...and one more: DAN for solo divers

[Bob DBF]

Now that the cat is out of the bag, ...57% of divers who died began their dive with an assigned buddy... ie Buddy System Breakdown, now of the 43% what percent of Buddy teams were togather and a member could not or did not try to effect a rescue and what percentage of deaths were actual Solo divers?

In all the information DAN collects on diving fatalities, and all the statistics they compile, I would think it would be easy for their computer to spit out the percent of diver, intentionally diving alone, fatalities. Or perhaps they can and for some unknown reason don't.

Like LeadTurn I'm a firm believer in the buddy system but both divers have to believe otherwise I'm still going diving only it will be Solo.

Bob

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

When I was flying, there was a statistic going around about {some high percentage} of instrument flight rules (IFR) accidents were incurred by pilots on visual flight rules (VFR) flights continuing into instrument conditions. Alot of these pilots were IFR rated pilots. It's just that they hadn't prepared on that particular flight to go into IFR conditions, they hadn't done the prep.

I think the statistic in Alert Diver doesn't say anything about solo diving. It speaks to what happens if buddies get seperated. When I dive with a buddy I don't take all the redundancy that I carry when I'm alone. Different prep...

As a practical matter, I think it speaks less to being prepared as a solo diver than it does to what happens to people when they get stressed out.

Anyone who's experienced a buddy separation can understand that it's something that takes your mind off what you're doing, and causes you to start focusing on what might have happened to your dive buddy. That can lead to any number of things that may ultimately result in an accident ... poor decisions, overlooking something simple that compounds into a bigger issue, or even something as fundamental as the onset of distress leading to panic.

Preparation is all well and good ... but what keeps us safe underwater is maintaining the mental ability to use the equipment we bring with us properly. Underwater, stress is the thing you most have to guard against ... whether you're diving with a buddy or not ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)