Now closing in a hundred dives in the first two years since earning my OW cert, I still have a ways to go to become an expert in the sport. But, after watching hundreds of other divers, maybe that’s a goal I should never achieve.
Being a perpetual student seems to be a safer consideration.
My experience with diving revealed an unexpected observation; not why there are diving mishaps, but why there aren’t a great deal more of them. It seems there’s a correlation between safety and experience. Often, the more dives a person has, the less they feel obliged to follow the safety lessons taught in their initial scuba diving classes.
Over confidence is just human nature. Once we’ve conquered a fear of something, we tend to take it less seriously or, dismiss it entirely. But there is a difference in conquering a fear and losing respect for activities that involve a potential danger—as does diving.
Apathy happens when we simply stop caring about something. Our diving equipment is so, well-engineered and constructed, it’s easy to be lulled into a false sense of security. And with each non-incident dive, it’s harder to see the value for continued, repetitive pre-dive checks, planning, and buddy diving—all that seems to be considered ‘rookie diver stuff.’
Take ‘John,’ for example, (John is an alias for a real person, who I won’t call out in public) a seasoned diver with over 1500 plus dives. I was teamed up with John when I went solo with a dive charter in Florida last year. I was happy to be assigned with someone with so much experience. I was hoping to learn something from this sage diver, but what he taught me was not what I was expecting.
John, and I did make a dive plan, went over hand signals and checked each other’s’ gear—mostly because I insisted on doing so. (Initial red flag). John, dove in the water without his regulator in his mouth nor wearing his mask or snorkel, donning it only when he was ready to submerge (Red flag number two). Then before I jumped in John power dove to spearfish a wreck at (100-110 ft) leaving me behind (Third red flag). When I did manage to catch up to my wayward dive partner, he never looked back to see me (Red flag number four). He was so, absorbed in spear-fishing he passed through narrow spaces created by fallen debris and eventually disappeared around the stern and was gone. John then surfaced without notifying me (Red Flags number five and six).
On a subsequent dive, John was told to stay near the wreck by the Dive Master, as the water was murky and choppy; however, confident John, on the ocean floor took off on a tangent along a debris field without me. Again, he disappeared from my sight. My no-deco was under ten minutes at that depth so, I had to ascend. When I got back aboard and didn’t see John, my stomach turned to knots. Some time later the captain spotted John 3/4 of a mile away. John, was out of air, exhausted and had a nasty leg cramp. A crewman had to jump in and haul John out. (Seventh and final red flag).
I eventually told John, that I was uncomfortable with his diving practices and that I’d be buddying-up with someone else.
By the way, John, was a self-described as a former Senior PADI instructor with 1500+ dives. Over Confidence can happen to anyone and apparently does.
But John isn’t alone nor, is he an extreme case of Diver’s Apathy. I’ve been teamed up with other ‘experienced’ divers that routinely take unnecessary risks. Many run their air down to sub 400 Psi before ascending. Others’ with taped-up BCD’s, rigged broken fins and leaky masks jump in confident their fixes will keep. Still others, including dive masters and instructor’s stick their hands in crevices, taunted and antagonized sea critters and enter dodgy wrecks and caves.
And then there are people with medical issues; with poor fitness, obesity, smokers, asthmatics, cardio-pulmonary patients, and people on blood thinners and diabetes medicine who announce they are not in the best of shape and ask you to keep an eye out on them. And even though they know that most diving accidents are due to medical issues, they lie on their medical waivers and ‘jump in’ anyway. I met one man with two bypass surgeries under his belt who was on a cocktail of medicines. I don’t know for sure if he got an ‘okay’ be his doctor, but you have to wonder.
Then we get to the procedural lackeys. Rarely if ever, do I ever see experienced divers doing pre-dive equipment checks and going over dive plans, hand signals and such. Half the time I see ‘buddy’ divers separate and later, ascend separately.
Worse, are the people who push the envelope exceeding their diving experience and training. I have a GOPRO film of a young diver, a Dive Master Trainee who was alone on the sea floor at 110 feet practicing removing and donning her BCD rig—no one was anywhere near her. I was horrified, and wondered what would happen if her BCD and tank floated off in the current? Where was her buddy?
And indeed, there are a lot of diver accidents that happen because an overconfident diver went too deep for too long or, simply became preoccupied and wandered off from their buddy as their gas headed down to ‘0.’ I have assisted three divers who were in various degrees of trouble, because they became separated from their dive buddy when a piece of gear became lose or, had buoyancy issues, problems that could have been fixed on the surface with an equipment check.
Bottom line, 90% of diving accidents happen due to a diver’s apathy and complacency. If you are physically marginalized, don’t dive. If you’re not experienced or trained to do dangerous dives, don’t make them. Find a dive partner that takes diving safety seriously. Do your pre-equipment checks and make a dive plan with your buddy before EVERY dive, and then when diving stay with that buddy. Practice your hand signals. Practice handing off your backup regulator with your buddy and ascending together. Keep your equipment maintained.
Stay fit, get regular physicals and if your doctor says ‘no diving,’ then listen!
In other words, whether you have 10 dives under your belt, or 1000 follow the safety routines you learned in your Open Water Classes, and your chances of a diving mishap will be almost non-existent. |