Posted by MHK on March 14, 2001 at 14:08:30:
I was watching CNN last night and they had Morton Downey Jr.'s family on last night and then were showing clips of his old talk show and it occured to me that in many respects he represents much of what we are debating ad nauesem on this list.
Morton Downey a.k.a. Morth the Mouth was one of the original trash talk show host and he was well known for his blowing cigarette smoke in people's face and his I'm going to smoke no matter what the consequences, no matter what people say, no matter the health risks...He died two days ago after a long battle with lung cancer and he spent his remaining years as a spokeperson for the American Lung Assoc. and said that in restrospect his position[s] and his attitudes were all wrong and the he regretted his actions which ultimatley cost him his life..
On a similiar note, we have a bunch of outspoken solo activists on this list and it seems to me that every time we have a solo fatality these guys go into hiding and then when the furor dies down they come back out, distort the facts and misdirect the issue and claim that I speak on behalf of the dead, when it should seem self-evident that if a person died solo and had an opportunity to get one more chance would they do the same thing??? It's a rhetorical question but the zealots would have you believe that they would still do it the same way..
Sadly, we had many opportunities in the last 12 months to reflect on these issues but the usual suspects trot out the same tired speeches when it suits their need, but the silence is defeaning when a tragedy occurs. That old saying that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure is very applicable..
In my view this new solo diving class is nothing more than a market share money grab and if you need to go to a class to solo than you shouldn't be thinking about it in the first place, let alone doing it...
This is one of the few sports that I am aware of that participants do not, or refuse to, benefit from the mistakes of others..
If you read the Last Dive it was written by Bernie Chowdury and he was one of the original east coast deep air cowboys, he nearly got himself killed, but those after him refused to learn from his mistakes, then the father and son team ( doing the same thing Bernie did) got themselves into a mess and the son managed to survive the transport to the chamber and live for a few hours, while in the chamber he tells the technician that * he was CRAZY to do that dive on air* and then dies a few hours later. But yet deep air is still rampant, particularly within the crowd that Bernie and the Rouses run in. One of there own in his dying words tells them it's crazy but yet it continues. When someone dies solo they obviously don't have the luxury of leaving final words but yet many ignore the facts and go about the same course of action and then even further add fuel to the fire by suggesting that it is safer to solo, or it's a honed skill that they do all the time and shouldn't be mirrored or any other of the various excuses they come up with...
Diving is a fun and enjoyable sport if approached with a common sense attitude, a healthy respect for the potential dangers and a prudent determination to understand how quickly things can go wrong and how little time is available to determine or solve a problem should one happen. Most dives go off absent a hitch and thus the limited accidents. That's the good news. But just because you usually don't get a flat tire on your daily commute does that mean you don't keep a spare tire just in case???
Just food for thought..
Later