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Alan -- I apologize for any additional pain resulting from our examination
of the tragedy you have suffered. That is not my intent, but inevitably is
a by-product of the scrutiny that tragedies incur.
My view is that, while we always focus on the *most immediate* cause and
effect of an accident (in this case, the in-water handling), we too often
ignore the causes *leading up to* the tragedy itself. And by missing or
undervaluing that component (the *precursors*) of an accident, we will
never find anything more than *half* of the answers we are looking for.
Shouldn't we examine *The Path that takes us in harm's way* just as
carefully as an accident itself? That's what I've been trying to sort out.
Because if we can, in the first place, avoid the path that leads to it,
then the accident can't/won't happen!
As we have all seen, in this and many other accidents, there are
conflicting aspects that haven't been and may never be reconciled.
Apart from the other erroneous/false/partial/misleading "info" I tried to
get *any/some* insights from, we have the latest versions like:
>she still was being held captive by her instructor cert, she never
>finished it >and if still here would have quit as she would still be
>needing to do some >other shit for him.
And
>she was tired of his unorganized crap and could not wait to be done
And
>she really only wanted her instructor rating, derick pushed the rest, mony
>was >his motivator, this will come out after the trial
And
>we were to go to JJ for this but her "friend' talked her into doing it with
>him, money was his motivator, towards the end we had discussions on this, she
>was tired of his unorganized crap and could not wait to be done,"
And
>her friend had more infuence on her, he was an instructor trainer for
>christ >sake,
So, again using solely what we've been told here in net posts: a very
independent person, an experienced divemaster, who's tired of her instr.'s
"unorganized crap", and only wants her rec. instr. cert., but is very
impatient ("could not wait to be done") is coerced/forced (by his
withholding what she wants -- the rec. instr. cert.) by her instr., to buy
a dry suit and take a tri-mix course, as preliminaries, not for deep cave
as we were originally told, but to go cave diving in Mexico where neither
the suit nor the tri-mix are necessary, after talking it over with you to
go to JJ instead and deciding not to, and without you knowing anything
about it, hops in the water so task loaded (dry suit/trimix/stage all on
the same dive with no staggered build up) that a tragedy ensues.
Can you understand the confusion anyone looking at this must feel? Alan,
these contradictory assertions, from your own posts, don't make any sense.
You rail that I have misconstrued or twisted things. Yet -- when it turns
out that the "info" I was going by before -- stuff previously posted about
the circumstances that put her in this position -- is all false, you never
bothered to correct *a single piece* of that misinformation? And these new
explanations don't really make a lot of sense either. I'm not, by any
stretch of the imagination, trying to absolve her instructor's handling of
the dive -- but *what the hell was she doing there*?
>she was tired of his unorganized crap and could not wait to be done,
So she gets in with him even deeper, both literally and figuratively.
Alan, we can't tell from any of this whether she *went against her own
better judgement* -- or *whether her judgement itself was actually poor*.
We'll never know. And that's why the *issue of our judgement-making process
itself* is so critical. Someone else said "if the instr. had been
hogarthian this wouldn't have happened." That's only *partly* the problem
-- if she had made better judgements, she wouldn't have had that instr. --
wouldn't have been beyond her abilities -- *she would not have been there
at all*.
And that is my entire focus -- not to hurt her, you, or anyone else.The
*real* question is: *How are we fooled into making BAD JUDGEMENTS? About
our gear, our instr., our own abilities, the abilities/knowledge of others,
our next dive?*
Because if we get the first part right (and make good/realistic judgements)
-- THEN THE NEXT PART, THE DEADLY PART, *WON'T HAPPEN IN THE FIRST
PLACE*!!!!!!!!! With good/accurate judgement, we wouldn't put ourselves in
harm's way. Whether the instr. was a failure, the equip. was less than
adequate or wrong for the job, etc. etc.would have made no difference -- if
she'd *never* gotten into situations *having* those deadly components in
the first place.
It's *unarguably* critical to have the best/proper gear, the best instr.,
the best poss. conditioning, etc., etc., etc., for the things we are going
to do -- but NONE OF THAT MEANS SHIT IF WE DON'T HAVE A REALISTIC VIEW OF
THE RISKS! NONE OF THAT MEANS SHIT IF WE DON'T HAVE OUR HEADS SCREWED ON
RIGHT ABOUT WHAT WE ARE REALLY DOING!!!!
These are very complex issues and questions: there are no easy answers, as
much as we'd like to find some. That's why I ask questions and look at what
shakes out. Safety is *not* a political or an economic issue -- as much as
others want to make them so.
We have to be *absolutely correct* in our judgements about what can can
handle and what the *actual risks* are -- but we constantly see that divers
are blinded to *actual risks* and have misleading/inaccurate *perceived
risks*, Examples:
Tragically, a knowledgeable, experienced diver makes a quick bounce, in
open water, no more than 90 feet away from his friends (extremely low
perceived risk) -- and through missing/ignoring the actual risk -- dies.
A diver makes scooter-powered, long-duration, mixed-gas, extreme depth and
extreme penetration dives (for the rest of us, a very high perceived risk)
and tells us he has *taken the risk out* of this kind of diving (IOW, has
made it *no risk*). (And I don't care whether the "taken the risk out"
quote supposedly came from a deceased diver or the from the one who waves
it about -- it's still waved about as if it's true.)
And then another diver tells us she has premium gear, knows the WKPP
leaders personally, and doesn't dive with strokes -- yet failed to graduate
from intro to apprentice cave diver.
Yesterday we get a story of two divers who buy two sets of premium gear
(they're DIR now, boy) by mail-order -- and just hopping off the boat is a
cluster. Maybe they forgot to buy the video that tells them how to do it,
right? Seems I can remember someone telling us that the mass-marketing of
tech diving has got to stop because it's killing people? This sounds like a
pretty good job of marketing expensive gear.
As I said before, safety is not a political or economic issue. It's an
issue of being in touch with reality: of recognizing that we can be
deceived about *perceived risks* by marketing/sales jobs,
propaganda/politics, and ego-trippers as easily as we can be deceived about
the "facts" surrounding a fatality -- and that the *actual risk* is that
any of us, no matter how experienced, how well trained, how well equipped,
how fit, or where we are diving -- are at *all times* within about 60
seconds of dying when we are underwater.
If *anyone* skews your perception of the perceived risk, then they are
partly responsible when things get out of hand. If someone says "this or
that equipment insures you are a safe diver", or "I make real dives, yours
are not", or "this or that instructor insures you will be a risk-free
diver", or if someone says he "*always* Does It Right", or that he always
maintains the *only truly safe* standards, or has "a perfect safety
record", or has "taken the risk out of any/this kind of diving", isn't your
perception being skewed?
I and others have been judged "full of shit" and "dangerous" for
scrutinizing what we hear on the lists. For having the temerity to say
"huh?" instead of unthinkingly swallowing everything floated before us on
here. i contend that it's crucial to beware of *everyone* who claims to
have all the answers -- esp. when questioning seems to cause "problems" for
them. Agree, disagree, flame, be threatened, whatever. But if you are told
to "shut up and don't ask questions" then you'd better be ready to accept
the consequences of turning off your brain. You are being told to *accept*
rather than think for yourselves. IMO, *that* is the path into harm's way.
Take care.
Christopher A. Brown
The Technical Diving Video Library http://www.aulinc.com/video.htm
ameruwlite@ao*.co*, Fax: 352.669.1256, or Phone: 352.669.5483
Life is short -- this is not a rehearsal.
--
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