Drowning at Lake Rawlings

[ScubaFeenD]

if you are still intensely anxious and unable to relax and enjoy your dive, something about your skills, training, or suitability for diving needs to be more closely examined. I think he is right.

I totally agree with that statement, I just dont think the answer is to give up and get out of diving; that was my main point. I would just hate to tell anyone that they should not be able to take part because of a possibly correctable anxiety issue. Its the extreme position I disagreed with. I apologize that I wasn't more clear with my response :-/

 

[Diver0001]

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[DA Aquamaster]

This has to be the most ignorant statement I have read in awhile, and I would argue the contrary. If you have 25 dives and are too cocky to recognize your limits and your inexperience, then you are a danger to yourself and to others. Twenty-five dives is nothing, and at that point any diver still has a load more to learn. I would never claim, at my low level of dives, that I am confortable. Sure, I am not panicking and I have control of myself in the water, but I still learn a boatload on every dive. Further, I would never tell someone who is truly interested in being better and being a great diver to leave if they were still gaining confidence and comfort.

Maybe there needs to be greater fitness requirements (that i agree with) and screening, but you don't need to be a cocky, ignorant, young kid to be a diver.

Lynn's right - you misinterpreted what I am saying.

FWIW I agree with you about diving being a life long learning thing. I have been diving since 1985 and have averaged about 100 dives per year and still find things to learn and improve on every dive.

If you want to consider something "arrogant" consider the number of DM's and instructors with a comparatively low number of dives and/or little or no ability to actually teach. An industry attitude and marketing approach that creates that situation is what contributes to accidents like this one.

Another form of arrogance is more experienced divers not seeing the need to mentor newly minted divers. How many times have you seen a couple of newbies paired together at the local quarry or lake so they won't ruin or shorten dives if paired with more experienced divers? How many times have you made your self available to mentor someone else with less experience? It's one of the more effective ways to keep divers moving forward safely in the sport - even if training is not what it should be.