No. I'm sure he meant unsafe practices that don't hurt people are still unsafe.
Talk about a non sequitur. Most people call practices that they don't understand or know how to do "unsafe". It's a typical knee jerk reaction to the unknown. I've been in high current situations where trying to catch the boat resulted in my student having a meltdown. THAT was unsafe and could have been avoided with a bit of backing up. With the ladders down, you had something easy to grab onto, should he overshoot.
You can't compare backing a boat up to backing a car up.
I just did.
Also, a car is not subject to environmental conditions that would effect its positioning (e.g., wind, waves, currents).
And yet, we have dead children. You'll find a large number of auto accidents are from backing up, but you don't think it's unsafe?
I hope you're not saying that this one fatality does not make this practice (backing into people with the props spinning) bad!
What a loaded question. You're going from the OP saying "apparently" to saying that this IS what happened.
Backing up is fine, if done safely. There should be sufficient lookouts to cover the captain's blind areas.
Backing into people with the props spinning, is definitely a "no-no". I wouldn't call that safe at all. However, we may never know where the lady was while he was backing up or IF he was backing up.
Don't think for a minute that as he's sitting there in complete and utter shock and devastation comtemplating the ramifications of this horrible accident that he isn't second guessing his decision to ignore the mandate.
Karma is often mean. Circumventing rules can be very distracting because a part of you is always looking for "The Man" to appear. Caca can occur while you're distracted, even just a bit. This was big caca.
Why you‘d feel you need to call that bold is a bit beyond me
Why? You weren't there. You've arrived at a conclusion, not knowing any facts, much less all the facts. You've assumed he did this because the OP used the word "apparently". I try to keep an open mind because I can learn a lot more. Once I assume anything, I make an ass out of "u" and me.
There are way more prop accidents around the world than most people know.
You're probably right!
The purpose of this section of the forum is not to heap judgement but to learn from tragedy.
This is true of all of ScubaBoard. It's one thing to assign blame, but a darn site more beneficial to learn how to not become a victim. Here are some take-aways...
Never ascend under a live boat.
- The captain can't see you and you have no idea if/when the props will start moving.
- If you can't see the captain, then he can't see you!
- Even if people are present at the stern
- You can ascend under or behind them
- High seas complicate this further
Never move towards a boat that is moving towards you
- Save your energy for when it stops
- Captains are judging how the boat is vectoring towards you and can not factor in your movements as well
You can't outswim a boat!
- Port, starboard and down are the only directions you should consider!
If you are on a live boat, pop a sausage during your safety stop!!!
- Captain may not be able to see you at that depth
- The captain is less likely to leave a sausage behind
- The captain is less likely to back over a sausage than a submerged diver
- Incredibly important in high seas
- Incredibly important in high traffic areas (like Coz)
- One sausage per buddy team/group is fine as long as you ascend together
Monitor all boat traffic during your safety stop.
- I go vertical during my stops
- I spin slowly during my five minutes of solitude and platitudes
- I listen, listen, listen.
- You'll hear an approaching boat way before you see it
- Learn to judge the doppler effect
- Speed
- Vector of approach/departure
- I do at least two full turns as I ascend slowly after my stop is over, looking intently to find any boat, but especially my boat
- I'm prepared to exhale, go duck and swim downward like my life depends on it
- It just might!
