Monday, January 22, 2007
"Optional" Gear
Earlier this month, four scuba divers disappeared during a day of diving in the Red Sea. Though an extensive search was conducted, they were never found. As I read the account of this tragedy, a key line in the article jumped out at me: "The divers did not have lights or whistles that would have helped rescuers find them."
To me, this sounded almost as strange as if it had read "The divers did not have masks or fins." Many divers, however, consider such things as lights, whistles and safety sausages optional equipment. Some may know they need such items, but procrastinate buying them. Others fall complacent, thinking "It'll never happen to me." Still others simply don’t know any better.
The fact is, every time you jump off a boat and descend, there's a chance that the boat won’t be there when you surface. If you dive with reputable operators in good weather, sure, it'll likely never happen to you. But, as divers, we should believe more strongly than the average person in the adage "Anything can happen." What would you do if you surfaced after your dive to find yourself alone with your buddy, no boat (or land) in sight? How would you increase your chances of being found? That's right, by inflating a safety sausage, blowing a whistle, or (at night) turning on your strobe or other light.
Living where we do, many of us spend the majority of our bottom time in Dutch Springs or other lakes and quarries that could be considered "confined water" diving. This, again, might lead some to think of whistles and sausages as "optional." It's not like you’ll surface alone, far from land. Yet such safety gear still has a role, even a potentially life-saving one. If you surface distressed or too winded to yell for help, a whistle might be the only way for you to get the attention of someone on the shore.
New divers don’t need much gear to make those first pool dives, but by the time they jump in the water for their first open water dive, they should have a whistle clipped to their BCD if the instructor is doing his or her job. Certified divers who don't own inexpensive yet potentially critical safety equipment like whistles and safety sausages have no excuse -- and will have no one but themselves to blame if they experience the same plight as those Red Sea divers.
[Read a discussion of safety sausages on the Oceanblue Divers message board.]
To me, this sounded almost as strange as if it had read "The divers did not have masks or fins." Many divers, however, consider such things as lights, whistles and safety sausages optional equipment. Some may know they need such items, but procrastinate buying them. Others fall complacent, thinking "It'll never happen to me." Still others simply don’t know any better.
The fact is, every time you jump off a boat and descend, there's a chance that the boat won’t be there when you surface. If you dive with reputable operators in good weather, sure, it'll likely never happen to you. But, as divers, we should believe more strongly than the average person in the adage "Anything can happen." What would you do if you surfaced after your dive to find yourself alone with your buddy, no boat (or land) in sight? How would you increase your chances of being found? That's right, by inflating a safety sausage, blowing a whistle, or (at night) turning on your strobe or other light.
Living where we do, many of us spend the majority of our bottom time in Dutch Springs or other lakes and quarries that could be considered "confined water" diving. This, again, might lead some to think of whistles and sausages as "optional." It's not like you’ll surface alone, far from land. Yet such safety gear still has a role, even a potentially life-saving one. If you surface distressed or too winded to yell for help, a whistle might be the only way for you to get the attention of someone on the shore.
New divers don’t need much gear to make those first pool dives, but by the time they jump in the water for their first open water dive, they should have a whistle clipped to their BCD if the instructor is doing his or her job. Certified divers who don't own inexpensive yet potentially critical safety equipment like whistles and safety sausages have no excuse -- and will have no one but themselves to blame if they experience the same plight as those Red Sea divers.
[Read a discussion of safety sausages on the Oceanblue Divers message board.]
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