Do you consider scuba diving an "extreme sport"?

[K1052]

Originally posted by: DonVito
I just recently started diving, and as it happens one of the guys in my open-water class got disoriented and freaked out at about 45 feet. He ripped off his mask and took his air regulator out, and swam to the surface (although we tried to restore his air supply and keep him down). He surfaced and was unconscious and not breathing. Fortunately our instructor was able to resuscitate him, and we towed him back to shore.

I believe diving is, at least statistically, one of the more dangerous sports, including rock climbing. It doesn't have to be, but as I'm sure you know (you are much more experienced than I am), even dive masters die from time to time, frequently by taking unwise liberties with safety. Obviously the underwater environment is not fault-tolerant, so mental lapses that would be no big deal in other sports can be deadly. I enjoy diving and look forward to gaining more advanced skills and training, but empirically it is relatively hazardous.

My main hobby is cycling, and certainly cycling injuries are much more common than diving injuries; that said, I believe deaths are proportionally much rarer than they are in diving, per the amount of time spent doing each sport.

I also have seen someone freak out on a dive before. I was on my last dive for my Advanced Open Water certification, I opted to do my deep dive and drysuit dive at the same time (a wise choise in retrospect). We were diving in a lake that had some pretty bad alge bloom and was completely dark at 80 ft. The guy freaked out around 100 ft. and tried to ascend (far to quickly), luckily there were two instructors next to him that managed to hold him and calm him down enough to properly ascend. He was visibly shaken when the rest of us got on the boat.

I don't think diving is inherently any more dangerous then driving a car, most likely less so. There are a set of rules that you must obey to stay safe in either case. Failure to pay attention can cause you injury or death. At least with SCUBA it is just one person that suffers if a mistake is made.

 

[Shockwave]

Only time I've seen someone lose it was during the pool traiing portion. She took her mask off, put it back on and tried to clear the water. Freaked out and bolted for the surface. I figured she'd end up a statistic in the open water trials, but loa nd behold she made it through. Otherwise, havent really seen any cases of panic. Its all about mental fortitude I guess.

 

[Hoober]

The only time I saw somebody lose it was in about 80 geet of water over the contintental shelf off Grand Cayman. It's a straight drop down to about 2,000 feet. You get out over that shelf and there's nothing below you but water, it's a strange sensation.

Anyway, guy that was on our boat was swimming along looking straight ahead as we went over the shelf. He looked down, saw nothing but dark blue water and the shelf dropping straight down and lost it. I've never seen somebody actually shudder like he did, but his limbs wouldn't stop moving and kicking. He didn't rip off his mask or anything, but after about ten seconds or so of kicking he just bolted for the surface.

We weren't down real deep and hadn't been down long, so he didn't suffer anything like narcosis, but it was still nuts.

 

[Shockwave]

Originally posted by: Hoober
The only time I saw somebody lose it was in about 80 geet of water over the contintental shelf off Grand Cayman. It's a straight drop down to about 2,000 feet. You get out over that shelf and there's nothing below you but water, it's a strange sensation.

Anyway, guy that was on our boat was swimming along looking straight ahead as we went over the shelf. He looked down, saw nothing but dark blue water and the shelf dropping straight down and lost it. I've never seen somebody actually shudder like he did, but his limbs wouldn't stop moving and kicking. He didn't rip off his mask or anything, but after about ten seconds or so of kicking he just bolted for the surface.

We weren't down real deep and hadn't been down long, so he didn't suffer anything like narcosis, but it was still nuts.

That is a wierd feeling, I'll give you that. I dove off St Croix and they have the same thing, you can get to the end of the shelf and it just drops away into the abyss. We swam up to it following right along the ground, and you come up over a little rise and it just drops down gently and fades away. Its was the eeriest feeling to see..... Really makes one feel insignifigant to see that great blue expanse of emptiness.....

 

[acemcmac]

I have my really good flippers and goggles, and I can hold my breath pretty well IMHO. Been cave diving in 25 feet of water with no tank... but I've never been diving with a tank 🙁

Just not my kind of hobby I guess. I like boating a lot more.. I'm looking to buy a midsized Sea Ray Sundancer by the end of the year 🙂

not bad for still in college, huh?

 

[AndrewR]

Originally posted by: Shockwave
Diving is about as "extreme" as walking in the park IMO. Bad stuff can happen, but in all honesty I've never done ANYTHING as relaxing as diving.

I agree for the most part except that people who don't think it's a sport haven't been shore diving. Walking and then snorkeling through surf with that gear is strenuous no matter how you look at it. Since it's free except for $1 tank rentals, I almost always shore dive as opposed to paying for a boat. Boat dives almost seem like cheating (only done two).

That is a sport. To me, a sport is an intense physical competition.

You've never been rock climbing, have you? There are competitions for speed, much like running a course, though that's not the typical way most people climb. However, intense is the only way to describe the physical exertion.

...even dive masters die from time to time, frequently by taking unwise liberties with safety. Obviously the underwater environment is not fault-tolerant, so mental lapses that would be no big deal in other sports can be deadly. I enjoy diving and look forward to gaining more advanced skills and training, but empirically it is relatively hazardous.

That's typically the case though -- you only die if you're stupid except in EXTREMELY rare cases. Around here, there have been about five deaths from diving and/or snorkeling in the last two years, and ALL were caused by bad or completely stupid judgment. One Marine died while exploring a cave with his buddies though they never bothered to get cave certified and didn't have the proper equipment (wasn't a huge cave but still). Another two guys drowned when they went to a site that's not a regular one and went out into strong surf -- their friend who decided against going out survived the trip back to shore.

I wonder if anyone has ever done a study of diving accidents and determined the percentage of "no-fault" accidents as compared to the total number. I'd be interested to see how diving stacks up with that number.

 

[AndrewR]

Originally posted by: Shockwave

Originally posted by: Hoober
The only time I saw somebody lose it was in about 80 geet of water over the contintental shelf off Grand Cayman. It's a straight drop down to about 2,000 feet. You get out over that shelf and there's nothing below you but water, it's a strange sensation.

Anyway, guy that was on our boat was swimming along looking straight ahead as we went over the shelf. He looked down, saw nothing but dark blue water and the shelf dropping straight down and lost it. I've never seen somebody actually shudder like he did, but his limbs wouldn't stop moving and kicking. He didn't rip off his mask or anything, but after about ten seconds or so of kicking he just bolted for the surface.

We weren't down real deep and hadn't been down long, so he didn't suffer anything like narcosis, but it was still nuts.

That is a wierd feeling, I'll give you that. I dove off St Croix and they have the same thing, you can get to the end of the shelf and it just drops away into the abyss. We swam up to it following right along the ground, and you come up over a little rise and it just drops down gently and fades away. Its was the eeriest feeling to see..... Really makes one feel insignifigant to see that great blue expanse of emptiness.....

I had gone on two dozen dives before I did my first wall dive. It didn't go down to nothing, but going over that wall and seeing it fall away was impressive and a little daunting at first. However, when we started exploring, it was awesome to see the variety of fish, coral, plants, etc., that called the wall home. We ended up going near the bottom (got down to 110ft), and it looked like it hit sand about 130-140ft down.

Haven't seen anyone freak out -- hope I never do.

 

[Apathetic]

I consider cave, ice, and (some) wreck diving to be extreme sports because they are extremely dangerous. General diving isn't all that dangerous if you're careful and pay attention to your surroundings.

Dave