Dive safety

When I took up scuba diving years ago, I guess I was fortunate that I picked it up with a group of senior and well experienced divers. It was also fortunate that they were a non-commercial, non-profit organisation. In fact, the Malayan Sub-Aqua Club (MSAC) is proud of their charter to train and actively promote diving safely. Safety was drummed into us constantly from day one. Skills training was not accelerated nor was there ever an option to fast track. Buddy diving was not simply partnering someone underwater, it was about being consciously aware of your buddy and mutually supporting as well as encouraging dive safety on the surface and underwater. I am grateful for this basic foundation as it ingrained itself as part of my subconscious diving skill over the years. Many divers these days are far too engrossed in their surroundings that they neglect to pay attention to their buddy.

Unfortunately a majority of the diving community seems to treat dive safety too lightly in my mind. It is very common for a new diver to be certified as an open-water certified diver as well as an advanced open-water diver within the same dive trip. Simply put, a new diver can be certified as an advanced open-water diver with barely 10 dives under their belt. This was discouraged within the dive community I started with. We were always encouraged to build up confidence and dive experience before moving up to the next level. Unfortunately this doesn’t seem to be the case in many other dive outfits and this results in divers not paying enough attention to dive safety.

The PADI Open Water course can be completed in three days. The notion that divers should be certified who are unwilling to make even that minimal commitment to learning to safely use underwater life support equipment is grossly irresponsible. - CDNN: Unsafe at any Depth: PADI Scuba Diver

Just this week, a group of divers from my organization returned from Sipadan. They weren’t exclaiming about the beauty of the corals or the many large and small sea-life found there. They saw all the wrong things there. They came across a dive gone horribly wrong. Fortunately, it was not part of their group. They did however discover a young diver that had apparently gotten lost from his group and had drowned. It’s always sad to hear of these dive accidents and you can’t help but wonder if it could have been prevented.

Accident reports provide evidence that undertrained and inexperienced divers who panic can suddenly become accident statistics at any depth despite the supervision of a dive professional. - CDNN: Unsafe at any Depth: PADI Scuba Diver

Now, I’m not pointing fingers nor am I accusing anyone, but I am stating the point that divers these days, take dive safety too lightly. I believe the main issue is with the collective peer pressure and rush to experience and see all these wondrous beauty that everyone seems to be hyping up. It’s your own life and safety, pay attention!

In fact, how many divers who eventually read this have an active DAN dive insurance?

Divers Alert Network (DAN)

• DAN South East Asia Pacific

To those of you who are thinking about getting into diving, if you do NOT
have enough time to learn to safely use underwater life support equipment,
FORGET ABOUT DIVING. - CDNN