Do you consider scuba diving an "extreme sport"?

[AndrewR]

I've been diving for 20 months or something like that, and I see/read things occasionally which make me wonder about some non-divers' perspective on the sport. I don't consider it particularly dangerous as long as you're not doing cave diving or going inside wrecks or going to extreme depths (>130ft). I would be curious to find out how many people die at rock climbing/rappelling compared to scuba as I had a friend killed doing that (I've tried that also, guess I'm nuts).

I guess it depends on where you are, though. Here, where every third or fourth person dives (ok, maybe not that many), it's not a big deal, but I suppose that in Nebraska it's a little more rare.

 

[notfred]

I never thought of it as an "extremem sport", but then the typical definition of extreme sport seems to include going extremely fast and flying through the air doing flips and things. Scuba is too slow paced to be an extreme sport, the level of danger has little to do with it.

 

[ScrapSilicon]

Hiya Andrew ! .. still in Okinawa I presume..?

 

[jjones]

General recreational diving, no, since most of it is done at depths of 30 - 60 feet in open ocean. I know a group of cave divers and deep divers here though that definately qualify for the extreme sports category. Every dive they do is a serious risk to their lives.

 

[dullard]

My optomitrist (who happens to be my mother-in-law's boss) used to go scuba diving all over the world. He and his wife did it for about 2 decades. 2 summers ago, they went diving with some friends (nothing deep, no caves, nothing out of the ordinary). They started to go up to the surface - all ascending together. Right near the surface (a few feet away) he turned from his wife to get oriented with the boat. Everyone got into the boat, except his wife. They never saw her again. To this day no one knows what happened.

So yes it can be dangerous. I personally don't classify it as a sport, so thus it isn't an "extreme sport" to me. I wouldn't call rock climing a sport either. I'm not dissing you, but to me a sport requires more than just the dictionary discription.

 

[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.

 

[K1052]

No, as long as you are not trying to pry souvenirs off of a WWII ship loaded with live munitions, cave diving, or ignoring your dive tables.

 

[sillymofo]

Scuba diving is as extreme as golfing, you might get hit in the head with a golf ball, and die. Scary!

 

[Shockwave]

Originally posted by: K1052
No, as long as you are not trying to pry souvenirs off of a WWII ship loaded with live munitions, cave diving, or ignoring your dive tables.

Dive tables?! You mean those things arent just to make you look cool to non divers?!?! HOLY #%!@!! :Q

 

[ScrapSilicon]

live munitions can be found just about everywhere..

 

[K1052]

Originally posted by: ScrapSilicon
live munitions can be found just about everywhere..

True, but sitting in seawater for 50+ years can't help stability.

 

[K1052]

Originally posted by: Shockwave

Originally posted by: K1052
No, as long as you are not trying to pry souvenirs off of a WWII ship loaded with live munitions, cave diving, or ignoring your dive tables.

Dive tables?! You mean those things arent just to make you look cool to non divers?!?! HOLY #%!@!! :Q

That would be dive computers.

 

[Shockwave]

Originally posted by: K1052

Originally posted by: Shockwave

Originally posted by: K1052
No, as long as you are not trying to pry souvenirs off of a WWII ship loaded with live munitions, cave diving, or ignoring your dive tables.

Dive tables?! You mean those things arent just to make you look cool to non divers?!?! HOLY #%!@!! :Q

That would be dive computers.

Ahhh, the beepy beepy. Hey man, I just swim around till the beepy thing goes off. I can usually last a few more minutes, but then the damned beeping just annoys me too much and I have to head for shore/ship.

 

[vi edit]

Well, I think the idea behind classifiying it this way is that if something bad happens, you have a good chance of getting fscked up.

Accidents when you are 30+ feet under water usually aren't pleasant. Kind of the same concept as bungee jumping or parachuting - something goes wrong and you are pretty much toast.

 

[K1052]

Originally posted by: Shockwave

Originally posted by: K1052

Originally posted by: Shockwave

Originally posted by: K1052
No, as long as you are not trying to pry souvenirs off of a WWII ship loaded with live munitions, cave diving, or ignoring your dive tables.

Dive tables?! You mean those things arent just to make you look cool to non divers?!?! HOLY #%!@!! :Q

That would be dive computers.

