Diving, Fitness, Obesity and Personal Rights

[TMHeimer]

Colliam 7, I understand much of what you say and probably agree with most of it. Probably not the unprofessionalism of smoking instructors. I suppose this could be a hot topic worthy of lengthy discussions, but--I think 99.9% of student divers probably have heard enough about the subject over the last 50 years to know of it's harmful effects. Diving or otherwise. I doubt a smoking instructor in 2016 would influence whether a student diver smokes or not.

 

[KenGordon]

Looking at the flow chart there is an absolute ban at 35. Between 30 and 35 mitigating circumstances (eg small waist, type of diving) apply. I don't think the smokers get additional testing, all subjects have to pass the excercise and breathing tests.

The U.K. At work regulations are quite strong on the rescue bit. A diver may be called on to do strenuous work during a rescue and their ability to do that is a safety concern for those they are diving with. That is not a 'lifestyle' health issue.

The HSE is quite involved in UK diving and even turns up a recreational dive shows. However crappy employers still manage to kill divers regularly.

 

[shoredivr]

The underlying premise of this thread, that the deceased diver was overweight and/or out of shape, is incorrect. Nobody seems to have noticed that people who knew the diver disagreed that she was overweight and/or out of shape.


Diver Dies-St Maarten
"I would like everyone here to know that I knew this diver. She was my primary care physician and in good physical condition. This article was written in poor taste calling her a fairly large person as she was not overweight....anyone who is dead weight will be heavy for one person to pull aboard a boat. It was an unfortunate situation all together. As a diver myself, this sounds awful for everyone involved."

 

[KenGordon]

No, this is the split off thread, no longer about the incident but about apple pie etc.

 

[scubasmacks]

edit (sorry i got this confused with another thread all this thread splitting!)

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Don't worry about it ... it's just another excuse for a bunch of internet experts to blather on about why we should create more laws prohibiting folks who ain't like them from enjoying the same freedom of choice that they enjoy. There's a lot of that going on in the USA these days ... in pretty much all walks of our lives.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[shoredivr]

No, this is the split off thread, no longer about the incident but about apple pie etc.

Ken, I know it's a split off thread. The premise is still faulty, and as NWGreatful Diver points out, full of InnernetXperts TM.

 

[scubadada]

Colliam 7, I understand much of what you say and probably agree with most of it. Probably not the unprofessionalism of smoking instructors. I suppose this could be a hot topic worthy of lengthy discussions, but--I think 99.9% of student divers probably have heard enough about the subject over the last 50 years to know of it's harmful effects. Diving or otherwise. I doubt a smoking instructor in 2016 would influence whether a student diver smokes or not.

I have lived in Switzerland for more than a year and a half now. The most remarkable thing to me when I came here was the percentage of the population who smoked, all demographics. I would have thought the level of education would have affected this, but no. I can easily see scuba instructors here smoking, along with their students. Go figure.

 

[KenGordon]

Like the over 50s thread it raises interesting questions which people should think about. How it started does not really matter. Whether one particular person died due to these issues or not they are still issues.

Currently the RNLI is running a campaign to get over 50s divers to check their health at least as well as their kit, and as I pointed out above the HSE has brought in restrictions for working divers. Both of these organisations have a history of keeping people alive rather than talking rubbish.

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

Both of these organisations have a history of keeping people alive rather than talking rubbish.

An organisation has the right and power to make recommendations and enforcement. Here there is neither an organisation or party that can enforce anything. Welcome to Scubaboard... Home of the trash talk.