In defense of Casual Divers

[MikeFerrara]

Well said, Mike. The hiring of DMs is a reasonable expedient for those with limited time to cram in as much underwater wonder as is possible on a short yearly vacation. Go directly to the good stuff and pack it in...
Nothing wrong with that
Rick

I absolutely agree. It only makes sense to take advantage of local knowledge to get more out of your diving whether that means hiring a DM or just doing some research. Having more knowledge about the site can obviously even make things safer. However, this purpose relates to familiarity with the local environment and not dive skills or general diving knowledge.

 

[BKP]

Not really. First off that would be true if the "cert" was causal and yopu expected a direct and strong correlation. However, if you read through the numbers and even read the the summeries that DAN usually include in the report, what's being pointed to as causal is poor skills. Now it almost seems common sense that divers with poor skills would have more accidents and they do.

Why would we see a strong correlation between cert level and accidents? Simply becausee there are some instructors teaching good diving and some divers who manage to learn better diving independant of certification level.

I agree with you 100%.

However, don't you need to also factor in risk? Cave and technical divers expose themselves to much more apparent risks -- and I'm not sure I'd classify them as casual (and good divers/poor divers present themselves in those categories as well). So, you'd naturally expect a larger percentage of deco/ooa/etc. statistics there... no?

I admit to not having read the DAN reports you cite (and perhaps I will... strike that... I WILL take a look), and I absolutely agree with your contention re: the agencies willingness (or lack thereof) to change stride...

 

[Thalassamania]

The real issue, in my mind, is truth in advertising and informed consent. There’s nothing wrong with “casual diving” per se, it’s a great way for a lot of folks to relax and reconnect with the Planet.

But the industry has to be honest with them and provide the kind of buffer and support that is needed to minimize the risks that they currently often do not know that they are taking.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Ok you guys are all hitting the original post right on the head:

Who are any of you to say what makes a good diver?

Why should you care if I die? Lamont you are so worried about saving us all, how about sitting out side a bar and telling people not to drink and drive, or how about sitting on the highway and telling people not to go so fast untill them have lots of practice since that will lower highway death statistics?

We all take chances in everyday life. So let me take mine and please don't tell me how to do it.

Perhaps you'd best reserve your judgments about Lamont until after the day you have to pull a dead diver out of the water ... like Lamont did a few weeks ago.

It WILL change your perspective on things ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Good post.
You're right. Too many people think diving is requisite to being an astronaut. My dive buddy laid it out and said, "You know what...it's breathing underwater and hanging out with the fishes, period.". That truly is what diving is all about. I agree too many people get hung up on being sooooo technical about how much NO2, PO2, and whatever else they have in their system. But you know what? You will NEVER know exactly how much you have in your system because all people absorb and release these differently. The RDP tables? They are guidelines...not to be crossed unless you're a deco diver or value your safety, of course, but guidelines... to help the largest crossection of divers get their premium bottom times.
So I agree with you that the sport could use a little less spectre of lethality, more encouragement from those "perfect" divers, and let's all have fun!!

I would encourage you to bookmark this post and revisit it in a few years ... after you've logged a few hundred more dives ... you may discover in the meantime that there is a great deal more to diving than you currently believe ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Rick Murchison]

The real issue, in my mind, is truth in advertising and informed consent. There’s nothing wrong with “casual diving” per se, it’s a great way for a lot of folks to relax and reconnect with the Planet.

But the industry has to be honest with them and provide the kind of buffer and support that is needed to minimize the risks that they currently often do not know that they are taking.

Yep, yep... indeed...
However... there are a great many people who just don't want to hear or acknowledge or learn "the truth," especially if it requires that they rub two brain cells together. They are content to be sheep; they cling to "ignorance is bliss" with uncommon tenacity! I gave up trying to understand that mindset a long time ago... it's one of those things that's just there, and attempting to overcome it is a low percentage game. (Do try, but don't be too disappointed if your efforts are in vain. These folks want to be ignorant.) What amazes me is that some of the worst offenders have reached high station in other areas... MD, PhD etc. They just don't want to be bothered with all that mundane stuff like diving safety - that's what they're paying the peons to do. (There is a whole other discussion on the mindset that high rank/status/education exempts the holder from the laws of physics, but let's not get into that here)
When these folks want to dive, then, what's the safest way? They want to be led, and they want to be followed, and they're willing to pay folks to do it. I reckon the best we can do is take their money and keep a very close eye on 'em.
Rick

 

[jbd]

Good post.
My dive buddy laid it out and said, "You know what...it's breathing underwater and hanging out with the fishes, period.". That truly is what diving is all about.....
.....and let's all have fun!!

