Imagine you are 50 feet underwater, floating on your back, staring up at the surface. Is this something out of a dream, or a nightmare? The idea of being completely submerged is both thrilling and terrifying. It is amazing to envision being that far underwater and breathing with ease. It is frightening to think about the possibility of something going wrong and not knowing what to do if it did. The brave choose to face that fear by learning to avoid the risks and gaining an arsenal of solutions to possible issues that may arise.
I am lucky to have been introduced to an instructor, divemaster, and diving community who value safe diving practices. My instructor, Dave Babineau, and divemaster, Cheryl Babineau, who are both retired police officers, chose a dive certification program, NAUI, over other diver certifications because NAUI emphasizes rescue skills and allows divers more pool time to practice scuba diving skills. NAUI says that they have a “moral and ethical obligation” to teach fundamental rescue skills in their basic classes. These skills are invaluable. Through practice, divers get the chance to prepare for emergency situations. In both my Basic and Advanced dive certification classes and in Scuba Squad club meetings Dave and Cheryl emphasize the importance of listening to your gut and calling a dive if you ever feel uneasy about it. They have been known to say, “We don’t sell scuba certifications; we sell safety.” Scuba Squad, which was created by Cheryl Babineau, has two rules, and the first is to dive safe.
In my experience, safety in scuba diving comes down to the choices you make. As scuba divers we want nothing more than to be in the water, and it is extremely disappointing and therefore difficult to make the choice to call a dive. A few months ago a story was published about a man who went on a dive on Christmas Day in an unfamiliar and known-to-be-dangerous cave, despite lacking the necessary training to dive in overhead environments. He was diving with new gear and he tragically brought along his young son, who was not certified. They both went missing and were found a few days later deep in the caves. This is a horribly sad example of poor choices resulting in death. A lot of dive accidents occur because the diver, who was probably extremely excited and eager to dive, did not take a step back and ask if he or she was making safe decisions. Luckily, most divers do practice safe habits and they avoid devastating accidents. Scuba divers look out for each other and can sometimes give the necessary outside perspective when someone is about to make a poor choice. In the most recent Alert Diver magazine there is an article written by Ingrid Carlson about an experience she had trying to convince a diver to make the safe choice to cancel a dive. The diver was planning to dive alone; he was over-heated, out of practice, and using gear, including a rebreather, he had not used in five years. This man was resistant to Ingrid’s warnings, but after the confrontation he did end up canceling the dive. He found out later that his gear needed some maintenance and if he had dove he could have experienced serious and possibly life-threatening problems. Ingrid’s story is an excellent example of a good choice made and, possibly, a life saved.
Carlson, I. (2014). Alert Diver | Easy Save. Retrieved February 25, 2014, from http://www.alertdiver.com/Easy-Save
Fieldstadt, E., & News, N. B. C. (2013, December 26). Father, son drown while attempting challenging cave dive in Florida. NBC News. Retrieved February 27, 2014, from http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/26/22062394-father-son-drown-while-attempting-challenging-cave-dive-in-florida
No comments:
Post a Comment