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FALL 2014
E
stablishing a culture of dive
safety is central to the mission
of Divers Alert Network. Such
a culture requires collective
effort, and DAN intends to
promote a discussion with the recreational
diving community at large to advance safety
and improve the diving experience.
The mantra of individual responsibility
seems to ignore the very real social context
of diving, a sport that is rarely practiced alone. In addition
to one’s fellow divers, a dive incident may involve training
agencies, dive operators, dive resorts, travel agencies, dive
shops, medical and scientific organizations, equipment
manufacturers and/or the media. Most incidents are
attributed to human error, and calls to raise individual
awareness are the remedies most often suggested by
those concerned with safety.
While individual errors are a perennial issue in dive
safety, it is also important to consider the role of social
context in diving accidents and to promote appropriate
social interventions, which may be more effective than
interventions focusing exclusively on individual divers. To
promote dive safety, we need to review the current safety
culture (or lack thereof) in recreational diving as well as
the role of individual divers and other constituents of the
diving community.
We ask you to participate in this effort and provide
your view of what constitutes a culture of dive safety.
DAN will take this conversation to dive shows, meetings
and social media, but we intend to initiate the dialogue
in this column. To do so we invited three distinguished,
independent dive leaders to provide their insights.
What does “recreational diving culture” mean to you?
Jill Heinerth:
Sport diving is a community made up of
many different subcultures. These small groups of divers
are knitted together by their shops, clubs, charter operators
or perhaps agency affiliations. Some of these tribes are
known for their technical expertise, their great trips or safe
operations. Others are tagged for aggression, cockiness or
exclusivity. If you’ve been diving long enough, you’ll find
that people drift in and out, switch sides and change their
behaviors. Sometimes change is brought on by the wisdom
of experience, sometimes through the example of great
leadership and other times influenced by the shocking
impact of witnessing an incident or tragedy.
John Lippmann:
The diving culture can create unlikely
friendships between individuals who lead totally different
lives and would otherwise have little opportunity or
interest in interacting. Such friendships can become strong
through the trust and varying levels of reliance that can
develop between dive buddies. However, as with many of
such groups, cliques can develop. These are sometimes
necessary for group focus, but they can also be divisive.
Alessandro Marroni:
I strongly believe recreational
diving culture means awareness, education, common
sense and respect for the underwater realm as well as
for the fellow divers. Unfortunately, achieving these
ends requires characteristics that are ingrained in divers
through their cultures and experiences on the one hand
and on the other hand acquired through study, attention,
and the learned ability to evaluate and prevent risk. The
first thing to be aware of is that diving takes place in the
water, in which we humans would not survive unless we
adopted special measures and acted not only with passion
and curiosity but also with competence and prudence.
What are characteristics of a safety-aware diver?
Marroni:
Safe divers have the same passion to
understand the safety limitations of diving as they do for
underwater photography, fish-watching or the simple
RESEARCH, EDUCATION & MEDICINE
//
E X P E R T O P I N I O N S
A Culture of
Dive Safety
B Y P E T A R D E N O B L E
RICK MELVIN
