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- I'm a Fish!
There are many other "sports" that are more dangerous than ours. There are many other sports that have more expensive gear than ours.
There are not many sports that also have more expensive certifications.
We certify because?
I certified so that I could get gear that I want to use to go into the water.
Every dangerous activity has training for it, but not always required for ADULTS.
Every dangerous activity has safety gear, but it is not required all the time.
Every dangerous activity has the risk of death, and people do die.
Why am I certifying? Because someone figures that I have to do it.
Do I really need to know the whys when it comes to depth or speed of ascent/decent? No.
Is the diving community being too strict? Is it for monetary gain? Would we see the death rate skyrocket without the certification??
Maybe it is just another way of thinning the herd.
Just random thoughts.
In the 50's and 60's, when you could just buy the gear and dive---no instruction needed beyond the adage" don't hold your breath when ascending".....there was a tiny population of people that wanted to dive...they were a fairly stratified group, more like the James Bond character in Thunderball.....the divers of that day really were the adventurers--they already did MANY wildly adventurous sports, and they had all the right instincts for diving....for them, diving was a very EASY sport...
Diving is no harder today, but the "masses" are not made up of people that could play for the NFL, or that could be dropped 500 miles into the wilderness of Alaska or BC, and just walk out ....today's divers are accountants, and lawyers, and specialists in the office world. They don't have a lifetime of adventure sports and the instincts and moves that go with this. There are people today that could jump into diving in the same way it was done in the 50's and 60's....no problem....there just are not many of these, and today a very wide population base has it in their head that they want to try diving--not just the handful of adventurers....so how do you know you are in the 1 percent? That is the reason for certs today. Everyone that falls into the 99% that don't have the adventurer "gene" , needs the classes.