Undercurrent--"Why Divers Die"

[MikeFerrara]

So, then, your argument is to gain weight and not worry about fitness, cause your sloppy diving is the real culprit. No one dies underwater of heart attack. Don't be concerned about health, just buy good equipment?

Wow, you've convinced me. Pass the doughnuts and ice cream.

I think though doth protest too much.

I never said any such thing and I'm pretty sure that you know that. BTW, while I did mention dive skills, I never said a word about equipment. In short, what I said was that there is no data indicating that obesity is the number one cause of dive accidents and that DAN never said there was.

As you can see from the actual DAN article, that is a true statement. Either you misrepresented the undercurrent article or undercurrent misrepresented the DAN article. From your responses in this thread I find one as easy to believe as the other.

The lesson here is not that you should go crazy on the doughnuts or that you should drink or smoke or cross the street without looking both ways first. The lesson here is that if you want to know what DAN says, you should go to DAN. Then you should carefully read for content in context and if you have trouble understanding what you are reading, you should ask for help before arguing your mistaken point with too much zeal.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

So, then, your argument is to gain weight and not worry about fitness, cause your sloppy diving is the real culprit. No one dies underwater of heart attack. Don't be concerned about health, just buy good equipment?

Wow, you've convinced me. Pass the doughnuts and ice cream.

I think though doth protest too much.

FWIW - Mike ain't fat.

I am ... but ya know what? While you were in here trying to convince everybody that fat divers are dangerous, I was out diving ... don't that just frost your cookies ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[MikeFerrara]

I am ... but ya know what? While you were in here trying to convince everybody that fat divers are dangerous, I was out diving ... don't that just frost your cookies ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

My cookies are sure well frosted about now. It's below ZERO. I've been know to include a chain saw in my dive gear but I aint goin out the door in this stuff.

 

[Rick Murchison]

FWIW - Mike ain't fat.

Indeed... the lad could use some grits!
I, on the other hand, am... sleek.
Rick

 

[CraigDiver]

Divers who die are either;

Not adequately trained for the dive (includes complacency)
Not fit enough for the dive
Very unlucky
trying to push boundaries.

A diver will not die diving just because overweight - I have a BMI of 32 and reasonably fit. I usually only dive shallow waters (66ft max) and am very well trained, equipment very well serviced and will not take risks.

I think the main factor for diving injuries / deaths would be 'Not adequately trained for the dive (includes complacency)'

CraigDiver

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Divers who die are either;

Not adequately trained for the dive (includes complacency)
Not fit enough for the dive
Very unlucky
trying to push boundaries.

A diver will not die diving just because overweight - I have a BMI of 32 and reasonably fit. I usually only dive shallow waters (66ft max) and am very well trained, equipment very well serviced and will not take risks.

I think the main factor for diving injuries / deaths would be 'Not adequately trained for the dive (includes complacency)'

CraigDiver

Over the past few years there have been more than a dozen diver deaths in my local region (Puget Sound and surrounding environs). Of them, only one was attributable to the diver's weight ... a middle-aged fellow who suffered a heart attack while diving a wall in current. Ironically, he was a doctor.

Of the others, three were directly attributable to the divers running out of air at depth. Two were attributable to the divers pushing their limits far beyond their capabilities ... in both cases the body was never recovered. One was the result of simple carelessness ... the diver neglected to turn on his air, began his descent, and drowned ... his dive buddy preceeded him to the bottom and never realized there was a problem until it was too late. One was a freak accident that could have happened to anybody. Of the remaining, none could in any way have been attributable to factors that are affected by a diver's weight.

These are examples of the things that kill divers.

The two most well-known recent fatalities ... Zak Jones and Rob Davies ... happened to divers who were both physically fit and well-trained.

My point?

I think it's more productive to focus discussion on the factors that have a significant impact diver safety, rather than making blanket, and misleading, statements like "overweight dive buddies are a liability", or "obesity is the number one cause of diver death". The former may or may not be true, but one has to make that assessment on an individual basis. The latter is a simple misrepresentation of the data.

A discussion on overall health, strength, and cardo fitness would have some value, as those factors do directly contribute to a diver's ability to deal with stressful situations. But that has little to do with BMI ... and relates to diver safety far less than good training, practical experience, and a healthy dose of self-discipline.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Charlie59]

Believe me, your condition and actitivities do little to my cookies.

Let's say that obesity is one of the top five contributors to diver death, does that allow us to discuss this as a factor to be concerned about?

In the Undercurrent article SSI is said to have divers over 40 undergo cardiac stress tests. Are they fascists?

 

[Charlie59]

it says that 55 percent of the fatalities were obese.

Sorry, the article I quoted said only 45% were obese. This is way better. When I took math that was over half. Seems like smoke, even if no fire.

 

[WesTexDiver]

I think the only people you will find to disagree with this article are going to be fat people. Obesity kills more people a year than anything else diver or not.

 

[in_cavediver]

I think the only people you will find to disagree with this article are going to be fat people. Obesity kills more people a year than anything else diver or not.

Actually, unless Mike Ferrara took a slide, I doubt his BMI is over 25.

Remeber, those of use who disagree with the article and its strongest supporters due so not out of the belief the obese=healthy but that obesity isn't the causal factor its made out to be.

I'm personally take Bob's advice and going diving. - Mike get the chainsaw, its warming up to the teens in a day or two and I've not been diving in a while.