Running out of air- a perspective
- Thread starter merxlin
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The Chairman
Chairman of the Board
Dan Orr recently gave a talk about "Bad things happening to Good Divers" at the History of Diving Museum in Islamorada Fl. Re referenced this study and drew a number of conclusions about how we dive and how to keep living.
This reminded me of a study done by the Insurance Peeps on the effectiveness of ABS (Anti-Lock Brakes) a couple of years after they first came out. After all, they offered a discount if your car had them. What they found out was short of remarkable: there was little discernible difference in the number and severity of accidents. It was further determined that the weak link in the whole system was the loose nut behind the wheel. ABS brakes are just as ineffective as non ABS brakes if you aren't paying attention: they rely on the driver depressing the pedal. Not to fear though, continued advances in ABS and Traction Control have resulted in making cars a tad bit safer for those paying attention. They still don't help intexticated drivers or those fiddling with their stereos from rear ending you.
Traditional dive instruction has focused on developing a mastery of discrete skills. They make sure that you can clear your mask when the instructor asks you to while firmly kneeling on the bottom. Shenanigans! Unfortunately, they miss the mark in developing core competency as a diver, where the individual knows not only how to DO the skill, but also when to do the skill and how to accomplish it mid water.
Back to the study and Dan Orr's presentation. It was good to see that overall, diver deaths are down. Is this because there are fewer divers? Dan didn't think so.
It was also interesting to hear about another study they did. They did an actual count of dives done on several live aboards as well as those done by a number of dive ops as well as monitoring some areas known for shore dives. The incidence for Live aboards was less than 1 in 10,000 dives. The incidence for charters was 2.5 in 10,000 dives and the incidence for shore divers was over 3 in 10,000 dives. These were ALL injuries (not just deaths) and this indicates that the incidence rate noted by the previous study may be WAY off. That being said, my MEMORY of the exact numbers could be off a bit as well.
Still, the highly regimented dives where the op had the most control resulted in very, very few injuries. Decrease the supervision level and the incident level starts to climb. I don't see this as a call to mandate DMs though as the incidence rates were still very small.
This reminded me of a study done by the Insurance Peeps on the effectiveness of ABS (Anti-Lock Brakes) a couple of years after they first came out. After all, they offered a discount if your car had them. What they found out was short of remarkable: there was little discernible difference in the number and severity of accidents. It was further determined that the weak link in the whole system was the loose nut behind the wheel. ABS brakes are just as ineffective as non ABS brakes if you aren't paying attention: they rely on the driver depressing the pedal. Not to fear though, continued advances in ABS and Traction Control have resulted in making cars a tad bit safer for those paying attention. They still don't help intexticated drivers or those fiddling with their stereos from rear ending you.
Traditional dive instruction has focused on developing a mastery of discrete skills. They make sure that you can clear your mask when the instructor asks you to while firmly kneeling on the bottom. Shenanigans! Unfortunately, they miss the mark in developing core competency as a diver, where the individual knows not only how to DO the skill, but also when to do the skill and how to accomplish it mid water.
Back to the study and Dan Orr's presentation. It was good to see that overall, diver deaths are down. Is this because there are fewer divers? Dan didn't think so.
It was also interesting to hear about another study they did. They did an actual count of dives done on several live aboards as well as those done by a number of dive ops as well as monitoring some areas known for shore dives. The incidence for Live aboards was less than 1 in 10,000 dives. The incidence for charters was 2.5 in 10,000 dives and the incidence for shore divers was over 3 in 10,000 dives. These were ALL injuries (not just deaths) and this indicates that the incidence rate noted by the previous study may be WAY off. That being said, my MEMORY of the exact numbers could be off a bit as well.
Still, the highly regimented dives where the op had the most control resulted in very, very few injuries. Decrease the supervision level and the incident level starts to climb. I don't see this as a call to mandate DMs though as the incidence rates were still very small.
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Similar tests were done a while ago with a GPS speed limited car. In other words, the car would refuse to ever go above the speed limit. The accident rate went UP. Drivers no longer had to dedicate attention to controlling their speed and now just kept their foot flat down while they fiddled with other things so their actual level of attention on the road was lower. Put simply - it was found more dangerous to have a car that couldn't exceed the speed limit than one that could.
The Chairman
Chairman of the Board
:citation:
The closest I could find was London's GPS-based speed-limit trial puts Big Brother's foot on the gas pedal - AutoWeek Magazine .
The purpose of ABS isn't to improving braking performance, it's to allow you to maintain steering control. This doesn't have much effect unless the driver actually does something proactive ie steers away from the accident. Most people just slam the brakes on and plough straight ahead regardless
You may be missing the most humerous part of this exchange. Follow the link in NetDoc's post, and what do you find.....
The Chairman
Chairman of the Board
That's true of most wikipedia's articles. However, the study I was referring to was cited.
For the record, old anti-lock brake systems required a lot longer to brake. Not so much today. Their intent was to reduce accidents by eliminating skids, spins and slides by improving braking and steering safety. While it's easy to get sidetracked by the great ABS controversy, the point of bringing up the study was to illustrate that people often don't pay attention and that's what causes accidents. Gear is great, but it can't make you pay attention to what's happening around you (situational awareness). Too often people throw money at a gear solution when they should really consider a training solution instead. ABS is great, but if you would simply stop texting while driving, the roads would be safer. The parallel to that in diving is frequently monitoring your and your buddy's air situation.
Pssst... What's even more humorous, is Hoaty's creative spelling of "humerous".
First rule of slamming someone: don't make stoopid mistooks while you're doing it.
For the record, old anti-lock brake systems required a lot longer to brake. Not so much today. Their intent was to reduce accidents by eliminating skids, spins and slides by improving braking and steering safety. While it's easy to get sidetracked by the great ABS controversy, the point of bringing up the study was to illustrate that people often don't pay attention and that's what causes accidents. Gear is great, but it can't make you pay attention to what's happening around you (situational awareness). Too often people throw money at a gear solution when they should really consider a training solution instead. ABS is great, but if you would simply stop texting while driving, the roads would be safer. The parallel to that in diving is frequently monitoring your and your buddy's air situation.
Pssst... What's even more humorous, is Hoaty's creative spelling of "humerous".
First rule of slamming someone: don't make stoopid mistooks while you're doing it.
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