From: adb@herboid.uucp (Anthony DeBoer)
Subject: Re: Article in Current _SCUBA Times_
Organization: Linda's Dragon Memorial Society
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1992 22:22:11 GMT

Eric Manghise <mango@nova.esd.sgi.com> writes:
>In article <BtB3Cv.HwJ@ais.org>, tim@ais.org (Tim Tyler) writes:
> [ on solo diving ]
>
>	People are solo climbing mountains, kayaking down class IV and V
>	rivers, jumping out of airplanes, jumping off 400 ft high towers
>	with bungy cords attached to them, racing cars around tracks at
>	200mph+, skiing off cornices, are these people stupid. [?]

Reality check: a lot of these activities are things you can't do with a
buddy immediately there with you to help, situations where there's for
example only one steering wheel in a race car, so a passenger wouldn't
make you safer and would only suffer the same fate you did.  Likewise if
you put two people under a single parachute.  Having a good safety crew
there watching and ready to assist is a factor in a lot of those sports;
in that case, if you make a serious mistake, there's help in a matter of
seconds.

Diving is different in that a safety crew on the surface can't see what
you're doing, where if you have a serious problem a buddy can help you
within seconds, you need help within a minute or two or you're dead, and
a search party will probably take longer than that to find you.  Unlike
in a lot of sports, the buddy system works for SCUBA.

The flip side is that a well-trained diver in excellent physical shape
with a redundant air supply system might need help from his buddy on only
one dive in 1,000,000 or more, compared with divers for whom one or more
of those factors aren't true, who might need help more often.

I feel ready to categorize solo diving (along with going below 130' or
using mixed gas or such practises) as "technical diving" as some people
call it, which is NOT for new divers but which should IMHO be an option
open to seasoned divers who have the skills and who have assessed the
risks.  I don't think we should exorcise people who do these things.  Some
of the finger-pointing that I've seen happen when people do anything
"technical" makes me ill.

I'm aware of at least a few divers who are going on dives sufficiently
advanced that having to recruit a buddy might be hazardous to the buddy;
one diver in particular (a local horror story) has come back without his
buddy on at least one occasion.  I'd actually prefer he was diving solo.

This still leaves the question of how to set a good example for the new
diver when people are doing all these things.  I believe that standing up
in class and saying words like "yes, people with a lot of experience and a
lot of training are doing some pretty amazing things underwater, but
remember that you DON'T have that training or experience yet and your
basic course covers only how to operate inside of certain limits" is the
approach to take.  Forcing everybody to stay inside the limits of what an
Openwater I diver can do isn't it.
-- 
Anthony DeBoer   NAUI # Z8800, D5482 | Why watch TV, when Netnews provides
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