GUE, DIR and diving Safety

Written by Joel Svendson with a post copied from Jarod Jablonski

Part One

For what it’s worth, I look at it this way.Your average recreational scuba diver has a pretty good safety record, butdue to the large number of participants, there are quite a few accidents peryear. If you were thinking in terms of an accident _rate_, though, it wouldlook pretty good. The early years of technical diving had a terrible record….lots of accidentsdespite a small number of participants. In other words the accident _rate_was just horrendous. Electronic rebreathers remain in this category tothis day.I think that a properly trained, GUE certified diver who is making a sincereeffort to do things correctly can probably able to reduce the risk on a Tech1 level dive to something similar to that of an average recreational diveron an average recreational dive. I think that a Tech 2 level dive takes ona great deal of additional and unavoidable risk. That is not to say that itis “unsafe” but it moves you closer to the “motorcycle” level of risk thanthe “car” level of risk if that makes sense to you.You can’t help but notice that many important tenets of DIR, particularly interms of gas selection, have greatly infiltrated the technical diving world.In other words, even the hard core stroke is diving vastly more safely thanhe was in the past. Yes, his team skills might be poor, and his equipmentconfiguration might be messy, but odds his 200ft dive is made on a Heliummix rather than air, for example. As a result, the safety record of even non-DIR technical diving has improvedenormously so long as you exclude the rebreather divers. We should alwaysstrive for maximum safety, and I would encourage everyone to go the DIRroute, but I would not think someone had a death wish if they choose theTDI/IANTD route to a Tri-mix certification.

Part Two

I don't believe there has (so far) been a fatal accident involving a GUEcertified diver. The story below, however, is probably still worth a read.Like Jan says, the card alone will not protect you—you have to make a sincere effort to follow the rules laid out in your course. In this case,the prohibition on solo diving was violated by a highly skilled andexperienced diver on what should have been a routine dive:

From Jarrod Jablonski regarding the death of Steve Berman:

I have gotten a rather consistent string of mails soliciting my opinion andbeen forwarded several mails from those with odd motivations. I was in nohurry to debate this issue for two primary reasons. First, Steve was a friend and a great person and secondly his tragic death seemed all toofamiliar. I preferred working through the personal issue of his passing to asemantics debate that I knew would be beat upon by other agendas. I expect, understand and appreciate desires to discuss this fatality. That is howpeople learn. I just decided to let others discuss this particular issue.Simply put I felt that I had little to add to what seemed pretty obvious and I prefer to mourn in private. As tragic as Steve's death remains the cause is relatively obvious. Steveran out of gas as a result of any or several essentially irrelevant issues.He may have been distracted by the survey, by a new tunnel, by his focus to finish a map he had been working on for 15 years or any of several otherissues. Alternatively he may have been delayed by a silt out, temporarilygetting turned around, a line break . . . One may argue the details of such a delay ad infinitum but essentially the delay or error led to insufficientgas which led to his death. I am essentially certain that with a qualifieddive buddy none of these things would have mattered. Reaching within 100feet of one's stage bottle indicates that all but the worst of buddies could havemade the difference. My belief is that even without assistance the presenceof a second person to monitor time and gas would have prevented any air related issue in the first place. Solo diving adds another layer of risk that can be difficult to manage inmany situations. I am very familiar with managing risks and choosing whichrisks seem worth the reward. For me solo diving is not a risk worth the "reward". I think that Steve's extreme talent in the water and his manyyears of diving experience lend credence to thedifficulty in managing solo diving and point to the issue of untenable riskfor most individuals. The issues seem so clear as to make debate largelyrhetorical. I have no real interest in such a debate but am happy to letothers engage in what they find interesting or educational. Steve had nothing to do with the WKPP or with GUE. This is not spiteful, mean, or elusive. It is simply the case. I am lost as to why people findthis such an interesting point. He had a liberal interpretation thatseparated him from our efforts and convictions. I always disagreed with him on this point but recognized and respected his right to make these choicesas I do for all of you. To me this point and those that try to argue we aresomehow hypocritical is spiteful, meaningless and barely worth these few words.We all make mistakes. Unfortunately a very good person made a mistake thatwas monumental with respect to his life, his friends, and the family he leftbehind. I will never forget him for the person that he was and I will always regret this loss. If anything this shores up my beliefs and convictions.There is little I would not do to erase the loss of such a good soul. As for my personal feeling for Steve as a human being I have attached the piece that I read at his funeral.Feel free to forward this mail anywhere confusion about this issue exists.
Sincerely,

