Well, here we go into Existentialism of the Depths, but what the hey...

There are, of course, some incidents where the blame/fault/proximate 
cause is not, entirely, the diver.  However, no matter what occurs, the 
diver does have at least half the blame.  This is due to the diver having 
made one key decision - to go into the water.

This does not release some other parties from gross negligence such as 
the time I swam out of a low visibility area and found a gas-powered 
speargun pointed between my eyes and a finger on the trigger (they 
thought I was some large fish and were ready to shoot).  On the other 
hand, _I_ chose to dive in a known spearfishing area and in low viz.

In a training situation, the instructor, of course, has a large 
percentage of the responsibility for the student's safety.  However, 
except in basic open water, the presumption is that the diver already 
knows how to dive but that they are going to learn some other skills.  It 
is ultimately up to the diver to:

A) Decide for themselves if something is too dangerous/beyond their 
abilities
B) Decide whether or not they are going into the water
C) Whether they can trust the instructor or not.

That's one of the reasons I don't mind students interviewing me.  Every 
time I'm about to teach a student, I am _interviewing_ _for_ _a_ _job_ 
and they are _hiring_ _me_ _for_ _a_ _job_.  Damn straight they ought to 
investigate me!

      Okay, I'll get off my milk crate...

                 -- Kevin --

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