A hobby more dangerous than cavediving?

[Richard Atyeo]

Being a school buss driver you have 3 title 1 classes with your back to them

[DA Aquamaster]

I'd argue many hobbies are more dangerous than cave diving. Cave diving is not an extreme sport but rather a very carefully controlled risk sport.

It is controlled in two ways:

1) With careful planning, adequiate training, curreny and equipment there are just about no non-surviveable events that you will encounter, and if you encounter one the odds are extermely good you encountered it because you screwed up, probbaly more than once and/or you mis handled the event when it occurred. That leaves very little to fate.

2) You control the degree of risk on any given dive in terms of gas planning, penetration distance, selection of team mates, the dive site and the dive plan itself. If you get in over your head, it is almost certainly your own fault.

I think 1 and 2 taken together mean that the adrenaline junkies attracted to extreme sports will quickly become bored with cave diving and move on to something with more real risk involved - or alternatively unless they are very lucky, they will start taking chances that get themselves killed doing something stupid, imprudent or beyond their capabilities.

So...when you get to know it and understand it, cave diving comes off as a very middle age appropriate sport that rewards intelligence, planning and maturity and is not nearly as danfgerous as any of the ballistic/kinetic energy/fling your soft pink body through space kinds of sports.

[Polly]

When I was in in college one of the grad students in my department was a sky diving fiend, and the university told him he had to stop the "risky sport" because his brain belonged to the University. He went and did all this crazy research on the risk of certain sports and was able to tweak the statistics to show that fishing and golf were the more dangerous than skydiving. Turned it in as a completely cited and researched argument and was allowed to continue his hobby.

[mag3]

When I was in in college one of the grad students in my department was a sky diving fiend, and the university told him he had to stop the "risky sport" because his brain belonged to the University. He went and did all this crazy research on the risk of certain sports and was able to tweak the statistics to show that fishing and golf were the more dangerous than skydiving. Turned it in as a completely cited and researched argument and was allowed to continue his hobby.

The greater concern is that companies are now making things like this a condition of employment for similar reasons. Benefit plan cost and all that....

[FW]

Try Googling "most dangerous hobbies". Cavediving does make some of the lists, but the strangest was "dungeons and dragons".

[deepdiverbob]

disciplining kids. You could get locked away for years these days.

[Sludge]

the strangest was "dungeons and dragons."

The most dangerous thing about this would be the high risk of receiving wedgies the next day at school...

[ARY]

...
Driving to work.
Working on a crab boat in the Bearing Sea 123.4 in 100K.
Lawenforcment officers 14 in 100K.
Fire fighters 18.3 in 100K.
Military.
More I'm sure if I thought about it.

Those are jobs, are important and respected. Cave diving is a waste of courage for ego and meaningless risk. As I thought about it...

[packman]

Try Googling "most dangerous hobbies". Cavediving does make some of the lists, but the strangest was "dungeons and dragons".

must be because of all the wizards and dragons

[FW]

must be because of all the wizards and dragons

The article mentions a high suicide rate among players.