Observations from an ultra newbie

[Gary73 8]

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I am a very experienced scuba diver and that point is well known in scuba circles. ...

Yes, but keep in mind that the dive-to-fly times are based on airliner cabins, which are pressurized to the equivalent of a maximum of 8,000 feet above sea level. We routinely go above 14,000 feet at turbine dropzones. I don't have much dive experience (and none lately), but I've never seen dive tables that took this into account. You might want to add 24 hours to anything the table or computer tells you. I've heard of jumpers getting DCS 72 hours after a by-the-book dive.

Oh yeah - blah, blah, welcome to skydiving, blah, blah.

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan

[erdnarob 1]

Well, it depends. Skuba diving is an activity you can do alone (not recommended) and without any supervision. On the other hand skydiving has to be done at restricted places like DZs under the view and supervision of everybody and the DZO. Try to have repeatedly an unsafe behavior on a DZ and you will see what happens. In that sense, skydiving is maybe safer than skuba diving. Also, when you skydive, the danger is quite obvious while in skuba diving the danger is not seen but is permanent. In skydiving after your parachute is open, normally you are safe if you know what your are doing. Actually the potential danger in skydiving is normally lasting for 3 seconds ie. at opening. Skuba diving gives you the impression of relaxation but when being under water, you have more potential physiological problem while the air for a skydiver is a known and friendly environment.
Now do you have a idea about how many lifes are lost every year in USA in skuba diving ? Quite a lot.
The common things between skuba and skydiving are that both use very special equipment. In both cases you have to know your equipement and the appropriate technique to use it efficiently. Same for flying airplanes. I call them TECHNICAL SPORTS.

Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

[crustySCSA69 0]

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........
The DZ makes the big money on tandems, decent money on students, and very little money on up jumpers. ......

WARNING tangental threadkilling troll ahead...

so good to see that old chestnut, still alive after 35 years ...

[kelpdiver 2]

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Now do you have a idea about how many lifes are lost every year in USA in skuba diving ?

Roughly 3 times as many skydiving, against perhaps 6x the number of dives.

[erdnarob 1]

That's about the figure I had in mind, say a number between 90 and 120 fatalities in skuba diving. On the other hand in skydiving there is very few fatalities among students as statisics show it.

Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

[JohnMitchell 14]

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That's about the figure I had in mind, say a number between 90 and 120 fatalities in skuba diving. On the other hand in skydiving there is very few fatalities among students as statisics show it.

Half our fatalities used to be students. Widespread use of AAD's changed that.

How many scuba dives does an "active" sport diver make in a year? Most the people I know that say they scuba don't make more than a dozen or so. I've never done it, so I really don't know.

[kelpdiver 2]

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That's about the figure I had in mind, say a number between 90 and 120 fatalities in skuba diving. On the other hand in skydiving there is very few fatalities among students as statisics show it.

Half our fatalities used to be students. Widespread use of AAD's changed that.

How many scuba dives does an "active" sport diver make in a year? Most the people I know that say they scuba don't make more than a dozen or so. I've never done it, so I really don't know.

student fatalities are rare in diving as well. Heart attacks account for a considerable portion - the gearing up can be taxing, esp in places like CA with hot sun, cold water, and having one on or under the water is not good for emergency response.

Estimating dives is extremely difficult as a much greater portion are done offshore, and those numbers are more variable due to the economy. But a WAG suggests the overall risk/dive is half that of skydiving. Not as big a difference as it should. Note however that the rate of major injury like broken bones is substantially less.

[kmcdrop 0]

I'm an ultra-ultra newbie (4 statics) but I've looked into the stats in quite a bit of detail for skydiving. I believe there were roughly 132 fatalities in the past 6 years with approximately 19 million jumps. Of the 132 fatalities, I believe I only found 6 due to a double malfunction. The rest were mostly: hook turns, canopy collisions, cutaways with no reserve pull, a couple of suicides, etc. Looks to me like the equipment is extremely reliable (if in good condition and packed well) and once you have a canopy over your head (virtually every time from what I've gathered from the stats) you're going to be fine as long as you keep your eyes moving and stay away from any body else in your airspace. (It's probably like flying - most collisions occurring in the pattern.)

Kevin M. Curran