died?

Mine occurred right after I came out west, in the winter of 92/93. I got to Oregon in late January, and was driving along the Columbia River Gorge when I noticed some really big waterfalls beside the road. Pulling into the parking lot of one of them, I discovered that there was a trail I could take to the top. I grabbed my camera and hiked up the trail ... with the intention of getting a picture looking down the waterfall. Got to the top and there was a railing between me and where I wanted to go to get the picture. Since nobody was around to tell me how stupid it would be, I climbed over the railing and carefully started working my way to the edge of the falls. What I hadn't considered was that the spray coming up from the bottom was freezing on the rocks I was walking on ... and I suddenly found myself sliding toward the edge with nothing to grab ahold of. I was almost overwhelmed by visions of Wile E Coyote ... and a human-shaped hole in the ice at the bottom of the waterfall. Before things got too out of hand I decided to sit down and see if I could get some friction between me and the ice. Fortunately ... being not much into modern fashions, I was wearing an old plaid wool coat and green wool pants ... which gave me just enough friction to stop sliding. By laying on the ice and crab-walking I was able to make it back to the railing ... which I gratefully grabbed a few minutes later.

After that day, not much scares me ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[boulderjohn]

When asked if he was trying to achieve immortality through his work, Woody Allen said he was trying instead to achieve immortality through not dying.

A number of posters have commented on not giving in to old age. I am in that camp. Walter said that most dive fatalities are the result of diver error. I don't know the exact breakdown, but I believe the largest individual category would be health issues related to aging. The only dive fatalities with which I have had any personal connection were brought on by heart attacks. As we age, various infirmities creep into our system, making it more prone to failure. I am of an age where those issues will grow.

And so, I will some day have to make a decision. At some point my health may reach a point where the likelihood that I may have a problem which may put others at needless risk will grow to the point that I will have to give up the sport. Until then, I will continue to dive, for the same reasons expressed by others who don't want to wither away throughout old age.

For those who feel that way, I leave you with a few quotations that may help you:

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
---Dylan Thomas

Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
---Alfred Lord Tennyson

But at my back I always hear
Time's winged chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
...
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.
---Andrew Marvell​

 

[FL-Jack]

As a community, scuba divers are one of the most safety-conscious of sportsman. In some ways this is good because we find creative ways to be safer even in the most extreme environments. Yet, at the same time this attention to safety can really take a toll on the camaraderie within the community because on this very board people are divided by being solo divers, DIR practitioners, vintage equipment divers, public safety divers, etc. People have strong opinions about how they dive and some have strong opinions as to how they believe others should dive too. When someone dies, the community analyzes the accident at best and crucifies those in error at worse. If it's a medical accident, it seems to be much more okay somehow that too many cheeseburgers and French fries took their toll on a dead diver than if that diver died due to pilot error. Yet, some would argue that eating poorly is just as much pilot error as failure to analyze gas or be properly trained for a dive We are all going to die someday. Is dying while diving okay? If so, what circumstances can you die heroically and with dignity underwater? If not, why? In what ways (other than diving-related) can a diver die with the dignity and support of the community? Why do we feel the need to place blame on something or someone? Why do we criticize those in our sport who are willing to take huge risks with their lives when the same sort of athletes in other sports are admired?

A thought provoking post, to say the least.

I have an issue with "As a community, scuba divers are one of the most safety-conscious of sportsman." This is mostly true 'online', but with all activities in the real world, there are participants that just do not belong. Today, our liberal minded 'progressive', 21th century thinking that says, 'everyone is equal' will continue to place bad marks on our collective safety records and give divers a reckless, foolhardy reputation.

Most non-diving folks believe they will be eaten by a shark if they dare enter their realm. You cannot change this perception overnight, and fools dying in clear, warm water chasing bugs each and every year does not help.

We take our lives into our own hands when entering this alien environment, no matter how safe and comfortable we become with experience. IMO, diving is really no different from space exploration,. I would not expect NASA to sign off medically unfit and emotionally incapable astronauts, so as long as we continue to coddle folks that belong on glass bottom boats we will continue to be seen as insane.

I reckon anyone that gave their life attempting to rescue one of these idiots would die an honorable death.

The incredibly tragic case of Keezdiver TRIBUTE THREAD - Jeff Simonds 4/24/78 to 2/18/10 Age 31 - Rest in Peace Keezdiver! shows that life is short and death can come in many ways, even when you make routine solo trips down to 150' chasing what you love.

 

[robbcayman]

I went to a friend's funeral two months ago... she was 36. Out of the blue, she got a weird form of bone cancer. She didn't have a family history of that type of cancer, either. I mean, she was only 36. She left behind her loving husband and young daughter. Life can be gone quickly!!!