JJ

Remembrance of Steve

Steve Berman was one of the very first people that I met when coming to college here in 1987. Over the years our relationship varied fromcommiserating students and neighbors to dive buddies and friends. For fiveyears I lived only 50? from Steve and for many reasons this period will be remembered as one of the most enjoyable of my life. I owe Steve for some ofthe joy, perspective, passion, and fun that has forever become part of myperson. There were many aspects to Steve that were special but one of the most remarkable things was his ability to see what was important to people and toconnect with them on this level. Literally hundreds of people around theworld felt this powerful relation. This was just Steve?s nature and part of an innate kindness that was inseparable from him.Over the years both as neighbors and from a distance I watched Steve feeddozens of stray animals and repair hundreds of various items for anextremely diverse group of people. I watched him take hundreds of new divers on some of their first real cave dives, myself included. I watched himregularly and consistently sacrifice his personal time to help others and tobring a little more joy into their lives.And then there was the prankster in Steve, the joyful child hidden not so carefully beneath the surface. I have hundreds of funny stories that I havetold frequently over the years. It is amazing to me how many of theseinvolve Steve. From the shooting of pesky home appliances to the array of pranks and jokes that were so natural to him I have many remembrances of hisparticular wit.I had so many memorable times with Steve that trying to discuss one seemsalmost empty but I will leave you with one of the more memorable. One day a gentleman that had rented a canoe for a trip on the river was rather late inreturning. I remember him as a somewhat gruff military man with a quite wifeand family. Prior to their departure we mentioned that they should be sure to travel upstream against the current and then enjoy the easier trip backto the launching. Just as we were closing the store I noticed some commotion out front. Wewent to investigate. The man was out front with his family and the police. He came over to me and started yelling about how irresponsible it was not tohave informed him that THIS river did NOT travel in a circle. He was afterall, as he informed me, a navigator in Desert Storm. He could tell this river should travel in a circle. He was insistent that the police do something. After some discussion withthe police, a local officer came over and asked what we should do with thislunatic. Steve replied, "Lets give him an apology and a t-shirt." I have never seen such an unreasonable person be so easily pleased. That was one of the many things that Steve brought to this world. He wasintroverted and quite but playful and kind. He touched so many people around the world that I continue to get deeply saddened e-mails from peopleeverywhere trying to cope with his absence.After such a tragic loss it is common for people to gather together and lookfor meaning. Many people will take this time to reevaluate their lives and their diving and I hope this will be a positive experience. Some of you maystop diving, others will alter their diving, and many others will try toenjoy each moment of life with even greater attention to its small pleasures. On several occasions I have been forced to think very hard about theseissues due to the diving deaths of very good friends. However, I realizedone very obvious thing. I knew these people, as I did Steve, BECAUSE of diving. In fact, most of the really good friends in my life, the people Icare for the most, were made while diving. Despite the pain of these eventsI cannot separate these things. Were I not diving I would never have even known Steve or many of the other close friends I now have. In truth, nearly all of you knew Steve because of diving. If he were here hewould ask why you were wasting so much time when you could be out diving or having fun. He would make some gruff and witty remark and go about hisbusiness. Steve would be very uncomfortable here. In fact, he likely would not haveeven shown up for such an event and at the very least he would have brought a book to distract him from the emotional stuff. I would say to you that to properly honor the person that you knew as Steveyou should tip your head skyward and say Godspeed to you my friend. I willmiss you dearly and do well by your memory but right now I am going diving.

Jarrod JablonskiPresident- Global Underwater Explorers CEO Halcyon Manufacturing/Extreme Exposure

GUE (http://www.gue.com/) is a non-profit educational, research, and exploratoryorganization with hundreds of dedicated members around the world. Halcyon manufacturing (www.halcyon.net) and Extreme Exposure(www.extreme-exposure.com) produce some of the scuba industry's most noveland robust diving equipment designed by many of diving's most active explorers.