Unknowing divers endangering kids

[ghostdiver1957]

Note that I didn't post this in the DIR forum.

I have made the INFORMED decision to dive this site without a buddy many times previously, and will continue to do so.

My lack of a buddy has no bearing on the situation I have described.

Well, at least your screen name is accurate!

 

[Zoomer]

If "If's" and "But's" where candies and nuts it would be Christmas everyday.....

 

[scubafool]

Well, at least your screen name is accurate!

If you think I am a fool in cyberspace, wait'll you meet me in person!:biggrimja

 

[SteveDiver]

So...what would you have done?

I would have minded my own business....after all there was an adult present and I am not in the business of telling others especially strangers how to act and what to do. How can one critize another diver when the one doing the critizing is breaking a rule also (diving alone). Maybe the other party should have stayed close to the "solo diver" and had a couple of words with him....

 

[John C. Ratliff]

String, I don't know if you have children or not, but I will ask you this anyway. If your child were certified to dive, before you went to a site that allowed diving, and considering that you were planning to dive there anyway, and considering that the dive was well within their abilities, why in the heck would you not bring along sufficient gear for the both of you? Why would you expose your child to the elevated risk that the behaviour I am taking issue with entails?

So next week I go out and get this wondrous little person that is my son certified to dive. (And believe me, my boy is one incredible human) Why in the HELL would I want to put him in such a situation with such an elevated level of risk when it is TOTALLY unneccesary? He is certified, so I don't need to "sneak" this dive in. We can do it in a safe manner, with both of us properly outfitted for the dive we intend to do.

I must admit, I am having trouble understanding your viewpoint. I am all about seeing things from the other guy's side, but it just isn't flowing for me here.

ScubaFool,

I would have done exactly what you did. Don't let String and others get to you, as they are pretty opinionated. I have interviened in situations like this. It sounds like this was a pretty young child. I remember reading in either The Silent World or a later Cousteau book about Cousteau taking his sons diving, and spending the dive replacing mouthpieces when the kids tried to speak. I think this guy did endanger the child, and you did the prudent thing by placing yourself between the child and the surface. Any yes, a kid in a wet suit is pretty buoyant, and that could have been a problem.

What you did is what I do all the time in my safety work; anticipate the potential for an accident/injury, then work to prevent it from happening as the situation occurs. I have gotten managers off a rack about 12 feet off the ground because they did not have fall protection; stood between people and a dropoff so they couldn't walk over it; asked my son to get up to where we were from a small rock outlook about 30 feet below, when people (scouts and scoutmasters/leaders started throwing big rocks off a cliff--the boy he was near was later hit by a rock, and nearly knocked over a 1,500 foot dropoff. These are things you need to do. Unfortunately, there are people who only "feel the thrill," and ignore the potential consequences.

So far as diving solo, I have written about that since the mid-1980s, and it is a legitimate diving activity. By swinging this thread to that issue, the others have deflected the focus from what you intended. That simply is not an issue for this thread.

I would like others to become more aware of these situations, and act more like you to help prevent diving accidents. It's so much better than waiting for someone to have an accident, and having to work a rescue or, worse, a recovery.

SeaRat
Ex-NAUI Instructor #2710 & Certified Safety Professional

 

[scubafool]

I would have minded my own business....after all there was an adult present and I am not in the business of telling others especially strangers how to act and what to do. How can one critize another diver when the one doing the critizing is breaking a rule also (diving alone). Maybe the other party should have stayed close to the "solo diver" and had a couple of words with him....

Generally, I do the same, as far as minding my own business. I have had other divers step on me, yes, WALK ACROSS MY HEAD & BACK, at this very same site, and have done nothing but laugh to and at myself. How someone else chooses to dive and the risks they choose to take are really none of my business. But from the perspective I had at the time, the person in question was not endangering themselves so much as *possibly* endangering someone else. Granted, I was not responsible for the child, and very probably the diver was. But I would still be having nightmares if the worst had happened. In talking to the person, I did no real harm, and possibly did some good. Where is the downside?

 

[GreenDiverDown]

I would have minded my own business....

Good for the fool for having the moxie to get involved.

... I am not in the business of telling others especially strangers how to act and what to do.

There's a big difference between being a jerk and showing concern for another's welfare.




So... you're driving down a busy street and you see a 2 year-old playing with a ball on the curb. Mom is on the porch talking on her cell but looking towards her child... apparently not concerned. The speed limit is 35 but you were doing 40.

Do you stop and DO something or is it none of your business?

If you do decide to stop, can you think of a way to approach the mother without being a jerk?

 

[Diver Dennis]

I think you did the right thing SF. And I also think it the right thing to tell any diver we see doing bonehead things that they should be more careful. You can do this in a non-confrontational way and if they tell you where to go, at least you tried. Look at this thread. A lot of people here were telling you what should be done. Even the ones who said they would have kept quiet in the situation that you were involved in, they had lots to say to you, didn't they?

 

[james croft]

Scubafool handled it just right. Under the same circumstances I hope I would have taken an interest in a possibly life-threatening situation. An uncontrolled ascent would have dire consequences. No weight belt, a wet suit and a young diver on compressed gas means trouble. All one has to do is pick up a paper and read about parents leaving kids unattended in cars on hot days or watching kids on the highway unbuckled and not in car seats to realize that some folks just don't have their heads screwed on right.
I don't like to poke my nose into other folks business but sometimes you have to when it means keeping somebody from getting injured.

 

[SteveDiver]

QUOTE: by Stephen ASH:So... you're driving down a busy street and you see a 2 year-old playing with a ball on the curb. Mom is on the porch talking on her cell but looking towards her child... apparently not concerned. The speed limit is 35 but you were doing 40.
Do you stop and DO something or is it none of your business? )


Unrelated to the subject matter being discussed in this forum. The "child" in this case was not left unattended (the adult was holding the child). Your example although dramatic is not valid.