After leaving the funeral, I started to think things over. I've come to realize that life is all about risk and chance. That doesn't mean you should engage in crazy behaviors all the time or it will catch up to you. However, calculated risks are a must to live a real life in my view. Sure, you can refuse to take any risks and try to hedge your bets.. still doesn't mean you won't die. There are a lot of things in this life that are out of our control.

Don't be afraid to take calculated risks that bring you pleasure. Do everything in your power to make smart decisions and be vigilant about your safety in the activity you choose. In the end, I think of this quote I heard awhile back. I wish I knew the guy's name. Anyways, he said "Everyone dies, but not everyone lives."

 

[The Chairman]

IMO, diving is really no different from space exploration.

O rly? It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to realize that we don't use rockets. Rocket Fins, maybe, but not real rockets.

 

[FL-Jack]

O rly? It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to realize that we don't use rockets. Rocket Fins, maybe, but not real rockets.

Speak for yourself! I have no time to waste.

They face radiation, we face hostile sea life. In the end, lack of O2 will get us both!

It does bring me back to the OP's original point.

Why is it when astronauts die they are automatically elevated to hero status, when it is arguable that jumping on top of "four million pounds of fuel and a thing that has 270,000 moving parts built by the lowest bidder." is far more insane than simple diving in the oceans!

Neither profession is going to save the planet, but at least we eat better down here.

 

[2 Big 2 Fail]

It's one thing to say you don't want to die in bed, but life doesn't give you many clean choices, and the choice fate makes for you might be between dying in bed and going feet first through a slow wood chipper.

Okay. Let's say it was as close as anything could be to a sure thing that by following directions, you could dive every day and in just about every recreational venue in complete safety, the degree of safety you expect flying by commercial airline or riding a roller-coaster at Six Flags. Every contingency was accounted for, and it was extremely rare that anyone got hurt, let alone died. Wouldn't it then be just another amusement ride? Everyone doing it in complete safety.

Would you then dive, when the only thrill was what you got from seeing the sights? And you could do that, with the same zero risk, in a comfortable sightseeing submarine with hot lunch and cold beer served during the trip. If every skydiver has a magic sky hook that automatically deployed to prevent an accident, who would still be skydiving after the first few experiences? The roller coaster riders who enjoy imaginary risk?

For those who do it, does diving not have value largely because, if you screw up, you can die, and even if you don't screw up, you can die? Isn't the kick largely that you calculate the very real risk and set your determination against it to enter a world that relatively few experience? Without the risk to keep the numbers down, wouldn't that world become common as any scenic spot on the surface?

Let's not mislead by comparing diving risk to driving risk. Driving risk is almost wholly the risk of running into another driver, because the world is teeming with them. The actual act of driving a car down a road represents so little risk as to be not worth considering. Equipment failures are pretty much only a nuisance. There's nothing in it to induce a fatal physiological event, and the physical abilities required are nothing more than the hand-eye coordination and judgment of moments and angles we mastered 100,000 years ago.

We are not evolved to swim freely at the bottom of the sea or to glide to Earth from 10,000 feet or to cling to a sheer rock face at 13,000 feet. Every time we do one of those things, we know that even when we perform perfectly we could die and that dying's a whole lot more likely if we mess up. We know that's true because people who do those things do regularly die, sometimes without making a single mistake. And that is exactly why we do them, because when we walk away alive once more, we have faced the risk and survived, and those are special moments. We figure out how to contrive activities with the kind of risk we figure we can manage. We don't jump from aircraft at 10,000 feet without a parachute, even though a few people have pulled it off and lived. And we don't get a big kick from standing under a tree, even though a few people die when a branch falls on them. We will most of us ride a kayak down whitewater but not over Niagara Falls.

In every risk-taking activity we do because we want to do it, some folks will die. In a real sense, they must die. Otherwise, we didn't contrive the kind of risk we want to deal with.

 

[tlj3071]

... that has 270,000 moving parts built by the lowest bidder." is far more insane than simple diving in the oceans!...

That's why I don't fly helicopters - only fixed wing - I don't like the idea of flying inside "30,000 parts all flying in close formation"

Tom

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

For those who do it, does diving not have value largely because, if you screw up, you can die, and even if you don't screw up, you can die?

That's not at all why I value diving. In fact, I'm far more at risk driving to work in the morning ... and that's only something I do because I have to.

No ... the value I place on diving comes from the fact that underwater I finally found a place where I can truly relax and feel free. My brother used to tell me I didn't know how to relax ... he can't say that anymore ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)