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Hi Kevin, Interesting post. I think the solution *is* in education. We teach OW divers that buddy diving is "safer" than solo diving (following from your example), and thefore hammer into students that they should always have a buddy. Instead, I think we should do away with the whole safe/dangerous thing, and replace it with a system of gauging probability that a particular diver doing a particular dive will get hurt or killed. Yes, all 30-foot dives are equally dangerous, but not all divers are equally likely to get hurt or killed on the same 30-foot dive. We should teach all divers: "Everytime you go under water, there is a probability that you will die. What you must learn to do is to reduce that probability to within acceptable levels." Then you could explain that having a buddy is an important component of reducing that probability for all new divers, but some divers who have accumulated a lot of experience can dive solo with the same or lower level of risk. The shift from "rules" of diving to "variables" of diving would allow instructors to teach both the benefits *and* costs of the different variables (including buddies) under different conditions (i.e., how changes in one variable may affect the costs and benefits of another variable). I doubt this philosophy would ever be adopted by the agencies, but I think it would work. Maybe not.... 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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