My observation is that those divers without a solid grasp of the core skills of diving don't really have fun, don't get to see the pretty fishes and lots of other marine life because they are up and down in the water column struggling with their equipment and flailing about in such a manner that they scare off the very creatures they came to see. Or they crash into and kill the very corals they came to see. That sounds like soooo much fun.

What the real fun is, is when you can get with in a couple feet of something to take a picture to show to the land bound family and friends. The real fun is when a fish will calmly swim into the palm of your hand and use it as a place of shelter. The real fun is when you look below you during your descent and see that you will be passing through a large schooll of fish and as you approach they open up a hole just large enough to let you through--fish all around you no more than two feet from your body. Then you look back up and see the rest of the divers coming down and the school of fish scatters.
The real fun is asking someone on the dive boat if they saw that really large lobster hiding under the coral outcrop and they respond, "no I was too busy fooling around with my BC." Thats when you really appreciate having solid diving skills.

 

[TSandM]

jbd, what a great post, and so utterly true. I see, and enjoy so much more now that I can be quieter and more precise in the water. What's more, since I don't have to THINK about controlling myself all the time, I have bandwidth to look around me more and actually find things that are interesting.

Safety is obviously the overriding argument in improving diving skills, but enjoyment runs very close behind.

 

[Alucard]

jbd, great post - I am a newbie myself, and a casual diver. The reason I joined this board was to learn more from the collective experience of other divers. I don't dive for the adrenaline rush or to "push the limits". I want to experience diving while paying attention to my safety. We all take risks in life - heck, even staying at home is a risk when you live in Tornado Alley - the trick is to recognise them, understand them, and do what you can to minimise the impact they could have on you.

I agree with others on here that training is key - in my opinion this question about which agency is best to certify with (which has been asked on this board before), and the answer "it depends on what instructor you have" is troubling in and of itself.

I don't want to dive to be safe. I want to dive to enjoy being in another world, and take reasonable steps to minimise my risk while doing it.

People have said that OW certification is a license to learn, and I can definitely see that in my limited diving experience - I am being very cautious and trying to learn, and to get fmailiar with this thing called diving, watching the people around me, and reading as much as I can. But OW cert means you can go off get tanks and dive on your own (if you are stupid enough to do that).

A learner's permit in any other field puts restrictions on what you can do (always drive with someone more experienced than you, etc, in the case of a driving learner's permit). Is the OWC described as a license to learn ANYWHERE but on the internet in fora like these?

While I am a big believer in people being responsible for their own safety, I think that we could do more in educating divers like me in safer procedures.

Thanks for reading.

 

[TheRedHead]

People have said that OW certification is a license to learn, and I can definitely see that in my limited diving experience - I am being very cautious and trying to learn, and to get fmailiar with this thing called diving, watching the people around me, and reading as much as I can. But OW cert means you can go off get tanks and dive on your own (if you are stupid enough to do that).

I did my OW checkout dives in a quarry that was 53 feet deep. After certification, my newly certified OW buddy and I spent just about every weekend exploring every inch, every nook and cranny of the quarry. While we having fun and not exceeding the depth of the environment in which we were trained to dive, I'm sure we improved our skills by diving and by watching and talking to more experienced divers. When we went to Belize and made a 70 foot dive, it was pretty easy. I think that is the way dive training is supposed to work. I don't think it would be "stupid" for a new diver to dive in a place like Key Largo in 20-30 feet of water without supervision or to dive in their local quarry where they did their checkout dives.

When new divers don't dive regularly in controlled environments, they lose the basic skills they learned in OW class. They become the kind of divers that everyone points out as being unskilled and/or dangerous.