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RESEARCH, EDUCATION & MEDICINE
SAFETY 101
60
|
FALL 2016
Experience and Risk
By Karl Shreeves
A
lthough it is clear that diving
experience reduces divers’ risk of
injury,
experience
is an imprecise
term that conjures different ideas in
different people at different times.
In contemplating how experience
reduces risk, we need to consider the following:
•
Training provides experience.
•
Practice provides experience.
•
Diving provides experience.
•
Not all experience is helpful.
•
If some factors are present, experience can
increase
risk.
TRAINING PROVIDES EXPERIENCE.
As much as we like to say, “There’s no substitute for
experience,” there actually is a substitute: training.
And this is a good thing — you wouldn’t want to learn
through experience that you shouldn’t hold your breath
while scuba diving. Training lets us benefit from the
(sometimes painful or deadly) experience of others,
which is why it’s the first step in becoming and growing
as a diver. But we must be willing to learn from
others’ experience. As Douglas Adams (author of
The
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
) observed, “Human
beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to
learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable
for their apparent disinclination to do so.”
PRACTICE PROVIDES EXPERIENCE.
During training and (one hopes) outside of training,
divers practice skills including emergency procedures.
This practice gives us experience in controlled
circumstances in which we can mess up, learn from
our mistakes and try again until we succeed — without
actually getting hurt. Fortunately the brain does not
really differentiate between simulated circumstances
and reality. When faced with the real thing, people do
as they trained and practiced, and the more realistic
and varied the practice, the better the responses.
This outcome assumes that you actually train and
practice. Explorer, instructor and rebreather designer
Kevin Gurr once said, “Practice a skill on every dive.”
By that he meant an emergency skill. Following his
advice is easy and takes little time. Divers can also
Regularly practicing emergency skills
such as sharing air is a great way to
gain the kind of experience that can
prove helpful when problems occur.
STEPHEN FRINK