Yea. Specially with diving a lot ppl take the dangers too lightly.

Met a diver from NZ a few months ago, was shocked when he told me that this year, 9 divers died there That's like 2 per month.

wah in NZ?
I think in Malaysia also have just not all cases are reported in the media.

too many new gungho divers!

only new divers? TT
Rip.

There are no old gungho divers because they either died-ed or become smarter divers after KENA

+1. I do that too. I would volunteer that my weights were integrated and explain how to release them, and their eyes would widen like they just realized they didn't check my weights. Lol.

I always have buddies who think they're too 'cool' for buddy checks. Til they jump in and then notice their tank strap is loose. Then gave them the 'I told u so' smirk and from then onwards buddy checks were done.

Buddy checks are also very useful for the little stuff.. Like mask defogging, fastening crotch strap, and the notorious unsecured SPG

My news feeds usually report death in experienced and highly qualified divers though.. Especially in the West.

Yaya. Agree. I read a lot diver accident lesson for life. Accident happen mostly involve are experience divers.

My theory is being the experienced divers forgot the basics of safety.

not sure about the logic though. there are definitely far more inexperience divers than experienced divers, and inexperienced divers are usually more careless/unaware of situations compared to experienced divers. Therefore, logic will dictate that the number of accidents attributed to inexperience divers will far outweigh the experienced divers.

also, how to define experienced divers in the first place? AOW diver with 8 dives under his/her belt or OW diver with 50 dives? secondly, news are likely from west because of stricter regulations/awareness of safety, so any accidents are rare and often reported? we don't hear much news from this region because of the many 'sweatshops' DC churning out goldfish or seahorse divers? accidents that happens is usually reported only in local news and not international/regional news because it happens to often? unless there are death, usually no reports in newspaper.

again, my humble opinion

No idea, normally they a lot of dive in their logbook maybe?
I think most important is follow the rules. Safety first. Not to be curious to go over self limit.

i think thats quite applicable in any field or occasion

the logic to that is when you become good or experienced you would tend to take shorthands or shortcuts just to simplify the process. a simple example would be language,think for a moment,when you become fluent in a language you tend to forget the simple things like what is a verb or noun whilst still being able to speak fluently because by then most of the basics have become part of you meaning you will naturally/sub consciously do it without being aware as opposed to someone who is fresh meat which obviously doesnt want to make mistakes on the first attempt and therefore will pay attention to the nitty gritty things.

hopefully my explanation isnt to hard to grasp

wouldn't that mean that if you're trained properly, doing all the safe things should be in-grained in you without you thinking about it? like when a regulator is out from your mouth, you will continue to blow some bubbles? or you'll automatically check for air pressure once in a while during dives and not when the guide or DM ask you for it? or you'll automatically do safety stop even when others dont' bother?

well...it would be ingrained in you but experienced doesnt neccessarily denote that you are now infallible just because of said experience since people do get brain fart occasionally like....err...well...my next example would be i suppose math? you know like being able to do advanced math like a pro but when you sometimes try to do simple addition,multiplication you seem to mess up despite it being basic/simple?

This post has been edited by KiraTomaru: Jul 5 2016, 07:37 PM

haha, good point! then again, inexperience divers do it all the time, so they fail as well? that doesn't explain the news that more experienced divers are the ones that are getting into accidents, and not the inexperienced divers

I've observed that too. Number of incompetent divers getting certified and such. But the number of them who actually continue diving isn't that great i suppose.

I think death from diving is quite a big thing here. Dying from a recreational activity is something that shouldn't happen, provides awareness to public and hence is something worth reporting. But i do agree that near-misses are likely under-reported.

However, comparing relatively the number of deaths reported, shouldn't the number of accidents follow closely? I mean, you can't only excel in number of deaths without near-misses rite? It's a continuum from a simple mistake all the way to tragedy.

This is solely my personal opinion and i have no stats to back my observations up.

This! Hahah.

And wow so active today.

And yea I'm sure lots of cases covered up, especially in countries where rules and regulations are not so strictly enforced.

I think even when given proper training, some people would think they are very "pro" and forget these trainings.
and the thought of being "pro" leads to mistakes.

To me, an experienced diver is one who has been challenged in many different environments and situations. But even then, he would still be considered inexperienced when put in a new or unfamiliar environment/situation.

that's more of ego problem?

i think being experienced is that you understand the fundamentals of diving, and given any diving conditions, you are able to properly navigate the best/safest way around it? granted, in some situations, need split second decision making, and some might take the wrong decision, such in the case of the Finland cave divers who died in Norway. are they being careless? 'forget' training?

http://www.vg.no/spesial/2014/dodsdykket/index_eng.php