Buddy Can You Spare $4.5 million?

A lot has changed since I took scuba certification training, and it wasn't that long ago.

Three things in particular.

• What is considered a basic level of certification is signficantly lower (this may be to just ratchet up certification fees, since many places require "advanced" certification to dive at their best sites).
• Many of the training practices -- such as piling equipment at the bottom of the pool and making students come back up with it properly outfitted -- just isn't done any more.
• "Buddy breathing" isn't taught at all as far as I know. (for you non-divers, this is a routine for sharing a single air supply mouthpiece). One divemaster said this was stopped due to AIDS fears. In any case, nearly everyone has a redundant mouthpiece that can be shared, so it seemed the lesser of two evils to stop teaching people how to buddy breathe.
  

One foundation principle remains intact for now: Dive Buddies. The principle is simple -- you don't dive alone and you always know where your buddy is (and how to use their equipment, etc.).

The details in this linked case below are almost wacky (it seems to imply one buddy was trying to kill another), but it certainly is a worrysome issue for divers. A diver's widow is suing the diver's buddy for wrongful death, $4.5 million.

Wanna be my dive buddy? Sign this waiver.


Link via Overlawyered.