Don’t they get proper diving medicals done before diving over here? You are meant to be fully checked to be physically fit to dive after all. Quite am important point I needed to mention, being an advanced scuba diver myself.

I never had to have a medical done as part of my certification, just a medical questionnaire. That being said, physical fitness is obviously an important aspect of diving.

After this post there was an update on the man, Rick Musgrave http://www.outdoorvancouver.ca/2008/11/scuba-instructor-dies-at-whytecliff/

He had over 40 years of diving experience, and unfortunately went into cardiac arrest. As an instructor I can only assume he was fit, but these things can happen out of the blue sometimes, even with frequent medical exams.
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Well in my personal opinion that’s pretty disgusting not to have a medical examination as compulsory, with BSAC which is more world wide safety renowned than padi – who to tend to have more accidents than BSAC for starters, it is a requirement.

Anyone can tick a questionaire in comparison, not anyone can pass a medical examination to dive however and get it signed as being ‘physically fit and able to dive’

There is something that should be changed with Padi then, it is not all about gaining money after all. Bsac are safety focused, Padi I know are more money focused. In any case I won’t be converting, happy to dive with them all, but will always stick to my ‘better training’ and regulations. Heck! I am still alive and I’ve dived well over 50 dives, since 1988.

I am glad the other guy is aok, but it was pretty clear he was not trained enough to dive and not at the right standard to dive either. Mask clearing was all that was required, but clearly he panicked instead. He was lucky in this instance however and I am pleased to say, still alive.

As to the other guy who had a heart attack, that was sad and very unfortunate for sure, and likely his heart attack would have come about in any case. May he RIP. Condolences to his family.

I agree the mask-clearing thing was ridiculous, and luckily the guy was ok. Comprehensive training to handle all possible scenarios is a MUST.

Not sure I agree on having mandatory medical exams on a frequent basis. By the same token, should everyone have to pass a medical before getting behind the wheel to drive? Sky dive? Rock climb?

I also remember one person I met in my travels who was severely obese. He must have weighed 300+ pounds easily. I remember him telling me of the year he spent in Belize scuba diving everyday. Said diving was his favorite thing in the world because it was the only time he didn’t feel the constant burden of his weight. Now, being severely overweight greatly increases the likelihood of a lot of medical problems, including cardiac arrest. What a shame it would be for him to never be able to enjoy the thing he loves to do most because a doctor could say its unsafe for him medically. His life. His risk.
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While I respect your views. I see it the other way.

Yes I do believe medical exams every 3 yrs to be frequent enough and a satisfactory level to be checked as fit to dive by a qualified medical Doctor. In the UK alone you don’t have any doctor doing those either by the way, it is doctors trained to thoroughly check a client as fit to dive, lungs, heart etc etc.

When anothers life is in their hands or when it puts anothers life at risk too, as they all do, rock climbing, driving, and scuba diving as you are buddied up at least, then yes I do feel it should be essential an important element.

I have been in a car crash where some 70 yr old slammed her brakes on in the fast lane of a highway (motorway in the UK as we call it), and was fine when she got out but everyone behind her involved in the crash pile up was shaken up, all she could say was she was thinking of getting another car and asked if we were okay, and said something in front of her made her slam her brakes on. Well the car behind said that was a lie as there was nothing in front of her. So again, I rest my case on that one. It should obviously involve an eye examination.

I rock climb too, and again, I would not trust my life with someone I feel is not competent to climb with, and have turned down those I found to be incompetent/ not properly trained.

Sky diving yes again. Again you have to be fit to do that, my ex was a para in the army and sure they all had to be fit. I did a parachute course and again, fitness was important. You really think a very overweight person is going to be able to manage and cope safely via all the drills etc with either sky diving and a parachute course?

But sure, if any ‘cowboy’ as we called them in diving wants to take short cuts not be fit or trained enough to participate in a given sport wants to take that risk, that is their choice.. just do it alone then I say and not with someone else if it means putting their life at risk as well. Cowboy as in someone who is not safe to dive with, climb with, etc etc. They do exist as we know.

I also trust my instincts, they too keep me alive

I agree with all your points, I just don’t feel a mandatory, frequent, medical exam is necessary. Of course you must be physically capable and properly trained to undertake any of these exercises.

But you’re saying you would be glad to take frequent medical exams… 1 for rock climbing? 1 for driving a car? 1 for scuba diving? 1 for …..

I wouldn’t dive or climb with anyone I felt was incompetent either. And I’m not saying there aren’t medical conditions that should prevent people from certain activities (if you can’t see you shouldn’t be allowed to drive). And you need to be in good enough shape for the sport. You’re right, being overweight might not work for rock climbing or sky diving. But back my overweight diver buddy… He’s not ‘fit’ but can still enjoy diving.

I just think its overboard to force people to get tested to partake in a recreational activity that they engage upon in their own time with their own buddies. This isn’t the army, just people enjoying some scuba diving.

And I was never in the army either, the army is in isolation to the other better 2 forces anyway. They are not the same.

