Posted by SLANG on May 02, 2000 at 15:08:33:
In Reply to: Re: Qualifier posted by chris on April 30, 2000 at 17:55:06:
As Chris says, it is up to the individual diver to determine whether he/she is up to diving whatever site is chosen. It's not like anyone on a boat going to the rigs is unaware that this is a more advanced dive environment. They choose to dive an advanced site, and that should remain their choice to make - their choice ALONE.
It's not possible to keep idiots from diving, so it's not possible to prevent SCUBA related deaths. This is not a comment on the currently referenced incident; in my opinion, too little evidence is in to make any determinations one way or another. Perfectly competent and intelligent divers occasionally get into trouble as well.
My primary concern is everyone who believes there is some arbitrary or objective method by which every diver can be judged for every situation. That's ridiculous. The size of the log book doesn't identify a real diver. There are many ways to identify the "real divers" on a Calif. boat, and after a few years you can spot them before anyone's even gotten wet, but these are not objective or quantitative measurements.
If we are truly concerned about who's going to be diving a particularly tough dive site, then we, as a community, would be more concerned about the reduced standards of training and certification requirements of the agencies churning out these newbies. More often than not, the same parties who are referencing a need for additional methods of regulating divers are the same ones who would possibly benefit financially from enforcing such regulations. They are the same ones who benefitted when minimum training standards were reduced under the pretext of getting more new divers involved in the sport. When in reality, the end result was increased volume and turnover with the resultant increased income for the SCUBA industry, SCUBA shops and instructors on the one hand, and a dramatic increase in under-trained, newly certified divers being turned out to fend for themselves on the other.
Tell me this, who would actually be responsible for making the call on who is and who isn't fit to dive an advanced site? Some of these 90 day wonders who might be divemastering with less than 100 dives to their credit? Worry about turning out well-trained divers, let them worry about where they dive.