What kills ya? I'd like to avoid if possible

[Big-t-2538]

chickdiver once bubbled...
But I have to wonder where you came up with number 4.

Chickdiver...meet Karl (instructor extrodinaire)....Karl meet Chickdiver....

 

[wreckchick]

Don't trust anyone but yourself. Don't follow any deviation from a plan you agreed to on the surface. Don't believe that just because someone has more dives than you that they're a better diver than you.

Practice, practice, practice and dive smart. If a buddy/divemaster does something that doesn't seem right, don't follow. If at any time you want the dive to be over, call the dive. If your buddy doesn't want to end the dive, leave him/her.

Don't compound someone else's bad decision by making your own.

Rachel

 

[Don Burke]

Big-t-2538 once bubbled... Chickdiver...meet Karl (instructor extrodinaire)....Karl meet Chickdiver....

I wouldn't miss this for the world.

 

[KentuckyDiver]

Ya'all makes this scube diven thing sound very dangerous like an cosmonaut or somethin.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Karl_in_Calif once bubbled...
Here is my short list of things that can kill you on scuba:

1) natural causes, like a heart attack, which you cannot do anything about if your number is simply up, and God wants you now;

2) rocketing to the surface while holding your breath -- that causes the famous AGE -- Arterial Gas Embolism; happens at least once each year somewhere; typically associated with panic;

3) losing your buddy and failing to surface quickly to look for each other; although other causes may be to blame, a large number of fatalities occur during diver separation, which could possibly have been prevented (the fatalities) if there was a buddy there to help;

4) cave diving; this alone gives technical diving its bad name;

5) diving deep and getting narked and disappearing; speaking from the West Coast, this happens at least once each year either in Northern Cal at Monastery Beach or in Southern Cal at Tanner or Farnsworth Banks.

Hows that for my Top 5 ? A nice short list.

Well I have to ask about number 4 also. Chickdiver already pointed out that trained cave divers have a good safety record. These days maybe better than all the rec divers who haven't been tought the basics.

I'd rather focus on what you said about cave diving giving tech diving a bad name. Cave divers have pioneered most of the inovations in diving that there have been since the biginning from bouyancy compensation to the alternate air sources (including manifolds and back plates). Oh, don't forget decompression.

BTW, What's the oldest technical diving agency you can think of?

What kind of meathead things are they letting people post on here these days?

 

[DandyDon]

KentuckyDiver once bubbled...
Ya'all makes this scube diven thing sound very dangerous like an cosmonaut or somethin.

Do you have a brother in Arkansas, who goes by GotAir...?

Maybe you were looking for Humor, one forum further down?

don

 

[Karl_in_Calif]

chickdiver once bubbled...
Since the 1950's when records began being kept, there have been approximately 500 cave diving fatalities, ...

Chickdiver
Cave Diver and Technical Diving Instructor.

I can live with that.

 

[Don Burke]

divebomb once bubbled... Yep...being a newbie, I'm reading reports of people buying the farm while diving. Not sure I always understand the underlying reasons. It seems (on the surface) that diving should be safe if you're careful.

So what ARE the big mistakes? Tell me how to stay smart (and alive)

Thanks!

Hi Bomb,

The number 1 cause of death in divers is drowning.

You can run out of air stuck somewhere. You can get yourself so tired that you surface out of sight of the boat and drift off to oblivion. You can jump in the water grossly overweighted with your tank valve shut. You can panic at depth, spit out your regulator, and try to breathe water. If you are dealing with very deep diving, or oxygen enriched gasses (or both) you can oxtox yourself, have a convulsion and spit out your regulator while unconcious. I'm sure there are some ways of drowning while diving that I've forgotten.

Behind drowning, there are expansion problems which fall into two categories:

DCS - the fizzy soda bottle problem

Embolism - Your lungs are like a balloon in an eggshell. Once they are full, adding more is a very bad thing. The lungs get most of the press, but other parts of the body can get you too.

Also behind drowning is the ever-present heart attack. A long swim in a nasty current may do someone in if he isn't in shape.

Getting attacked by critters gets some press, but it's pretty rare unless you go looking for trouble.

The bottom line is to never hold your breath on SCUBA, dive with a buddy, do your gear checks, monitor your gas supply, don't get inside or under anything (wreck, pipe, cave, etc) without proper training, be aware of how you are going to get out of where you are and back to your starting point, ascend slowly, watch your health, don't go looking for trouble, and stay within your training..

Take it slow and you'll be fine.

 

[ReefGuy]

Why do I sense another hijacked thread devolving into meaningless argument? Certain training agencies are gonna come into it shortly.

 

[MSP Rescue Diver]

ReefGuy once bubbled...
Why do I sense another hijacked thread devolving into meaningless argument? Certain training agencies are gonna come into it shortly.

Because it's the scubaboard way?

Marc