I wanted to ask for your thoughts regarding the idea that Immediate Comfort (or whatever you might call it) has been prioritised over Long-Term Safety or best practice in diving, and especially in recreational diving.
I must admit, it's how I feel at the moment. I'm diving with a BSAC club and good bunch of guys. But I do feel frustrated by their approach to diving (I'm being as open as I possibly can) which is the result of agency regulations/perceptions towards recreational diving. I have (what I feel is) a wealth of contradictions relating to typical recreational books, or at the very least in some circumstances the information given by the recreational books seems exceptionally narrow.
Perhaps to give a few examples where I feel this is the case:
- drysuits must be used as primary buoyancy controllers over the BCD.
- perhaps the idea that some things must be upsized when cold water diving, e.g., a wreck reel for shooting an SMB, over a spool.
- something specifically for BSAC, the recommended regulator configuration (i.e. inverted alternative and pony), in conjunction with a regulation against teaching hog to ocean divers (not sure for courses above this).
- the idea that one must start in a jacket BCD, before moving over to a wing + harness.
- tank labelling, with massive green and yellow nitrox stickers, or Trimix, etc. I.e. we still don't know what's in our tank until it is analysed, and then it must be labelled ourselves.
With some of these ideas, practise is substituted for an equipment purchase (big chunky reel vs. spool) or easy technique with drawbacks (using drysuit to control buoyancy), and others relate to attitude or approach (knowing what is in your tank + labelling it yourself), the idea that equipment progresses so greatly as we extend our diving, or that a wing + harness is for some reason unsuitable for beginner divers.
I think I understand why some of these ideas exist, to reduce task loading for students. But I don't feel it's a valid reason because it ignores what is currently the safest and most efficient approach to diving; which is also not exceptionally difficult, especially when everything will be new for a beginner diver anyway. It focuses on getting people in the water with a certification as fast as possible, and then they are stuck with certain views or have certain engrained perceptions that the way they were initially taught must be the best way of doing things in the long-run.
So, as mentioned above, does anyone feel that safety is being substituted for immediate comfort as the number one priority, or that safety simply isn't number one for any other reason? Does anyone know why? (I have my own ideas, but I want to see what sorts of responses I get).
I must admit, it's how I feel at the moment. I'm diving with a BSAC club and good bunch of guys. But I do feel frustrated by their approach to diving (I'm being as open as I possibly can) which is the result of agency regulations/perceptions towards recreational diving. I have (what I feel is) a wealth of contradictions relating to typical recreational books, or at the very least in some circumstances the information given by the recreational books seems exceptionally narrow.
Perhaps to give a few examples where I feel this is the case:
- drysuits must be used as primary buoyancy controllers over the BCD.
- perhaps the idea that some things must be upsized when cold water diving, e.g., a wreck reel for shooting an SMB, over a spool.
- something specifically for BSAC, the recommended regulator configuration (i.e. inverted alternative and pony), in conjunction with a regulation against teaching hog to ocean divers (not sure for courses above this).
- the idea that one must start in a jacket BCD, before moving over to a wing + harness.
- tank labelling, with massive green and yellow nitrox stickers, or Trimix, etc. I.e. we still don't know what's in our tank until it is analysed, and then it must be labelled ourselves.
With some of these ideas, practise is substituted for an equipment purchase (big chunky reel vs. spool) or easy technique with drawbacks (using drysuit to control buoyancy), and others relate to attitude or approach (knowing what is in your tank + labelling it yourself), the idea that equipment progresses so greatly as we extend our diving, or that a wing + harness is for some reason unsuitable for beginner divers.
I think I understand why some of these ideas exist, to reduce task loading for students. But I don't feel it's a valid reason because it ignores what is currently the safest and most efficient approach to diving; which is also not exceptionally difficult, especially when everything will be new for a beginner diver anyway. It focuses on getting people in the water with a certification as fast as possible, and then they are stuck with certain views or have certain engrained perceptions that the way they were initially taught must be the best way of doing things in the long-run.
So, as mentioned above, does anyone feel that safety is being substituted for immediate comfort as the number one priority, or that safety simply isn't number one for any other reason? Does anyone know why? (I have my own ideas, but I want to see what sorts of responses I get).