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In a previous message, Rich wrote: >"WHATEVER happens to you when you willingly go underwater is >COMPLETELY and ENTIRELY your own responsibility! If you cannot >accept this responsibility, stay out of the water!" > >If a regulator fails in the middle of a dive, the diver cannot blame the >manufacturer because the diver willingly accepted the risk of a regulator >failure the moment they dipped below the surface. If a charter boat >captain does something really stupid and a diver gets hurt or killed, the >diver has nobody to blame because he or she accepted that risk when he or >she hired that boat captain. Give me any example where a diver gets hurt, >and I will explain why it is ultimately the diver's fault. Obviously Rich has thought about this subject a great deal and feels quite strongly about it. I agree with almost everything he says, except that about the charter boat captain doing something stupid. True enough, if I stay home and watch the ball game rather than go diving, the boat captain can be as stupid as he wants and I will remain unharmed. I will have chosen not to dive rather than risk being harmed by someone who is stupid. On the other hand, the fact that I choose to go diving on a charter boat does not mean that I grant the boat captain permission to do stupid things. Like me, he also has responsibilities. Indeed, by law I am prevented from taking on his responsibilities since I don't have a captain's license. He has a duty to operate the boat safely, exercising good judgement and seamanship. If I am on the boat and I don't like what he's doing, my only recourse is not to dive. If I am underwater and he does something stupid that can get me killed, I have no opportunity to exercise my own judgement, since I am committed to the dive. Tim
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