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Let's think about this. Look at driving as an example. In this month there have been about 8 or so deaths from car accidents in our local area alone. Lord knows how many scattered around the country, (the carnage is unbelievable). Many of them from people incapable of driving a car in a straight line on the interstate. How come cars are not banned? Or at least an outcry for better driver training? IMHO the answer is people *understand* cars and *understand* driving and know they are taking a calculated risk everytime they get behind the wheel. People *understand* that out of the total miles driven in their lives, the odd's of not getting killed are in their favor. The vast majority of their experience from driving is favorable, and they can live with a few "unlucky" slobs biting the dust once in a while. When do people hear about diving? When someone dies. The correlation between "death" and "diving" is very clear to the un-educated. Diving is right up there with the sky-diving, mountain climbing, lion taming, etc. as having a direct correlation with death. In reality sports like bicycling have a much higher risk of death. Folks are scared of the unknown, and look at technical diving as an unneeded, almost suicidal risk. But we know as divers that the risk is manageable. My point is that we need to get the public educated about diving. There needs to be more shows like that travel channel dive show and SeaTek. Diving needs better PR, something our fragmented, divided industry is incapable of doing. Hell, the best PR machine are those locations, like Grand Cayman, Cozumel, etc. who's economy depends on diving having a good rap, they do a good job of making diving look like the fun it is. When an accident happens, there needs to be a immediate, clear explanation of what happened. And the opportunity must be taken up at that time to show that many, many dives, tech or otherwise, take place without incident. The "man on a flying trapeze" aura of diving needs to be toned down at every opportunity. Just my 2cents worth. Jim On 1/23/98 4:14 PM Tim and Andrea Olson wrote: > >> But Tim, are you here suggesting that this incident should be SWEPT >> UNDER THE PROVERBIAL CARPET? >> > >No, in fact. There are many mistakes being made in regards to this >accident. First and foremost are some of the diving and instruction >practices that cause the accidents. It is extremely important that we >take the time to analyze this type of incident, and discuss it in our >forum and with other divers. George has many great lessons to teach >divers, that's not the point. > >Also among the mistakes being made is sensationalism of this >and any diving accident. When you tell Joe Public about such >incidents, nobody cares if the guy was 20' or 320' deep, they see it >simply as a diving accident. Then diving and diving eqiupment gets >regulated and/or banned. This can be a big problem, for many reasons. > #1. If a diving practice is banned, nobody will teach it, and you >know that no matter what happens, people will still get into deep >diving....we want them trained, not doing it on their own. #2. We've >all been going back and forth about DEEP AIR. It seems to me that the >harder it is to get HELIUM!, the more you will see people resorting to >DEEP AIR diving. > >Now I don't care how "Orwellian" the concept of discretion is, >but I think that we should be spreading the teachings and info. >from incidents like these among those who it APPLIES to. >Almost EVERYTHING that happens in the news gets FAR too >much publicity these days. Look at the Kennedy skiing death. >Big fucking deal....they did something stupid...their fault. >Still, it's just one more nail in the coffin for the sport of skiing, >and everyone involved in providing equipment and services. Do you >think the ski hill and equipment companies don't shiver a bit when >something like that happens? > >Why put things on the NEWS when there is FEWER THAN >2% of the population that this accident could teach anything >to.....much less than that if you only count those who would >tech-dive. It only hurts us all. We have a great forum here >on Techdiver. DEMA is going on. There are newsgroups >and dive shops. These are the people and those are the places >where the information is appropriate. > >I don't know what the situation is in Florida, but I would >imagine that you folks would want to keep the publicity >down as much as possible....and that DOESN'T mean >withhold information where appropriate. If you lose >a helium supply for diving, you WILL see more people >doing it "wrong" and the deaths will go up. We worked >hard to get to the point where people would accept >Trimix, why jeopardize that. The families of the dead >don't benefit from the publicity either. > >If you note, NONE of this has anything to do with >wether or not the diving practices were good or bad. >When I read the account of the accident, I saw many >flaws too, and I forwarded on the mail to others who >dive. DIVERS need to learn from this, but not >the entire population....to them it's just another example >of how stupid a person is to go diving, and another >reason why people shouldn't be allowed to dive >in their local lake/spring/quarry/cave. > >I only pick on Irvine because he has an inability it seems >to speak in the appropriate forum, and because he has >a personal vendetta against anyone who makes a >mistake and tries to get people SUED. Doesn't do >anyone a bit of good....just get the facts out to those >who need to know. > >Tim >-- >Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. >Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'. > ------------------------------------------------------------------- Learn About Trimix At http://www.cisatlantic.com/trimix/trimix.html -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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