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Hi Eric,

	Thanks for taking the time to reply in such detail.

> I have some problems with this. I'm a big time advocate of personal
> responsiblity and I believe that when I do something I am responsible
> for the consequences of that action. However I believe that this also
> applys to others. If the pilot of that boat goes off and leaves me
> then he assumes the responsiblity for that action; in such a 
> relationship there is an implicit assumption of the roles and
> responibilities of each of the parties involved in the relationship.
> Likewise if I take my regulator in for service and it subsequently
> fails because of of improper servicing I think that's on the head of 
> the person doing the work (though I feel it is my responsibility to
> provide myself with an "out" if I know I will be in a hazardous
> situation, which diving is). Likewise when I purchase a product, 
> especially life support, I believe that there are certain responibilites
> that the manufactor of that product has in regards to its quality
> and design in regards to its intended use.

These are all very good points, and have been explained to me by many
people who sent me similar private messages. The issue of responsibility
on the part of the Boat Captain seems to be the most sensative among
people who responded. I understand these concerns very well.  My primary
intent was to underscore that technical diving is, and always will be, a
high-risk activity; and anyone who engages in that activity should be
prepared to deal with any harm that comes to them, regardless of the
source. Your message, and those of others, are helping to better clairify
what my primary point is, and I will summarize this in another posting to
techdiver.

> All this brings me to another complaint I have, that is of dive shops
> and instructors who under empthisize the risks involved in the sport
> in order to encourage people to buy their product. However that I won't
> get into now.

Ha!  Don't get me started!  This very issue is ultimately what prompted me
to make my original posting.  My mistake was that I let the anarchist in
me ramble on about the theoretical stuff associated with my responsibility
philosophy.  What I should have emphasized was the *practical* side of
championing personal responsibility, which is that people are forced to
recognize the true risk of what they are getting into when they start
doing technical dives (like I said, I'd prefer to see it applied to all
diving, but I doubt that would ever happen).

> Most of the time when a diver gets hurt its the diver's fault. However
> there are times and situations where this can be debated. Does this
> mean that I advocate suing everybody in the event of an injury or
> death? No way. But I do believe that it is the fear of litigation
> that keeps people and manufactors honest some times.

My intent in trying to establish the "community standard" of personal
responsibility is not to eliminate all lawsuits: just the frivolous ones. 
Obviously, if a boat captain or whoever is grossly negligent, that person
would lose a lawsuit regardless of what the technical diving "community
standard" is.

Thanks very much for your input!

Aloha,
Rich

*******************************************************************
Richard Pyle
deepreef@bi*.bi*.ha*.or*

"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!"
*******************************************************************

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