Posted by randy54 on March 14, 2001 at 19:14:54:
In Reply to: Re: Getting a second chance...... posted by MHK on March 14, 2001 at 16:16:58:
Mike, what I read was both divers constantly baggered each other. Both divers admitted doing this dive on air was not safe. both divers said the dive conditions were marginal. both divers said they didn't feel well. both divers said that if the other would back out, so would he. As a matter of fact, Chris JR wanted to back out, but good old dad, one last time, chided his son into doing this dive. All of this happened in front of the other divers on the boat. Several people on this BBS have talked about some of the inherant dangers of the buddy system. What the Rouses did was classic of bad buddy diving. and it cost them, and many others. In reading the book, it seems that they were both great divers, but just bad for each other. I know you won't agree with this, and maybe several or all the solo diver advacates here won't either, but look at Mary Tenigers (sp) death. She went diving with 4 buddies. I read the reports. What was said was that they were diving togather. When they were low on air, and it was time to go, Mary broke with her buddies to finish what she was doing. Her buddies let her. If her buddies refused to let to do that, most likely she'd be alive. When she got back to the boat, her buddies gave her a tank, then let her go back down, alone, again. WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS BUDDY SYSTEM? I know you want to call her death a solo death. But she was alone ONLY because she and her buddies broke the system. If she was out diving alone, she wouldn't have had a spare tank to go back down with. Chances are, she would have watched her air and decompression levels closer, and never gotten into trouble to begin with. You used to dive solo. You know how much more attention to detail a diver pays when going alone. I'm sure you're a great diver. But remember, a lot of what makes you good, you learned as a solo diver. Things that taught you how to handle problems, and be self reliant. That training is important to you today. It makes you safer. You dive with a buddy, but what would happen if something happen to your buddy, and you cann't get him/her out by yourself? You go get help, alone. What gives you confidance to do that? Your past experience. The same experience you now say others shouldn't be able to get. Frankly, I want a buddy that has that ability. This goes back to my mountain rescue training. They too taught it was much safer and better to go out with at least one other person. But as they know that some people will always want to go out alone, and things can happen to a buddy, they taught the "what to do if" things. It is simply a matter of reality. And if in the real world, divers dive solo, isn't it much safer to teach them the skills to do it as safe as possible? You seem to have this black or white outlook. But life just isn't that simple. There's a reason for the saying "it takes all kinds". That's because life is full of all kinds of people. And thank god for that, otherwise life would be boring if we all did the same things the same way. keep up the good fight Mike. All of most of us are talking about is the safety, just from differant points of view. Hey, just a thought that went through my head, what if we classify solo diving as a form of technical diving? Just like deep diving, mixed gas, cave and other overhead diving shouldn't been done without specialized training, neither should solo.