Another fatal record attempt in Lake Garda, Italy

[Dark Wolf]

Those "deepest dive" attempts seem so pointless. Nothing to do with going down to do something -- push the cave further, investigate the flora and fauna, find the bell of the wreck... no. All about ego of a diver who's probably nowhere near dived up enough to perform the dive, nor using the right equipment and support.

In any case the commercial and military divers have apparently been way deeper than 350m. What next, the deepest freediver to survive?

Pointless.

It obviously wasn't pointless to him. To each their own.

DW

 

[Wibble]

It obviously wasn't pointless to him his ego. To each their own.

FIFY

 

[Dark Wolf]

FIFY

It didn't need fixed, I said exactly what I meant. We all have dreams, motivations, and goals. His were obviously different than most. None of my business, and not my place to talk about his ego or lack thereof. As I said, to each their own.

DW

 

[doctormike]

It obviously wasn't pointless to him. To each their own.

DW

We had a very interesting discussion about this after another depth-record death, and I think that it's reasonable to go over the same things with each new tragedy.

With standard accident analysis, there are always a lot of posts about how we should respect the deceased and not be critical, and then the pushback about how it's crucial to figure out what went wrong to save other divers lives. The pushback is correct, that's the reason why we have an A&I forum. But in most of those threads, we don't criticize the motive for scuba diving in the first place.

With these depth record attempts, it's different. I don't think that it should be just "to each their own". Normalizing this sport just kills more people, by inspiring ever more dangerous dives.

Probing the knife edge between survival and death for it's own sake shouldn't be glorified. There is a reason why the Guinness book of records won't accept certain categories. As I mentioned in the last thread, there is no record for the most gasoline consumed, even though someone out there could try to see how far past the LD50 they could go.

So I feel comfortable voicing an opposition to the whole idea of depth records, even though these divers are far more experienced and capable than me. And I hope that if enough people do the same, maybe we won't have so many sad threads like this.

 

[kaylee_ann]

The only reason I can think of for people to do these stupid depth record attempts is so they can be seen as the diver who's better than everyone else. Because they've dived the deepest and are the only one to do so. If it was just a fun dive for them to explore, they wouldn't be trying for a record.

 

[Dark Wolf]

We had a very interesting discussion about this after another depth-record death, and I think that it's reasonable to go over the same things with each new tragedy.

With standard accident analysis, there are always a lot of posts about how we should respect the deceased and not be critical, and then the pushback about how it's crucial to figure out what went wrong to save other divers lives. The pushback is correct, that's the reason why we have an A&I forum. But in most of those threads, we don't criticize the motive for scuba diving in the first place.

With these depth record attempts, it's different. I don't think that it should be just "to each their own". Normalizing this sport just kills more people, by inspiring ever more dangerous dives.

Probing the knife edge between survival and death for it's own sake shouldn't be glorified. There is a reason why the Guinness book of records won't accept certain categories. As I mentioned in the last thread, there is no record for the most gasoline consumed, even though someone out there could try to see how far past the LD50 they could go.

So I feel comfortable voicing an opposition to the whole idea of depth records, even though these divers are far more experienced and capable than me. And I hope that if enough people do the same, maybe we won't have so many sad threads like this.

Interesting post, thanks! I have seen the same trend in other endeavors. Whether it is skydiving, motorcycle racing, etc. Personally, I am not interested in world record attempts, and don't follow who has done what. I think a good portion of cases comes down to personality/psychological differences compared to the majority of folks who participate. Much like some of the pioneers of wreck and cave diving, they are doing things that most people aren't interested in doing.

I do see your point, I just don't think people will quit pursuing records.

DW

 

[Dark Wolf]

The only reason I can think of for people to do these stupid depth record attempts is so they can be seen as the diver who's better than everyone else. Because they've dived the deepest and are the only one to do so. If it was just a fun dive for them to explore, they wouldn't be trying for a record.

Or, they are competing with themselves.

DW

 

[kaylee_ann]

Or, they are competing with themselves.

DW

right, but why would they get proof and submit it?

 

[kaylee_ann]

Interesting post, thanks! I have seen the same trend in other endeavors. Whether it is skydiving, motorcycle racing, etc. Personally, I am not interested in world record attempts, and don't follow who has done what. I think a good portion of cases comes down to personality/psychological differences compared to the majority of folks who participate. Much like some of the pioneers of wreck and cave diving, they are doing things that most people aren't interested in doing.

I do see your point, I just don't think people will quit pursuing records.

DW

I'm not against record attempts. I'm against stupid record attempts.

 

[Whitrzac]

Nobody goes into the water planing to die that day. It would be nice to analize what went wrong/failed and find ways of improving them. Even if you're not setting record depths a more reliable computer/spg/drysuit/etc could all be of use.