Skydiving is risky but safe

[obelixtim 100]

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I would disagree with every scuba dive would end in a death...

A lot do though, its pretty difficult to breathe water. And any deep dive is pretty risky if you have a gear failure.

My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

[billvon 2,397]

>Scuba diving

If your gear fails completely in scuba diving, then you use your partner's or surface. SCUBA diving isn't a very good comparison, although cave or wreck diving might be - because complete equipment failure there _can_ result in death.

>ski jumping . . .

Haven't seen a lot of deaths in ski jumping even when everything goes wrong. (i.e. even the 'agony of defeat' guy lived.) They average about one death every 10 years.

>rock climbing......

Aid climbing I would agree with; in aid climbing you are indeed depending on your equipment 100%. Free climbing not so much.

[happythoughts 0]

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I would disagree with every scuba dive would end in a death...

A lot do though, its pretty difficult to breathe water. And any deep dive is pretty risky if you have a gear failure.

If you run out of air while skydiving, you can't go back
up and get more.

[obelixtim 100]

My point is there are prolly many similarities in fatalities whether skydiving or diving.

Gear failure exacerbated by any or all of the following.

Inexperience, stupidity, overconfidence, carelessness, lack of planning, failure to follow basic safety rules, lack of awareness, poor decision making, panic, poor maintenance, departure from accepted good practice, inappropriate equipment. .

Gear failure alone doesn't automatically mean death, but is usually part of the chain of events. Applies to many sports.

My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

[happythoughts 0]

That's my fav joke that I tell my scuba buddies.
Regardless of whether any other sport is safe/unsafe - comparisons don't matter. Skydiving isn't safe.

[Ron 7]

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And any deep dive is pretty risky if you have a gear failure.

Yes, but any skydive is like a deep scuba dive. Most of the reefs by me are 20-60 feet deep. That is a pretty easy reach for an OOA diver. In one of my classes we HAD to do an OOA from 40 feet and the biggest danger was lung overexpansion injury, not running out of air.

Now I also cave dive. That would be a much better comparison, but still on a cave dive I have at least one buddy that can assist me. The same cannot be said of skydiving.

As Bill said, not many ski jumpers die each year... I don't know enough about climbing, but I would venture that most do not consider it "safe" either

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

[billvon 2,397]

>Gear failure alone doesn't automatically mean death . . .

Complete gear failure does indeed automatically mean death in skydiving. If your harness fails, you will not survive the skydive. Period.