Death by Diving

[Thalassamania]

As I noted above, people won't show up for a couple of hours in a pool at nominal cost to refresh skills, why would they show up for your program?

I know your personnel do, but that's the difference between professionals and dilettantes. When people are scientific divers, they're diving professionals. Even if they're training to be assistants, they're still thinking of themselves as something other than recreational divers.

Its real easy to cover up your failings and those of your heros by writing off the things that I am able to accomplish by makeing assumptions that don't hold up in reality.

Some people are very good at providing the answers people want to hear in order to get what they want. If you don't believe that, just look at our last election.

Politics aside, the ability to see through that sort of thing is perhaps the prime attribute of a successful DSO, because you don't get a first chance, not to mention a second. One screw up on the part of any of your people and there's a good chance that you'll be out looking for a new job.

 

[Cave Diver]

Call me a crank if you wish, but I think gas management material like that taught by Bob should be a mandatory part of any OW course. Anyone who can't hack it shouldn't be diving.

You're a crank. But I mostly agree with you.

Thal, love the new user title.

 

[galvanni]

I give back by volunteering to dive with new divers, and help them sort out their equipment and their skills, and where I can, pass on a little information and a lot of accessible resources. I think there are a lot of us who do things like that. Every little bit helps.

Us novice divers do appreciate that - and we do need that opportunity to get better.

 

[Thalassamania]

You're a crank. But I mostly agree with you.

Thal, love the new user title.

What do Isaac Asimov, Benjamin Franklin, Germaine Greer, Thomas Jefferson, Jacques-Yes Cousteau, John von Neumann and Pythagoras have in common?

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

"I'm trained. I can ride. What do I need a helmet for, I'll never have an accident."

Exactly. I know guys who refuse to wear a helmet

As a long time motorcyclist from a State that had no helmet law, I can tell you that if you really do your homework on this issue there is not one clear winner in general. If you are the kind of rider that is really cautious, drives no faster than the speed limit and follows all the rules, you may get run over by some car/truck driver who does none of the above.

Without a helmet, I can hear and see my opponents much better, and by traveling faster than everyone else I never have to worry about what's behind me. Also, if you really look at the statistics, helmet use increases vertebra trauma (paralysis) because when the whiplash thing happens there is all that extra weight.

I have been down a number of times, but not as many times as if I always wore a helmet.

Just like diving, there are people riding who should not be riding. They should wear a helmet. If you regularly stop at yield signs when there can not be any traffic in the lane you are yielding to, you do not have the situational awareness to safely operate a motorcycle.

:focus:

If you regularly find yourself with not enough gas to make a proper ascent, you do not have the situational awareness to safely dive.

 

[Thalassamania]

Like my dad, the pediatric radiologist used to say to me back when I still rode bikes (with a helmet), "Buy your son a motorcycle for his last birthday."

I find your thoughts concerning helmets to be specious rationalization, likely because you like the feeling of wind blowing through your locks. When I used to ride I only dumped twice, one was no big deal and I was able to stay on top of the bike as it slid, but the other ... I'd be dead (or gorked out) without a helmet. Neither dump was my fault, in both cases I was avoiding a vehicle that pulled out in front of me and I hit something slippery. Helmets have been well shown to save lives and to save brains, and I do not buy the increased SA argument at all.

I don't need a helmet law to get me to wear one, but I do need a helmet law so that I don't have to pay the medical bills (either through taxes or higher insurance rates) of those who don't wear one.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

As a long time motorcyclist from a State that had no helmet law, I can tell you that if you really do your homework on this issue there is not one clear winner in general. If you are the kind of rider that is really cautious, drives no faster than the speed limit and follows all the rules, you may get run over by some car/truck driver who does none of the above.

Without a helmet, I can hear and see my opponents much better, and by traveling faster than everyone else I never have to worry about what's behind me. Also, if you really look at the statistics, helmet use increases vertebra trauma (paralysis) because when the whiplash thing happens there is all that extra weight.

I have been down a number of times, but not as many times as if I always wore a helmet.

Just like diving, there are people riding who should not be riding. They should wear a helmet. If you regularly stop at yield signs when there can not be any traffic in the lane you are yielding to, you do not have the situational awareness to safely operate a motorcycle.

:focus:

If you regularly find yourself with not enough gas to make a proper ascent, you do not have the situational awareness to safely dive.

This sounds suspiciously like the arguments one reads rationalizing why buddy diving is more dangerous than solo diving ... and vice versa ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Cave Diver]

What do Isaac Asimov, Benjamin Franklin, Germaine Greer, Thomas Jefferson, Jacques-Yes Cousteau, John von Neumann and Pythagoras have in common?

They're all dead.

 

[SC_Hoaty]

fftopic:

I don't need a helmet law to get me to wear one, but I do need a helmet law so that I don't have to pay the medical bills (either through taxes or higher insurance rates) of those who don't wear one.

Where I live there is no helmet law. I do not ride a motorcycle. It has been asserted that a helmet law would turn fatalites into long-term care patients. If this is true (who knows?) it would raise taxes and/or insurance rates.

end fftopic:

 

[Thalassamania]

They're all dead.

That would come as quite a shock to Germaine Greer.