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scuba@uc*.be*.ed* (Mark Lenhart) wrote:
> Coleman Sachs, Sgt. Boone County Water Rescue Team says:
> I am not a diver. With hearing in one ear ENT's have told me
> not to risk the loss of the one that works! Makes sense to me.
>
> Doesn't make sense to me. With good training and a smidgen of common
> health sense, your risk of loss of hearing is negligible. In fact I
> haven't heard of deafness (total anyway) being at all a common result of
> dive accidents.
You know, the first thought that popped into my head as I read this was:
"So? It doesn't HAVE TO make sense to you." It's the same thought that
has crossed my mind on a few other occasions, when I've discussed the bounds
of my personal comfort zone with other (tech)divers, and received a similar
response.
As someone just getting into this area of the sport, I find it rather ironic
that I can go out on a regular ol' dive boat, sit out a dive just because
I don't feel right about it, and not hear a word. Yet on more than one
occasion, I've expressed concerns about a cave dive or a decompression dive,
and have been encouraged to do it anyway. On one occasion, right after I
completed a cavern diving class, I was encouraged to go dive alone in Ginnie
Cavern rather than waiting for someone to dive with -- even after I made it
quite clear that I was very uncomfortable with the idea... and this was an
experienced cave diver. Now, sure, for a Real Cave Diver, that's a weenie
dive. For me, it was beyond my training, my experience, and my comfort level.
I don't know quite what my point is here. Maybe just to remind some of you
who have been doing this for a while that, for some of us, your weenie dives
are a Big Deal. I try to be a responsible diver, I try not to... er... get
in over my head :-), but I have found myself in a couple of situations where
I maybe shouldn't have been. And, at the level I'm at, trying new things,
I don't need the added stress -- things are dangerous enough out there anyway.
I'm not trying to gripe & complain... I know most(?) people aren't like this.
But then again, it seems that we shouldn't be _encouraging_ this kind of
diving, and I have heard some offhand comments that do exactly that ("Only
20 minutes of deco? That's nothing..." Nothing, perhaps, until something
goes wrong and I've been uncomfortable with the situation from the moment
I hit the water...).
Anyway. Sorry for rambling. But this just got me thinking, and I'd like to
hear some other people's thoughts on the subject.
--tab
--
Tracey Baker tab@pa*.co*
"I don't think safety is the main issue here...
You'd be stupid not to be safe." - J. Comly
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