Legality Question

[Walter]

one question that ihave been asked since recently being certified is how easy is it to breath under water through a regulator. this person is interested in diving . i told him to come to my house and try breathing with my regulator under water in the shallow end. would any of you with more experince than me see anything wrong with this.

I see a great deal wrong with it. Is it legal? Yes. Is it your right? Yes, assuming you told your friend he can die from such activity. Is it your friend's right? Yes. OTOH, In all my years of teaching diving, I always put people on compressed air underwater after lots of preparation. They always attended two lectures which included information on how holding your breath can kill you. They always had lots of time (usually 4 hours) in the pool allowing me to evaluate their comfort and skill level in the water. They always completed the skin diving portion of the class. I think most people (including most instructors) get students on SCUBA way too fast. I was always less than half an arm's length from a student the first few times they breathed compressed air underwater. I always looked them right in the eye for any sign of stress. This is not nor should it be a casual activity.

I let my kid breathe from my reg at 10 ft once to let him get a taste of diving. He had to blow his air before I would let him surface. Letting a kid go do actual diving without training is stupid. My opinion. Unless you're trying to get rid of them

Unless you were trying to get rid of your kid, so was what you did. When my daughter was little, she was in the Girl Scouts. One of the mothers of another girl was a diver. She did the exact same thing you did with her daughter. When she wanted to become an assistant scout leader, I fought the move on the basis of her lack of good judgement with her own daughter. If she had such poor judgement with her own child, she can't be trusted with the care, in any situation, of any childern. I let it be known that if this woman were ever to be placed in a position of even the smallest responsibility of the girls in this troop, my daughter woul;d be moved to another troop where I had no such concerns.

 

[captain]

How many of you taught your child or was taught by your parents to drive a 4000 pound car or handle a weapon. Were you or your parents certified driving or weapons instructors.
I just don't see a lot of difference between those things and diving. All can be quite deadly.

 

[shotthebreeze]

How many of you taught your child or was taught by your parents to drive a 4000 pound car or handle a weapon. Were you or your parents certified driving or weapons instructors.
I just don't see a lot of difference between those things and diving. All can be quite deadly.

Totally agree with this one, but like I said before taking them out on a dive is like letting them drive without a license. Great analogy, though!

 

[Oxy]

Geeze guys, the high cost of certification ya know. almost as much as a regulator ya know.
How does someone smart enuf to get certified do something that stupid?

I think driving a car should be like diving. Too many people out driving cars with no clue how to put gas in them. (how did they get a license?)

Someone, somewhere said they could do it:11:

 

[Jrock1062]

one question that ihave been asked since recently being certified is how easy is it to breath under water through a regulator. this person is interested in diving . i told him to come to my house and try breathing with my regulator under water in the shallow end. would any of you with more experince than me see anything wrong with this.

Interesting thread I would like to see people with a lot of dive experience answer this one

 

[Web Monkey]

I know a lot of people talk about teaching their kids and taking friends diving without being an instructor or without having proper certification, which is wicked dangerous. I was wondering if any states ticket people who dive without a cert card? I know that you can get arrested for risk of injury to a minor if you have a kid out with you who isn't certified, but is there anything else you can get ticketed for?

If you take a non-certified diver out and they get injured or die, a ticket will be the least of your worries.

The big thing SCUBA instructors have going for them is an accepted process for teaching, then verifying that the student learned the required material and demonstrated competency. They're also taught to recognize stress, lack of skills and how to avoid and/or handle potential problems.

And in the event something bad does happen, they have both insurance and documentation that all the required skills were taught and verified, which is a huge help in the event of a lawsuit and should avoid criminal charges.

If you take a non-diver out and something bad happens, you could end up in prison or bankrupt or both.

That isn't to say that non-certified divers don't dive every day and live to tell the tale, it's just that the person taking them out is taking an astonishingly huge personal risk.

Terry

 

[Oxy]

one question that ihave been asked since recently being certified is how easy is it to breath under water through a regulator. this person is interested in diving . i told him to come to my house and try breathing with my regulator under water in the shallow end. would any of you with more experince than me see anything wrong with this.

Would you let me try it also?
I'm interested in diving and have never done that and would like to know how it works.
P.S. do you own that house? (in case I choke) I mean is your insurance good?

It's your risk and I trust your friend knows the risk. Are you willing to let him/her take it?

 

[captain]

Totally agree with this one, but like I said before taking them out on a dive is like letting them drive without a license. Great analogy, though!

A license doesn't necessary make them good drivers and a certification doesn't necessarly make them good divers and all instructors aren't good instructors.

Over the years I have introduced relatives and friends to diving by taking them on easy shallow dives either in a pool or open water after some basic instruction. Some went on to be certified some didn't. All are still alive.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Letting a kid go do actual diving without training is stupid. My opinion. Unless you're trying to get rid of them.

Used to happen all the time; dad trained me, don't know who trained him. My first hundred or so dives were with a group of 10 or so divers, none with certification.

 

[la_diver]

everything we do in life involves risk. having pool is a risk. ihave afence around it toreduce the risk. choking in a pool should not be life threathening. i was mainly asking if i was in my pool in my dive gear and a swimmer in my pool wanted to breath under water, in the shallow end, is there realy any more risk than someone that is swimming. no way would isuit up someone to dive that hase not gone through certification. before i certified, i wondered the same.