I had an interesting insight

[TSandM]

To me, this is an interesting example of how we aren't very rational in assessing risks in general.

Whether this person meant, "I lived through something that should have killed me, so I'm now living on borrowed time and it doesn't matter when that ends," or, "Nothing I can do has the same potential to kill me that that earthquake did, so I won't worry about it," his reaction really isn't rational. One random, high risk event has no relationship to the other, non-random and controllable event. "I've lived through the worst life can throw at me, so bring it on," is not a rational attitude.

On the other hand, as Peter observed, the cenote tours, which are a form of "doing a cave dive to try it" have an extremely good safety record, so if that's what he was talking about, he wasn't talking about a high risk event.

And as Marci observed, cave divers are not extreme sport people. In fact, I remember someone writing that, when he actually began to meet some, he was disappointed to discover that, in general, they're rather anal, risk-averse, boring sorts. You won't find cave divers sporting Mohawks and leaping off snowy cliffs! It's an activity where virtually every move is pre-planned and choreographed, and there is little room for spontaneity or improvisation. It's kind of the "anti-extreme" sport

 

[wedivebc]

You would be amazed how many people tell me they are "cave divers" who have actually only ever been on a cavern guided tour or swam though a coral arch and thought they were diving in a cave.
When someone says they are doing a cave dive without training I usually gently ask for specifics but don't usually try to correct them.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

That's a pretty general statement :"People who aren't "scared" of risk typically end up dying prematurely ..." considering that being scared is such a subjective thing.

I agree it's a general statement ... it was meant to be, hence the qualifier (typically).

First, I am not a cave diver. But I would think that most situations that you are trying to get out of in cave diving would depend on your mind getting you out, not your body.

The most common reason people die in caves is they run out of air ... and the need for air is a bodily function. Quite often they die long after they've realized they made the mistake ... and are in the process of trying to correct it ... they just, by then, don't have enough air to make it out. How it happens is that people try things they're not really qualified for ... or they break rules, like doing blind jumps, that they were taught not to break. Why they do it is usually because they aren't scared of the consequences ... until it comes back to bite them.

With this in mind, maybe being scared before even starting the process could affect how you think during a given situation. Cave diving or anything else for that matter.

Perhaps "developing a proper respect for the risks" would be a more accurate way to describe it. "Scared" tends to invoke a larger spectrum of emotional responses that could be either good or bad, depending on the circumstances ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[diver_doug]

I was recently in Hawaii where I got to do some very enjoyable dives. For one of the dives, I was buddied up with a diver who was visiting from Japan. Another diver on the boat was doing a Discover Scuba. He told us how he wanted to get certified and how he liked extreme sports. I told him that with proper training and sufficient experience, he'd probably like cave diving. My buddy who seemed to be an experienced diver expressed an interest in doing a cave dive, "just to see"... in the company of an instructor. I expressed my dismay about a "trust me" dive and said the whole notion of going into a cave without proper training scared me. My buddy said: "I just went through a 9.0 earthquake; diving in a cave does not scare me." ... Interesting point of view.

You didn't have an interesting insight...you had a thought. Well, actually you didn't even have a thought...your buddy did.

 

[Diver0001]

One random, high risk event has no relationship to the other, non-random and controllable event. "I've lived through the worst life can throw at me, so bring it on," is not a rational attitude.

It doesn't need to be. How a traumatic event changes a person is seldom a rational process. The changes, however are still real.

R..

 

[LouieLouie]

I had exactly the same feeling after walking away from a plane crash. Bring it on, I've had worse!