I think we could look at "recreational diving" as a system. We market diving to people who don't dive. We train them, certify them and the industry provides oportunities for them to dive (resorts and charters) based in part on cridentials that we issue.
Once we define the scope and intended function of the system, we can measure the capability of the system. The capability of a system is a function of the overall system and not necessarily any one single component.
We tend to only look at catastrophic failures like fatalities and injuries. I'm not aware of any system analysis method in which this would be considered correct or effective. The idea is to measure, monitor and control system performance in a manor that avoids catastrophic failures. When there is a catastrophic failure, containment and corrective action is called for. The dive industry does none of this in a manor that would be considered adequate in any other industry. This is demonstrated by the fact that we don't see any improvement.
Lets look at a couple of examples.
As a very physically fit adventurous young man who was completely at home in the water, I got my hands on some dive equipment and just went diving. The scope of this system is pretty limited. Nobody sold me on anything, nobody trained me, nobody was in the water with me...it was just me and nobody made any decisions or had any control except me. Incidentally, it all worked out GREAT and I had a blast.
Another example...a 55 year old, out of shape, couch potato of 30 years who can barely swim sees an advertisement colorfully depicting the great joy and exceitement of visiting the underwater world. He/she decides to inquire at a local dive shop and they are told how easy, quick and convenient the training process is and how diving is great and "safe" for just about everyone including the 10 year old kiddies. This person is now talking to the experts. Our potato, joins in a class and limps through the minimal required skills planted on the bottom. The experts now award our potato with a certification and sell him/her a dive trip or several.
Now then, Mr/Mrs potato has consulted the diving experts and prudently followed their advice learning each skill to the required and recommended level of proficiency. Mr potato now has every reason to believe he is qualified. On a Sunday afternoon dive at Gilboa (maybe during an AOW training dive) our potato experiences a free flowing reg and suffers a rapid ascent resulting in AGE and dies.
What was the cause? The advertisement that got this non-adventurous out of shape non water person to consider diving? The experts at the dive shop who further sold, trained and qualified our potato? The agency who designed the training requirements for both the instructor and the diver? God because He made the water cold? Or maybe you think that the diver came to be in this situation all on his own with no outside influence?
Sorry, it's a system thing. Failures exist because there are flaws in the system. The system can not become more capable unless those flaws are identified and corrected. Do what you always did and you will get what you always got.
Oh...come on lets go diving. It's easy, you'll love it and you don't need to be a swimmer or have much experience in the water. Kneeling is just fine and there is no need to learn to manage problems midwater. It's easy, just do what I say because I know all about this stuff. I'm an expert...see here's my instructor card. Ooops, sorry Mrs potato but Mr potato died because he should have known better to listen to me in the first place. Don't be concerned though because this only happens 100 or so times a year in the DAN reporting area. We see no need to evaluate or modify our practices. We have deemed our performance to be "good enough" and have no desire to improve anything other than our gross sales. We don't acknowledge any correlation at all between our training standards that only require crawling and bouncing and the crawling bouncing potatos that occassionally bounce all the way to the surface and spit their lungs out their face or drown before reaching the surface. We have enough excuses to last a lifetime and some very good attourneys to write our liability releases. It's all made really easy by the fact that divers want to believe what we tell them and choose to defend our practices, their skills and their cridentials rather than taking a real close look at this. All the while patiently waiting and even paying to stand in line for their turn to shoot to the surface and spit their own lungs out. I, the agency or instructor, am off the hook and have no responsibility at all in this.
Well folks, maybe the rest of the industry is comfortable with this but as a former dive shop owner, PADI instructor and IANTD instructor I'm not. I don't let myself off the hook and there isn't a chance in hell that I will let the rest of the industry off the hook either! I am all for personal responsibility and the first people that I want to see take responsibility for their actions is the key players in the industry...the founders of the feast.
