crgravitt
Registered
Nice to see some great news about Opal and Gabi today! All the best to them and their families.
Scuabamau diving accident
- Thread starter firstdive2005
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
- Status
Cozdreamer
Contributor
Amen!
the Hermit
Registered
... I can not think of words deep enough to express how much I hope everyone recovers...
Jackie
Contributor
I am very fond of Opal and hope for everyone's recovery. I felt shock and sadness when I heard of their conditions. I dived with SM and my BF was certified there. Opal was a terrific presence and I have had nothing but positive experiences with her.
What I am not sure is of is that there is a lot to be learned from this. I think few people, if any, on scuba board do those type of dives (ie dives with the profile described, given the specific resources employed). The risks are great and the margin for error slim.
Cozumel is a terrific and SAFE dive destination with great dive shops and scuba professionals.
- Messages
- 1,038
- Reaction score
- 536
Really?
I've seen people make these type of dives in numerous locations, Honduras, Bonaire, ect.
Any diving situation is only as safe as you make it. There are many lessons to be learned.
Maybe this will make someone somewhere, stop and think.
I've seen people make these type of dives in numerous locations, Honduras, Bonaire, ect.
Any diving situation is only as safe as you make it. There are many lessons to be learned.
Maybe this will make someone somewhere, stop and think.
If there is a lesson here, I think it is that one can get too comfortable with diving. Especially for people who dive constantly and learn an area really well, I think it may be easy to begin to dismiss risks, because after all, they have never happened. I have seen this in my own friends, who will openly make the argument that 2500 dives without an issue makes the likelihood of a major problem low enough that they'll push a bunch of limits. The problem with having a 1% chance of a problem is that, for the person who represents that 1%, it's 100% problematic.
If you are planning a dive which is possible only if everything goes absolutely right, then you are handing your fate to the ocean. Like Lady Luck, the ocean doesn't care at all who you are or how many dives you have . . . and it is not a completely predictable place. There are some dives which can't be done at all without thin margins, and the people who do them have to decide if the risks involved are worth the value to be gained. There are other dives where the margins can be made much better. This was one of those, and the decision to cut it close has cost several people very dearly.
If you are planning a dive which is possible only if everything goes absolutely right, then you are handing your fate to the ocean. Like Lady Luck, the ocean doesn't care at all who you are or how many dives you have . . . and it is not a completely predictable place. There are some dives which can't be done at all without thin margins, and the people who do them have to decide if the risks involved are worth the value to be gained. There are other dives where the margins can be made much better. This was one of those, and the decision to cut it close has cost several people very dearly.
Jackie
Contributor
Darol, When I'm wrong I'm wrong. I was totally unaware that diving to even half those depths with a single tank is something that divers do in so many different places, etc. What an eye opener. I've never seen anything like it.
You are absolutely correct that this should be a wake-up call.
You are absolutely correct that this should be a wake-up call.
Unfortunately, these dives aren't as uncommon as you think. Recreational divers, dive masters, instructors, all over the world have, do and will continue to bounce dive and dive outside their training just for the thrill of it. I personally have never seen any appeal to it, but over the years I've met a number of divers who do it. It's usually been people who dive a lot or dive for a living. I guess the routine becomes routine and if you push the envelope once, why not do it again? The only lessons are ones we all already know... as I'm sure they did... don't dive beyond your training, have some plan for possible emergencies, plan your dives safely. Last lesson that anyone involved in any sort of rescue capacity gets drilled into their heads is "scene safety," and that one victim is better than two - don't attempt a rescue that isn't safe for you and risk making yourself another victim. When the rescue is going after someone you know and personally care about, that's a very hard thing to do.
All the talk on another thread about what their exact depths were, what they did before the dive, if someone was videotaping the dive, etc., etc., to me are all irrelevant. We know they were way past safe recreational limits, diving with AL80 and AL100 tanks and that there was another group diving from the same boat. Lots of bad calls all added up and this time the odds caught up with 3 divers. All the other details don't really matter. The outcome is the same, the lessons are the same, and it doesn't make the current situation all 3 are in any better.
At some point in our lives we all make poor judgement calls and make mistakes. Most of us never have to pay a price for it. As compassionate people I think most of us do have sympathy for these divers and their families and care givers. This accident isn't just affecting the divers, it's also impacted their family and close friends and will for a very long time.
I was once on a jury in a trial for a very nice, talented, intelligent, and lovable young woman who drove drunk and ran head on into another car, killing a very nice, talented, intelligent and lovable young man. During our deliberations, a number of jurors confessed that in their younger days, they, too, had driven just as drunk and are lucky that they never had to pay any consequences. This was impacting their decision--they were reluctant to convict a person like that for doing, in essence, something they themselves had done. They had to shake off that thinking, realizing that if something like that had indeed happened to them on those occasions, they would have been guilty and deserving of what happened to them--no matter how likable they are.
And so there really is a lot to learn here, and not just in diving. When we cut our margins too close, when we engage in risky behavior, we may have to pay severe consequences, and so may the other people in our lives.
- Status
Similar threads
