SCUBA: extreme sport?

[Amphibious]

NOT AT ALL. Scuba is very safe, very relaxing, and hardly physically taxing enough to be extreme.

Freediving on the other hand.....

So, do I consider scuba an extreme sport? No, but activities performed while on scuba might be. Big game spearfishing for example.

It would be but for the fact that scuba componet makes it an "any average joe can participate" sport. thus not extreme by any means. takes all the sport right out of it. loose the tanks and grab a snorkle, ah, now theres some sport!

 

[diversteve]

Extremely Expensive sport - Yes.

Non-Cage diving with Great Whites might be considered extreme however.

 

[lobbolt]

I disagree with all of you that think scuba is not a extreme sport. Yes, it is calm and relaxing but theres also a rush from experiencing the relaxation and exploring the unknown. The risk of injury or death is always there (blackouts, etc). It's an individual sport not a team thing. Plus it's way funner with the chicks with the scuba/extreme sport thing.

 

[Amphibious]

The risk of injury or death is always there (blackouts, etc).

you're doing something very very wrong then.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Scuba diving is an "Adjustable Risk" sport that can be an extreme sport.

Actually skydiving is also an adjustable risk sport to some degree as you can do a hop and pop at 4000 ft and come down under a large and easy to fly canopy. Alternatively you can jump at 15,000- 20,000 ft, do relative work at very high speeds in freefall on the way donw and/or do canopy relative work with other skydivers and/or mow the lawn while landing under a very small and fast canopy, all of which are a bit more dangerous and can result in minor to fatal injury if you screw up. Or you can just go crazy and do base jumping off tall objects with no reserve chute (no time to use one if you had it anyway.) which is not only dangerous but usually illegal (illegal trespass, breaking and entering, creating a public nuisance, disorderly conduct, etc) which ups the adrenaline factor a bit more for the serious addicts.

In comparision, diving is pretty tame but the potential still exists to dial up the difficulty/danger level to a point that gives you that edge of fear. Personally, I like deeper technical diving as it allows you to push things just far enough to force you to focus and to feel that little edge of fear that keeps you sharp. I would not go so far as to call it "dangerous" when properly done, as but then I also do not regard run of the mill skydiving as particularly dangerous either when properly done.

Given that I think for a living and am usually juggling several issues at any one time during the work week, I find a fairly demanding level of diving that prompts that cautionary/warning level of fear to be very relaxing as it forces me to focus only on diving. Consequently during the planning and execution of that dive, I am not thinking about anything else, which is ultimately very restful to me.

Diving used to be recognized as more of an extreme sport before the term was coined, but about 25 years ago diving became big business and it became very important to the industry to change the image so that it would appeal to more women, middle age couples, etc in order to greatly expand the potential market. (I won't even go into the watering down of course content, standards, etc that has occurred to accommodate this new market.) So now, even when diving is very extreme, the industry as a whole is going to claim it is not in order tp maintain the widely marketable safe family sport image.

But PC marketing BS aside, you can still make diving as risky as you want it to be.

 

[PhotoTJ]

I don't even think of it as a sport, I've always said scuba diving is an Adventure. When we dive, we have the opportunity to follow the Star Trek mission statement; To boldly go where no one has gone before.

That's an adventure in my book!

 

[RP Diver]

Scuba diving IS a recreational sport. Something doesn't have to be a competition to be classfied as a sport. It requires a certain level of fitness, it involves some exertion, especially in adverse conditions. And no matter how you swing it, there is a level of risk as well. It's that level of risk that scares the bejeebers out the insurance companies, and makes them categorize it as an extreme sport. The problem is that there are way too many quick cert OW divers out there who don't have a clue, and don't know that they don't know anything. They aren't the ones who are posting in this poll... they rarely visit sites like this, but they are the ones who are most likely to get into trouble, and the least likely to remember what to do about it when it goes wrong.

I don't consider scuba to be extreme, but I do consider it to be a risk sport. Of the things I've done, I'd put it somewhere between whitewater kayaking (extreme) and mountain off trail hiking (I feel not extreme at all, though you could get some argument there too).

And PADI has been touting that low injury rate for years in one way or another. There are few reported injuries as most are from contact with critters that sting, poke, or nibble, and we don't consider those to be anything more than minor annoyances. Scuba divers don't typically get sprains, fractures, etc. from diving, thus the low accident statistics. But when there is an accident in scuba, it's generally serious (DCS, embolism, drowning and near-drowning), so scuba's reputation as an extreme sport isn't going to go away in the minds of most people anytime soon.

 

[jonnythan]

"Adventure sport" may be a good label for those of you who have to think of it as something special

Lump it in there with trekking, adventure racing, flatwater kayaking, etc. It shouldn't be in the same category as creeking, canyoneering, big wall climbing, skydiving, etc.

 

[PhotoTJ]

I like George Carlin's idea; If it's not played with a ball, it's not a sport.

 

[clockradio]

There are sports that are considered extreme sports; skydiving, hang-gliding, motocross, auto racing... etc. Would you say scuba is an extreme sport?

for me the answer is no. my diving is safe and very enjoyable. i think it is a subjective experience. it may very well be extreme for some divers. geo