Mailing List Archive Mailing List Archive
Steve, Skiing is my best sport, even though I don't get to enjoy it often anymore. I raced GS and Downhill in high school and college. Skiing too fast gets you kicked off hills if they catch you :), skiing recklessly gets you kicked off, and I have been on several slopes where ski patrol personnel told people they could not ski without ski brakes or safety straps. Back when I was in school , there were occasional instances where you would see someone try to use the old Bear trap, non-releasable ski bindings on slopes like Holiday Valley near my home, or other hills I frequented in Vermont and New Hampshire. When this was seen by the ski patrol in the lift line, the "dangerous equipment users" and their affected Swiss accents were generally told this was not acceptable, and they either had to rent gear that day, or leave the hill. Of course this was not true of all slopes, but it was true at most I skied on. You could compare the view of liability held by ski slope owners to boat captain/owners, except I think the Ski slope owners are far more responsible ( statistically---I know there are individual tech boats which are extremely responsible). As to skiing deaths and tech diving deaths----in skiing, the deaths cause nasty changes to the sport. Lawsuits have caused many slopes to cut down all the trees and destroy awesome trails, because morons on skis sued over the trees being dangerous--they ran into them and were hurt badly. Deaths in each of these sports will continue to change the sport for the worse. Regards, Dan Volker -----Original Message----- From: Steve Lindblom [mailto:s_lindblom@co*.co*] Sent: Friday, July 09, 1999 12:19 AM To: techdiver@aquanaut.com Subject: Re: Ultimate Stupidity in tech diving--Personal Preference and Kevorkian Dive Boats Dan, you may be hell in the water, but you sure don't get in much skiing down there - your latest analogy just doesn't work. First of all, I have never heard of the ski patrol stopping someone from skiing because of gear, except in the case of missing safety straps (= danger to others) on old non-brake safety bindings, or for that matter, stopping anyone for anything except skiing too fast or recklessly too near to other skiers. Secondly, the whole situation is completely different - when you downhill ski, you are skiing are prepared terrain that is owned or leased by the ski mountain, and which they are charging you to use. That vastly alters the liability issues - if the same ski patrol guy was to try and "eject" someone who was cc skiing on ungroomed public lands, he wouldn't get very far. Other than that, no problem. A beginner wearing skis with antique bindings that are 50 cm's too long can cheerfully launch themselves down an expert slope without hearing whistles or sirens. Oh, and a few dozen people die skiing every year. Does something worse happen to techdivers? >In Skiing you have a Ski or Safety Patrol. If they see a skier with bear >trap bindings on, his "ski pass" is removed, he is NOT allowed to ski. If a >skier attempts to ski down avalanche slopes or other dangerous areas, they >get ejected from the slope. And skiing has no where near the danger >potential of tech diving. -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'. -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
Navigate by Author:
[Previous]
[Next]
[Author Search Index]
Navigate by Subject:
[Previous]
[Next]
[Subject Search Index]
[Send Reply] [Send Message with New Topic]
[Search Selection] [Mailing List Home] [Home]