In any case, it is not about the army on diving.

It is about diving etc, and your views are yours, mine are mine, I stick with mine based on what I said already and know of others in agreement with me esp who trained the same way up to the high standards, and end of the day I won’t be diving with anyone I deem incompetent, unfit or not up to the required standard to climb with, dive with, or otherwise.

Each to their own.

TC

I’ve also known large unfit guys to go diving, but they stick to the rules, and they still had medical checks every 3 yrs to check they were ‘fit to dive’.

Fair enough, I still agree with it. Diving, rock climbing etc are a dangerous sport regardless of what anyone wants to portray it as.

I won’t be diving with anyone I deem unfit or incompetent or not up to required standards either. I think we’re mostly in agreement here

Anyways, thanks for the comments, its been nice chatting with you. How did you find my little “Vancouver” blog all the way in the UK?

Heh. It’s quite funny really, I googled my favourite beach I swim at to show my Mum back in the UK and that is when I saw the info on the diving accidents. At first I thought I was on a forum, and it soon dawned on me I was on ‘your blog’.

It’s been nice interacting with you too, maybe sometime after my baby is born we can go for a dive together, especially as we are in agreement on all that

I have lived here for over the past 2 yrs now, permanent resident since almost 2 yrs ago. Love the lifestyle over here but miss our history and solid old buildings in the UK (traditional ones). Oh and our country pubs of course
Still you can’t beat the lifestyle of the West coast over here..

BTW I just saw the pic on your blog of your son, he’s very cute. I am having a baby boy too due beginning of September, and I can’t wait. Boys are the best I am told, not that you would argue with that being a male yourself, I am sure.

Haha I only have the boy so I can’t make any comparisons to having a girl. I wish you all the best, that will be very exciting!

And if you want to go diving after just let me know. I don’t get to go often (my son is still a handful at 15 months) but would be glad to.

Cheers

Heh! I meant with you being a male yourself. I am so looking forward to mine being here for sure, my child.

As applies to you, that will be the same for me, I am having solely the one, a boy (only ever wanted one, my brother has 3 children), and I won’t be letting just anyone care for him without me only my closest friends x 2 couples off the top of my head I’d trust after he is a year old, and no one in the first year apart from me, so can’t say when exactly, but for sure it would be good to get some dives in with you at Wytecliffe – seems a pretty safe location for me.
Heck I was trained to dive in storms and in ‘real’ currents on the UK south Coast – not that I am seeking any of them out to dive in. But not afraid of currents, I like the workout I get from them. In any case, I know how to dive in a current, you let your gear take care of you and you go with the flow if needbe or resurface (safely), your buoyancy skills do come into play for sure.

I’ll save your site as a favourite and catch up with you when I am free and ready to contact you again for a dive; as long as you are free to dive too then of course.

I can and will hire the diving tank, and weights from the local dive shop near me here on the North shore, I’ve met them already. I have the rest of the gear. I sold my diving computer – suunto vytec due to not enough use recently, which was a damn good computer too – but with the aim of getting another one at a later date. But either way I still use the manual method too which was always wise as emergency back up in any case. Computers can break down after all. That is another good tip you would get from BSAC by the way.

I always liked the deeper dives more, the wreck dives rather than the reef dives. 36 meters max in any case. Usually 2 deep dives per day in that case, I like that nowadays you can spend longer underwater at decompression levels however, at 15, 9, 6 meters. And I also enjoyed my night dives, mainly when I’d go liveboard diving in the tropics. I dived the Thistlegorm wreck that was and has to be the best ever wreck dive I did, the WW2 cargo carrier in the Red Sea with the cargo still intact:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzkVLGi8dMc

My dive computer I’d so buy again:

http://www.suunto.com/suunto/main/product_short.jsp?CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673958541

Wow sounds like you’ve had a lot of different dives, far more than me.

That sounds great, just give me a shout down the road, and I hope you enjoy all your time with the little one!

Diving on the equator at Ascension Island (private to the public that one) was by far the best though, for sea life – totally everything you can imagine was there! manta rays, dolphins, turtles etc etc, we dived with them all and it was fantastic! Ground life (land crabs there) and the tropical clear blue seas and sea life – dived with hammer heads there. In the Red sea you get nurse sharks – harmless and smaller.

You didn’t float for long with hammer heads around, it was dive straight down once in the water, and out of the water as soon as you surfaced. The rats never told me on one dive until the dive debrief about all the sharks around us.. and laughed at my face when I asked, “what sharks?!” They said they knew I’d not have gone or got in if they told me beforehand.. yes, thanks. But it is true I would not have and I was fine. Great whites however, would have been another matter and I’d have not taken that so lightly, but then I doubt they’d have got in either if whites or tiger sharks were around. Thankfully we never got those in that area.

For sure you will be the first one I request a dive with sometime in the future.
“Thank you, and continue to enjoy your little one too”.
I am totally going to enjoy my time with my little one, am enjoying him now while pregnant with him too