[Hobby]

Quite Lou yes.I was merely pointing out some of the history and also looking at some of the points people seem to get mixed up with,hence the "buddy diving" and "diving with a buddy"analogy.Accident statistics in the UK at least are far from realistic.The BSAC ones are by their very nature not very indicative of the true state of affairs.They rely on reports filed by DO's etc,who have incidents reported to them post dive.Most of less serious incidents do not get peported at all steps of the ladder,that's human nature.Other reports MAY come via the Police,EMS or in the worst cases the coroner.Many people such as hyperbaric centres compile data but in reality only the HSE has access to the overall picture that is nearest to the truth.It is not the actual HSE figures I based my comments on, but actually worked off the level of concern shall we say that has risen in the last few years in this area.When I was at Fort William a few years ago,there was talk of impending HSE involvement in rec.diving circles due to appaling incident rates the Govt.had.I can only say that the following involment that we see today supported this argument.There are others,Bren for one,Mark(Waterfairy) who are aware of how these incidents rates have come to my attention.It was made as a passing comment in my orig.post but yes it's an important point.All one can do is look at the picture generally,with a "change" or as some would argue a drop in standards over the last few years,there are many factors re.incident rates.It is however enough for another(not unworthy) v.long thread!Maybe we can do that one next eh?It does tie in well with the above and was part of the orig.lecture/presentation and would probably have gone some way to supporting it.Thanks for your time in reading it though Lou,that after all is what it's all about!Hope it was of interest.Hobby.