Monday, November 30, 2009

Risk Assessment, A Call for Action

There seems to have been a handful of diving fatalities lately. I guess accidents are inevitable. There have always been a few diving accidents per year, however it seems in recent years the people involved has changed. It used to be most accidents in the technical diving/cave diving realm involved divers untrained for these "extreme" activities. Lately, it seems that more and more fatalities involve highly trained divers (i.e. divers who should know better) putting themselves at risk by violating basic procedures that have stood the test of time.

At the recent NACD conference, Steve Lewis (TDI/SDI HQ staff, Instructor Trainer, Technical Diving Instructor and all around man about town) presented his thoughts on risk assessment/management, cave training vs. wreck training, and related issues.

Here is a link to the text of his presentation. Please read it and please be careful when diving. Follow your training and don't cut corners. To paraphrase Larry Green, NACD Training Director, "Develop solid safety protoccols and have the discipline to follow them on every dive."

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