Posted by MHK on October 02, 2000 at 15:41:25:
In Reply to: To MHK , Eins, et al - How do we prevent solo deaths? kinda long posted by bullethead on October 02, 2000 at 15:18:48:
You ask a lot of good, but yet, debatable questions.. I think the consensus of opinions from our rather *heated* debates last week were that even a buddy does not provide a bullet prrof insurance policy... All diver's should strive to be self-sufficent but taleast in my view that should be the minimum buy in. Others have argued that being self sufficent enables you to go out on your own.. There is a wide divergance of opinion in this regard.
My view, and I'm strictly speaking on my behalf, as a diver that has 2,000+ dives, that has beed doing some seriously deep dives, some serious wreck penetration, some serious cave penetrations and a diver that has had the unfortunate experience of dragging 3 bodies from the ocean can be summed up as follows:
I believe that the majority of experienced divers can/will be able to survive 90% of the dives that go as planned. In other words, most competent diver's probably will not die doing a 60' solo if nothing goes wrong, ( ie; no equipment failures, no entanglements, etc ), but I STRONGLY believe that all too many diver's underestimate the fact that not all dives go as planned. And the very fact of the matter is that most dives do. So what you have is guys that have survived countless dives wherein nothing has gone wrong so they therefore take the position that solo diving is safe. And it probably is right up until the second something goes wrong when you are complacent, you are 100' underwater and you have no one else around to help ( some have called this buddyless). I keep emphasizing that nothing goes wrong (ie; everything is ok right up until the shit hits the fan). That's when you realize that you just made a mistake that cost you your life..........
We have had 12 fatalities this year in So Cal alone. Some where solo, some where in buddy teams and other's have been defined as buddyless.. But the fact remains that there have been several diver's that would be alive today, that would be with there families and children today if they had chosen to dive with a buddy. What percentage, I don't know... But if it were your husband or father would you care if it were only 1%????????
Complacency Kills!!!!!!!!!!!
Hopefully this helps....
Later