This has turned into a very interesting and important thread. This one ought to be flagged as important. I've thought about this quite a bit, nice to see others going along the same lines. My thoughts:
Sharky, you are right, but maybe barking up the wrong tree. Seems to me that the problem stems not from apnea's emphasis on time and depth, but on how easy it is for spearos to learn techniques that take them deeper and longer(and get in trouble) without doing the things necessary to safely use those techniques.
I'd been freediving for nearly 40 years, mostly 15-40 ft, 50 ft was very deep, and had only seen one BO; that was diving deep and the victim was doing completely stupid stuff. None of us was surprised to see him go out. We were watching him and no harm done. I did a ton of really stupid stuff, but had no technique and was divng shallow. Since 2004, I've taken a PFI course, learned a ton off the internet, dive much deeper and longer, do minimal stupid stuff, played safety diver on two BOs, one of which would, for sure, have resulted in a dead diver, and seen two other close calls, one in the pool and the others doing dives around 80 ft, also have two friends who BOed while spearing(thank you Lord, they are still with us).
The PFI course drilled safety, and my buddy is alive today because of it, but how many spearos take that course, get a lot deeper and longer and just give lip servicd to the needed safety? How many others just learn techniques off the internet and never really get the safety message? Its been very plain to me that the increase in technique knowledge, both inside and outside courses, is the major factor in the increasing number of BOs. Of couse, the emphasis on time and depth that goes with apnea is poisonous to spearos, but I suspect that lots of spearos don't need much encouragement.
What to do about it is the hard part. Afraid I'm clueless, but the bit about reel guns and BO is fascinating. Could be there are some fairly simple things that spearos could do to reduce the toll.
Sharky, you are right, but maybe barking up the wrong tree. Seems to me that the problem stems not from apnea's emphasis on time and depth, but on how easy it is for spearos to learn techniques that take them deeper and longer(and get in trouble) without doing the things necessary to safely use those techniques.
I'd been freediving for nearly 40 years, mostly 15-40 ft, 50 ft was very deep, and had only seen one BO; that was diving deep and the victim was doing completely stupid stuff. None of us was surprised to see him go out. We were watching him and no harm done. I did a ton of really stupid stuff, but had no technique and was divng shallow. Since 2004, I've taken a PFI course, learned a ton off the internet, dive much deeper and longer, do minimal stupid stuff, played safety diver on two BOs, one of which would, for sure, have resulted in a dead diver, and seen two other close calls, one in the pool and the others doing dives around 80 ft, also have two friends who BOed while spearing(thank you Lord, they are still with us).
The PFI course drilled safety, and my buddy is alive today because of it, but how many spearos take that course, get a lot deeper and longer and just give lip servicd to the needed safety? How many others just learn techniques off the internet and never really get the safety message? Its been very plain to me that the increase in technique knowledge, both inside and outside courses, is the major factor in the increasing number of BOs. Of couse, the emphasis on time and depth that goes with apnea is poisonous to spearos, but I suspect that lots of spearos don't need much encouragement.
What to do about it is the hard part. Afraid I'm clueless, but the bit about reel guns and BO is fascinating. Could be there are some fairly simple things that spearos could do to reduce the toll.
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