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At 4:37 PM -0400 8/15/99, kirvine@sa*.ne* wrote: >Kev, sounds like diving is a dangerous sport, but it is interesting how >your perspecive changes when you have kids. That is why I don't dive >with strokes, or do anything short of no compromise, or anything stupid. > >Notice that the usdct used virtually all kidless, single people. > >Notice how I use all people with real lives. > >Why do you suppose that is, or do you now know? > You're absolutely right - once you begin to have responsibilities to others, you tend to think a bit more about what you're doing. When I was in my early 20's, I used to race enduro's across the Mojave on my CR 500. I'd go balls out and worry about what was over the next rise once I got there. After breaking nearly every bone in both feet (on many different occasions) and separating my ribs from my sternum during a "putt" with some buddies that turned out to be a total "duel in the desert" I finally began to slow down after I got married. Same with diving. When I started diving at 17, we'd go out with an old tank that had a J-Valve and a single reg. No pressure gauge, no depth gauge, nothing. When you ran out of air, you pulled the J-Valve down, and headed for the surface. No one thought about deco back then. When you think about it, it's amazing that any of us survived our teens/early 20's at all. But for a 40 year old to run out of gas on a wreck dive (with no other extenuating circumstances) is just plain dumb. All I know is that I'm not going to leave my kid to be raised without his father around. There are lots of ways to do challenging dives, and still be safe. But you know, for every thoughful dude out there, there's still some Goober sitting on his couch in the double-wide trailer, wearing his pizza stained wife-beater t-shirt and watching the Discovery Channel that says to himself "I kin do dat" and goes out to the local dive shop and buys every piece of "tech" gear out on the market and winds up a statistic, leaving his wife and illiterate kids to fend for themselves. These usually make good fodder for the "Dateline" or "20/20" shows to profile the poor widow and her 37 kids left behind. Personally, I've stopped wringing my hands when someone in this sport dies. Stupid is, as stupid does, and people are going to continue to make mistakes that get them killed. The only divers I have to worry about is ME, and anyone who happens to be in my crew. And even they are free to go kill themselves on their own time, as long as it doesn't make my Workmen's Comp rates go up... ; -) Kevin. -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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