Would Government Regulation of Diving Be So Bad?

[Diver0001]

This is going to be a volatile subject, so please NO PERSONAL ATTACKS allowed. address issues and ideas, not people. if you call anyone a name, your post will be pulled, no questions asked.

As to the ideas themselves, please speak freely.

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We often hear "let's police ourselves before the government steps in."

What if "self-policing" has failed? The training standards
are compromised, some might argue, new divers are at
their unsafest level ever, more and more instructors are
teaching without a basic understanding themselves.

Only a government entity (immune from commercial pressures) can ensure that standards are
not only SET IN PAPER but also ADHERED to in training.

How? Easy -- a standarized test administered by official
test-givers. Pilots have to pass an FAA test, though their training can be private. Why not the same for divers?

Wouldn't divers be safer if someone WITHOUT A PROFIT MOTIVE was in charge of evaluating diver skills prior to
handing them a c-card?

I almost hesitate to agree with you after the last thread you started for fear that dweeb will turn green and grow big muscles again but the same thought has crossed my mind.

There is one major road block, however, which is that diving is an international sport and there will need to be a whole swack of international agreements made about it. I mean the few thousand divers on scubaboard can't agree about the need (or lack thereof) for a snorkel. If you let these things over to the governments of the world then they'll spend 20 billion dollars to "agree to disagree" and recoup the costs from people who want a "scuba license". I'm afraid of this scenario.

R..

 

[Diver0001]

....snip.... They would no doubt bring in experts ....snip....

....like Dread Gilligan......

Just think.

R..

 

[murphdivers286]

I work for the government. They don't know if they are coming or going half of the time. Don't get me wrong. I love my job.

Just becuase an idiot OW diver with 6 dives decides to go on a wreck dive to 130 ft , and dies does not mean the training failed. It means to diver failed the training. No one or no government can stop idiots (the man with the anchor and garden hose LOLOLOL) from doing dumb things.

I believe in the old saying "Be careful what you wish for!!".

 

[miketsp]

Most of the posts focussed on the US.
How much interest do you think there would be for government control in tourist based economies?
Do you think the Mexican government wants to make it difficult to dive in Coz?
How many warm water countries have government control, notable exception being Greece for very obvious reasons?

 

[sharpenu]

Seatbelt laws and helmet laws are not put in place to do anything but protect insurance company profits, as are most traffic laws. I don't think it is any accident that insurance companies give grants to police departments for radar guns and other traffic ticket generating equipment. The same would be true for this new SCUBA regulating agency.

Need to see what happens when the government takes over an industry? Look at the TSA (short for Thousands Standing Around). The same inept security guards, only making more money with better benefits.

Explain to me how air travel is safer now, and how this would improve diving.

 

[Rick Murchison]

Only a government entity (immune from commercial pressures) can ensure that standards are
not only SET IN PAPER but also ADHERED to in training.

An absolutely totally unnecessary further intrusion into our lives. It is a monumentally bad idea.
Rick

 

[DavidPT40]

Divide the number of diving accidents per year by the amount of divers, and it isnt really as safe as you think.

 

[Seabear70]

Divide the number of diving accidents per year by the amount of divers, and it isnt really as safe as you think.

What is the rate?

For that matter what is the accident rate for Basketball?

 

[scubafool]

I think it boils down to the basic premise of personal freedom AND THE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY that goes along with it. Bottom line, as things stand now, you have the choice to get training from Instructor A,B, all the way down to Z. You have a multitude of agencies to choose from also. Or you can even choose to dive without any training at all.

While you have the personal freedom to choose any of the above options, you also have the personal responsibility to deal with the consequences of your choice. I will use myself as an example. My OW, Deep, & Nitrox training, were, in my opinion, seriously lacking. That was MY fault. I didn't do any research. I didn't talk to other divers about who they had trained with, I didn't find a board such as this & ask questions as to what I should expect from a good course, I just found the closest dive shop & signed up for an OW class. After a while I took the Deep & Nitrox classes with the same shop & instructor. I eventually found myself & my buddy somewhere that we had NO business being with our skill level, in a bad situation that could have cost us our lives. After that dive, I started to research & learn about diving. I have taken 1 course since then, with an instructor that I had done considerable research on. Point being, it was MY bad decision that could have cost me my life, and MY good decision that has made me a safer diver today.

This country that I live in was originally set up to allow the maximum amount of personal freedom possible, and by extension, the maximum amount of personal responsibility possible. I kinda like it this way.

Condensed version, heck NO!

 

[CaptSaaz]

Though I am new to the sport of diving, I have been working for the federal government for almost 17 years now.. the FAA, Air Traffic Control. In my humble opinion, getting the government involved in anything will surely ruin it. You just create a huge bureaucracy whose only purpose, in the long run, will be self-perpetuation. I am government, red tape is my name. Takes forever to get anything done, the regulations will take a lawyer to figure out and a masters degree to fill out the paperwork.

One example of this is, I bought a pair of Motorola Talkabout walkie-talkies. Several of the freq's they use you need a license for. I was bored on snowy day so I tried to see what it would take to get the lisence. It took me hours trying to figure out which forms I needed to apply, turns out there are three different forms I needed. Filled them out and sent them in and, of course, they were rejected for several reasons. One of which was they wanted $75 for the application fee even though it clearly states on several forms that if I am using it for private, non commercial use, the fee is waived. I actually checked the regulations at work and since I am a certified ATC, I am automatically certified to use VHF, UHF and HF radios. Go figure.

I am a big believer in personal responsibility. As much as people want the gov't to look over us and protect us, it just starts to remove our liberties instead. From what I have seen in my OW class, the risks and dangers are well explained as well as what to do when it happens. No one is forcing you to come out of your house, the world has it dangers.. some places are just safer than others. Use the common sense your parents tried to teach you.

Arthur Dent: I wished I listened to my mother when I was young.
Ford Prefect: Why? What did she say?
Arthur Dent: I don't know, I didn't listen.
-The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy-