Death off of Little Cayman

[texdiveguy]

Very sad.

 

[keyshunter]

I will mention that we (admittedly still newer divers at about 85 dives) were a bit surprised by the advanced age of some of the divers we met there - up to and including 70's plus. I remember thinking that with that age group of divers, they must see at least a few medical issues at depth from time to time.

Last month at LCBR we had an 82 year old woman who dived 3 dives a day. She had serious shoulder surgery in May, did a trip to Cozumel in July and then came to LC in Aug. She was usually one of the first off the boat and (with her buddy) the last to return.
Most of us in what you call "advanced age" have many years of experience, and have no trouble doing 3 or more of these LC dives a day (personally, I take several liveaboard spearfishing trips a year which consist of 6/7 dives a day on my HP 119's). Because of our comfort in the water, if we have "medical issues", it is doubtful that they are due to the stress of the LC "baby dives".
What does concern me is the number of severely overweight and poorly conditioned younger divers, whose main non-diving exercise consists of waddling to the dining room and then to the bar. They are the ones who complain bitterly about that 1/4 knot current, and who take part in the sport I have named "ladder olympics" whereby they ignore all divemaster suggestions for boarding in order to explore new ways to risk injury.
Although many of the older divers have worlds of experience, they seldom speak of this, or give unsolicited advice. That is the turf of the younger, less experienced divers who think they know, and that we care.
On my last trip to LC, I was chatting with a man whom I know to be an experienced technical diver. Although I gave up technical about 10 years ago, he, in his late 50's, is still active. There was a younger man on board who described himself (to anyone who would listen) as a deep wreck diver, and who would list the wrecks he has dived. We both got a good laugh when I noted that, since he was still alive, those dives were probably not penetration dives. If he was as clumsy in a wreck as he is on the reef, he probably would have died in the silt out, or, if he survived, would have been murdered by his buddies.

 

[Qnape]

Last month at LCBR we had an 82 year old woman who dived 3 dives a day. She had serious shoulder surgery in May, did a trip to Cozumel in July and then came to LC in Aug. She was usually one of the first off the boat and (with her buddy) the last to return.
Most of us in what you call "advanced age" have many years of experience, and have no trouble doing 3 or more of these LC dives a day (personally, I take several liveaboard spearfishing trips a year which consist of 6/7 dives a day on my HP 119's). Because of our comfort in the water, if we have "medical issues", it is doubtful that they are due to the stress of the LC "baby dives".
What does concern me is the number of severely overweight and poorly conditioned younger divers, whose main non-diving exercise consists of waddling to the dining room and then to the bar. They are the ones who complain bitterly about that 1/4 knot current, and who take part in the sport I have named "ladder olympics" whereby they ignore all divemaster suggestions for boarding in order to explore new ways to risk injury.

Please don't misunderstand; I was not implying that older divers are less fit in general or that the easy diving in Little Cayman would be enough to cause problems for them. In fact, I noticed exactly what you mentioned - that the older divers were often more fit than many of the younger ones (a particular younger group from Grand Cayman comes to mind due to their weight - no argument that they are much more at risk if conditions required exertion). In my very limited experience, I had simply not come across a group of divers that had such a large contingent above 60 or so years. I'm no kid at 51, and I found it quite encouraging, actually. Taking up SCUBA at 49, I've made a special effort to ensure fitness and intitute a daily aerobic regimen - I don't want to be diving with my 16 yr old daughter as a buddy and have an "event". My wife questioned my sanity for taking SCUBA up at 49; my committment to the aerobics and lack of pre-existing medical conditions helped and the sight of so many older divers did as well ("see - I'm not too old to be doing this if I prepare properly"). I'm also still here, and continuing to try to learn all I can. Still, non-exertion related medical events occur as we all get older, wherever we are, in or out of the water. I hope I'll also be diving in 20 years.

 

[DiveDivaDM]

I'm chuckling as I read about us "older divers" in these posts. My husband and I are now among the older divers and it is really great! We have learned many things over the years. It is over 40 years of diving for me now. Where did the time go? We have learned to slow down and enjoy the dive. We don't race around the reef. Unless we are on our scooters! We look and take pics and enjoy all the creatures. We see many things other divers don't see. We sit at the back of the boat and are first in and last out. (Tip the divemaster first thing for primo seats.) We are the first ones with our dive gear on and the first ones to have our gear stowed. Some things only come with age. We chuckle at all the youngsters tripping over their gear and telling their war stories. They have no idea what wonderful things we have seen over the years. We are now 64 and 65 and plan to be diving at least 20 more years. A little over 2 years ago we retired to South Florida so we could dive when we want to. Last week we dove every day. We are taking PADI courses again just because we want to. We have been PADI DMs for many years. We have started ridding scooters! What a hoot. I am thinking about racing in the Formula H20 scooter races. For info on that see the Wreck Racing League. So, all you young whippersnappers out there the next time you see an "older" diver be respectful. You have no idea what kind of adventures they have been on (they will probably put you to shame) and what you might possibly learn from them. And, if you want to see all the good hidden stuff.....follow them on their dive! Oh, in our group of divers from our hometown we were the younger of the oldies... Some are in their 80s and still taking those big dive trips. I don't consider myself old. I am having the best time of my life!!!