Ahhh, the beepy beepy. Hey man, I just swim around till the beepy thing goes off. I can usually last a few more minutes, but then the damned beeping just annoys me too much and I have to head for shore/ship.

So when the pressure gauge reads 10 Psi, thats bad right?

 

[Shockwave]

Originally posted by: vi_edit
Well, I think the idea behind classifiying it this way is that if something bad happens, you have a good chance of getting fscked up.

Accidents when you are 30+ feet under water usually aren't pleasant. Kind of the same concept as bungee jumping or parachuting - something goes wrong and you are pretty much toast.

Sounds like my sex swing... err.... Yeah, I agree with you!

 

[Red Dawn]

Diving in the Great White Shark infested area of the Farllon Islands would definately be extreme!

 

[jjones]

Originally posted by: dullard
So yes it can be dangerous. I personally don't classify it as a sport, so thus it isn't an "extreme sport" to me. I wouldn't call rock climing a sport either. I'm not dissing you, but to me a sport requires more than just the dictionary discription.

So I guess those guys shooting hoops in their yard aren't playing a sport either.

 

[Shockwave]

Originally posted by: Red Dawn
Diving in the Great White Shark infested area of the Farllon Islands would definately be extreme!

I think you normally dive in a steel box when you dive there.

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: jjones
So I guess those guys shooting hoops in their yard aren't playing a sport either.

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

Minature golf may be a competition but it isn't intensely physical and to me isn't a sport. Simply scuba diving may be physical but it isn't a competition and to me isn't a sport. I suppose you could somehow make scuba diving a competition, but that probably isn't covered by the tame diving topic in this thread ("long as you're not doing cave diving or going inside wrecks or going to extreme depths...").

Yes the dictionary defines minature golf as a sport, I just disagree.

 

[jjones]

Originally posted by: dullard

Originally posted by: jjones
So I guess those guys shooting hoops in their yard aren't playing a sport either.

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

Minature golf may be a competition but it isn't intensely physical and to me isn't a sport. Simply scuba diving may be physical but it isn't a competition and to me isn't a sport. I suppose you could somehow make scuba diving a competition, but that probably isn't covered by the tame diving topic in this thread ("long as you're not doing cave diving or going inside wrecks or going to extreme depths...").

Yes the dictionary defines minature golf as a sport, I just disagree.

Playing hoops in the yard in an easy pickup game is not typically intense, but you cannot very much argue that they are not playing a sport.

When you say simply diving isn't a sport, I could just as well say simply shooting hoops in a pickup game isn't a sport. You seem to be familiar with the typical recreational diver. If you knew any real divers, you'd understand that it is a sport. If you tell some of the guys I know that what they are doing is not a sport, one, they wouldn't give a sh!t what you thought; two, they laugh and tell you to try doing what they're doing and then get back to them.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

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.

 

[Atomicus]

How do you compete by going scuba diving? Thus its not a sport unless you add another element, maybe a scavenger hunt, but please stop calling it a sport. Its as redundant as calling vegan meatless meatballs MEATBALLS.

 

[Shockwave]

Originally posted by: Atomicus
How do you compete by going scuba diving? Thus its not a sport unless you add another element, maybe a scavenger hunt, but please stop calling it a sport. Its as redundant as calling vegan meatless meatballs MEATBALLS.

You can see whgo can dive the deepest.
You can see who can hold their breath the longest (This works best if you actually drop your scuba tank and your in open water.)
You can play "Pin the tail on the Moray"
You can play "Wear shiny jewelry and see who doesnt get bit"

Theres all kinds of fun stuff to do!

 

[jjones]

Originally posted by: Atomicus
How do you compete by going scuba diving? Thus its not a sport unless you add another element, maybe a scavenger hunt, but please stop calling it a sport. Its as redundant as calling vegan meatless meatballs MEATBALLS.

There is plenty of competition in diving; you just don't know any real divers. You guys seem to be confusing organized sports with sports in general. There are goals in diving both against other divers and against yourself. No one puts them up on a scoreboard, but they are there all the same. The same goes for rock-climbing. If you don't think rock-climbing is a sport, then you don't know any real rock-climbers. You only know people who do it for a recreational pastime and it doesn't appear to you as a sport; the same could be said of people who shoot hoops in the yard for fun.