Scuba Diving Self Situational Awareness Ribbon

[Marie13]

I’m sorry to hear about your cousin. However, if you hope to get a message out to the public and have people pay attention to your message, using “u” for “you” and “ur” for “your” does nothing but detract from the message.

 

[waterone]

Sorry for the delay I'm in the process of planning a 1 yr death anniversary for my cousin whom which is the reason behind this ribbon. He was a beginner diver and 11/21/2020 he died scuba diving.

While I am sorry that you have lost a loved one and it is never easy, can you please discuss more of what you believe happened? I have looked all over for this incident and while I have found details on him, I have been unable to find details on the accident.

but as a beginner diver he trusted his dive buddy who left him and that's where maybe his skills should have kicked in maybe he panicked it was after 5pm

Are you saying that as a beginner diver someone told him during his dive to go do his own thing solo, or that he and his buddy got separated or that his buddy ditched him?

Do you happen to know how many dives that he had?

Do you feel that it was your cousin missing situational awareness, the buddy or both?

And self & situational awareness is something you can't be taught it's a skill within, but it is something that one can start to understand how to use.

Mindfulness of your surroundings, being aware of your own limitations, the willingness to learn and understanding your equipment and more all come into play for situational awareness.

Situational awareness is a conscious effort and something that more effort can be given to. While some have more natural situational awareness than others, it can be taught.

 

[agilis]

I started out diving 50 years ago by diving solo, often at night with a big Allen light. No training other than a book. As a result I was intensely self-aware, acutely aware of the situation, and that mindset has persisted. I think learning to dive that way was extremely effective. Everything, including survival, was totally my responsibility. No handholding. Depending on other people when learning to dive produces laziness and carelessness.

 

[Wibble]

Diving's a fantastic sport, but it's very unforgiving should problems occur underwater. This is why there's training, more training, practice and yet more practice as one progresses through to more challenging diving.

The worst part of diving is not knowing what good looks like and believing your skills are better than they are (the Dunning-Kruger effect). This is why novices are restricted to diving together and in quite limited environments.

It is sad every time there's a death in the sport. Alas it happens. It serves as a reminder to the rest of the community to practice more and be more careful. However, no matter how much effort's put in for mitigation, sometimes crap happens. This is when your training and preparation comes in. It's very much up to oneself to be responsible for one's diving; the decision to not dive is just as important as deciding to dive.

Sorry for your loss. Alas it won't be the last.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I’m sorry to hear about your cousin. However, if you hope to get a message out to the public and have people pay attention to your message, using “u” for “you” and “ur” for “your” does nothing but detract from the message.

I'm guessing it doesn't detract from the message to people young enough to have grown up with text messaging. But it's a good point. Many divers are older, and the demographic of ScubaBoard members skews toward older. People who have been diving for many years may even be more likely to have become complacent about situational awareness, especially buddy awareness, than new divers. The messaging might be more effective on forums like this if it didn't contain abbreviations that look jarring to us relative geezers.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I'm sorry about your loss. Situational awareness, especially buddy awareness, is something I believe gets under-emphasized in traditional recreational diving courses. Some divers take additional courses to learn how to dive beyond traditional recreational diving boundaries, and that is referred to as technical diving. For some reason, in many course progressions it is not until the student is in a tech diving course that situational awareness gets discussed in earnest.

I guess that's why I said looking for support to help show the importance to use it as a reminder to educate yourself and others. Does the pink breast cancer ribbon fix or cure breast cancer? Sure doesn't why is it worn? Anyone it's to show support right.

Good point. To be honest, I have never entirely understood the goal of the pink breast cancer ribbon. I know it means breast cancer awareness. I'm aware of the need for early screening and all that. Maybe some people would not know that if they hadn't seen the ribbon? I really haven't given it any thought.

I would venture that most divers have heard of the term situational awareness and know it is something they are supposed to have. If you would ask the average recreational diver if they have good situational awareness, you might get a blank stare from some, but others would nod to say oh yes they have good situational awareness, without really knowing what it means. As I mentioned, many dive instructors don't really hammer it in until such time as a diver may be taking a tech diving course. I'm not optimistic that if some divers were to wear this ribbon, that would, by itself, influence any habits of the average recreational diver, because they already know they're supposed to have good situational awareness and believe they do. The average recreational diver could probably benefit from a 1-hour mini-course in situational awareness. Maybe they could receive the ribbon after taking the course. Then again, the same type of person who hasn't given much thought to situational awareness may not be the type who enjoys taking dive education courses.

All that said, I wish you the best of luck with this endeavor. You are probably more optimistic than some of us here, and that's a good thing.

 

[Marie13]

I'm guessing it doesn't detract from the message to people young enough to have grown up with text messaging. But it's a good point. Many divers are older, and the demographic of ScubaBoard members skews toward older. People who have been diving for many years may even be more likely to have become complacent about situational awareness, especially buddy awareness, than new divers. The messaging might be more effective on forums like this if it didn't contain abbreviations that look jarring to us relative geezers.

When I see someone using those abbreviations that likely come from texting, I simply don’t pay any more attention. It’s lazy writing. Wouldn’t pass in the average workplace, probably.

 

[Wibble]

When I see someone using those abbreviations that likely come from texting, I simply don’t pay any more attention. It’s lazy writing. Wouldn’t pass in the average workplace, probably.

You obviously don't have to put up with the "agile" bollox. A meeting becomes a ceremony, a task is a story, planning's not necessary... (Agile's yet another project management methodology, just like all the others, but apparently it's so much better 'cos it uses trendy werds wot peeps made up 'cos doin' fings proper ain't easy. #likeMyWerds

 

[drrich2]

I'm sorry for your loss, and your intent to procure benefit for others out of this tragedy is commendable. I don't see your ribbon idea catching on.

Like any activity in potentially dangerous conditions with fairly large participation, recreational scuba diving has some deaths. It's reputedly a pretty safe sport, but they happen. In hindsight some look to've been preventable and some not. ScubaBoard has a section for accident discussions where we examine what (often little) is known about diving fatalities, hoping to glean something to make our diving safer.

When this happens, it's not unusual for hurt loved ones to want to 'do something,' or get society to 'do something' about this, often in a carry-forward fashion (since you can't change the past). Someone dies cave diving and a parent wants to get the cave barred to other divers, for example.

In a sense it's like deaths from motor vehicle accidents in the U.S. In theory, if only everybody would be even more careful, there'd be fewer deaths. And if only everybody would be even more careful than that, there'd be even fewer. Which makes compelling sense if you've suffered a loss you believe was preventable; some other people equate it with trying to 'live in a bubble.'

I suspect if I wore (even a small) ribbon for every such tragedy that led someone to push for 'change,' I'd be covered. The practical feasibility doesn't have good prospects.

My point is that when you perceive what might be termed a 'spirit of non-supportiveness,' it may be rooted in realistic skepticism.

If and when more is known about what happened (or is speculated to have happened) to Dr. Acosta, perhaps there'll be a thread on the story in Accidents & Incidents.

 

[GameChanger]

Ribbon for Scuba Diving Situational Awareness Ribbon