<story><title>The Blue Hole in the Red Sea is the deadliest dive site in the world</title><url>https://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/the-blue-hole-in-the-red-sea-is-the-deadliest-dive-site-in-the-world-a-844099.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ArtWomb</author><text>Am certain if you ask 100 beginner divers, 99 will have their own brush with death adventures!&lt;p&gt;Mine came in the form of a six foot barracuda getting a bit too close for comfort. I am sure if I hadn&amp;#x27;t played it cool. Had somehow attacked or acted aggressively to shush it away (when I was a guest in it&amp;#x27;s deep sea domain). It would have enjoyed a nice lunch of fresh human flesh.&lt;p&gt;The second was going below the hard deck at 300 feet whilst diving the continental shelf in the Caribbean. It&amp;#x27;s stunning. Floating weightlessly over the void that drops suddenly over a mile in depth. Feeling the rush of frigid current rise from the abyss. And seeing mysterious shapes as light filters down into darkness. But I too ran low on air. And had to come up fast.&lt;p&gt;I haven&amp;#x27;t been diving in decades. And would require re-certification. But I&amp;#x27;ve always heard legendary tales of the Red Sea and Australia&amp;#x27;s Coral Reef. Definite bucket list items ;)&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;oceana.org&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;oceana.org&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>agent008t</author><text>Diving seems like one of the recreational activities where it is easy to end up doing something much riskier than you intended (another I&amp;#x27;d say is alpine hiking):&lt;p&gt;1. Being able to easily sign up for a dive at an all-inclusive resort makes it seem more &amp;#x27;fine&amp;#x27;, you get a false sense of security that you will be taken care of.&lt;p&gt;2. Dive shops tend to be fairly relaxed with checking if someone is properly qualified to go on a particular dive. They barely check your papers or equipment, if at all.&lt;p&gt;3. You often don&amp;#x27;t really know what exactly you are getting into until you are in the middle of it. And then it can be too late to bail. Is it safer to abandon a group and attempt to go back and potentially get lost, or go into an environment that looks more dangerous than you expected?&lt;p&gt;I am a PADI open water diver, but only dive a few times a year, so not too experienced. One time I signed up for a shipwreck dive at an all-inclusive resort. I am usually quite careful, and naively thought it would be fine - we just dive down, go around the wreck and come back up. I rented all equipment, and had to pay extra for a wetsuit - the &amp;#x27;default&amp;#x27; was to just go in my swimming trunks. Turned out, on the dive we ended up going inside the wreck through a very narrow passage under it, going through narrow dark corridors surrounded by rusted metal. Touch anything and you get scratched (which I did). Your cables or tank can easily get caught (which it briefly did for me - and since I was the last one in the group it was quite scary seeing the group getting away from me as I tried to catch up). The current around the wreck was quite strong.&lt;p&gt;Somehow the dive was planned such that there was very little allowance for extra air. I ended up using more air than I suppose was normal, and there would not have been enough to make a normal ascent. I ended up having to use the dive instructor&amp;#x27;s alt supply for some of the return swim and switch to my own for the safety stop, otherwise I would&amp;#x27;ve run out. It is one thing to practice it, and another to actually have to do it on what was supposed to be a relaxing &amp;#x27;touristy&amp;#x27; dive.&lt;p&gt;On another occasion, a dive instructor took me and my partner (who was on an introductory dive - she doesn&amp;#x27;t have a license) into a cave, which is also more dangerous than I would&amp;#x27;ve preferred.&lt;p&gt;These experiences - combined with the general experience of wasting the whole day on a rocky boat breathing diesel fumes for an hour or so of diving - make me reluctant to dive again, unless the sight is particularly picturesque.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rdl</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve done a few hundred dives (so, intermediate?  with some additional certifications for deep&amp;#x2F;nitrox&amp;#x2F;rescue&amp;#x2F;divemaster) and the biggest problems I&amp;#x27;ve had were 1) dropping a steel cylinder on my toe on a boat 2) getting sunburned on my scalp before I started wearing a hood even in warm water, due to an extended surface interval 3) dodgy food on a liveaboard.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t think most recreational divers push things close to the line at all.</text></comment>
<story><title>The Blue Hole in the Red Sea is the deadliest dive site in the world</title><url>https://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/the-blue-hole-in-the-red-sea-is-the-deadliest-dive-site-in-the-world-a-844099.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ArtWomb</author><text>Am certain if you ask 100 beginner divers, 99 will have their own brush with death adventures!&lt;p&gt;Mine came in the form of a six foot barracuda getting a bit too close for comfort. I am sure if I hadn&amp;#x27;t played it cool. Had somehow attacked or acted aggressively to shush it away (when I was a guest in it&amp;#x27;s deep sea domain). It would have enjoyed a nice lunch of fresh human flesh.&lt;p&gt;The second was going below the hard deck at 300 feet whilst diving the continental shelf in the Caribbean. It&amp;#x27;s stunning. Floating weightlessly over the void that drops suddenly over a mile in depth. Feeling the rush of frigid current rise from the abyss. And seeing mysterious shapes as light filters down into darkness. But I too ran low on air. And had to come up fast.&lt;p&gt;I haven&amp;#x27;t been diving in decades. And would require re-certification. But I&amp;#x27;ve always heard legendary tales of the Red Sea and Australia&amp;#x27;s Coral Reef. Definite bucket list items ;)&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;oceana.org&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;oceana.org&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>agent008t</author><text>Diving seems like one of the recreational activities where it is easy to end up doing something much riskier than you intended (another I&amp;#x27;d say is alpine hiking):&lt;p&gt;1. Being able to easily sign up for a dive at an all-inclusive resort makes it seem more &amp;#x27;fine&amp;#x27;, you get a false sense of security that you will be taken care of.&lt;p&gt;2. Dive shops tend to be fairly relaxed with checking if someone is properly qualified to go on a particular dive. They barely check your papers or equipment, if at all.&lt;p&gt;3. You often don&amp;#x27;t really know what exactly you are getting into until you are in the middle of it. And then it can be too late to bail. Is it safer to abandon a group and attempt to go back and potentially get lost, or go into an environment that looks more dangerous than you expected?&lt;p&gt;I am a PADI open water diver, but only dive a few times a year, so not too experienced. One time I signed up for a shipwreck dive at an all-inclusive resort. I am usually quite careful, and naively thought it would be fine - we just dive down, go around the wreck and come back up. I rented all equipment, and had to pay extra for a wetsuit - the &amp;#x27;default&amp;#x27; was to just go in my swimming trunks. Turned out, on the dive we ended up going inside the wreck through a very narrow passage under it, going through narrow dark corridors surrounded by rusted metal. Touch anything and you get scratched (which I did). Your cables or tank can easily get caught (which it briefly did for me - and since I was the last one in the group it was quite scary seeing the group getting away from me as I tried to catch up). The current around the wreck was quite strong.&lt;p&gt;Somehow the dive was planned such that there was very little allowance for extra air. I ended up using more air than I suppose was normal, and there would not have been enough to make a normal ascent. I ended up having to use the dive instructor&amp;#x27;s alt supply for some of the return swim and switch to my own for the safety stop, otherwise I would&amp;#x27;ve run out. It is one thing to practice it, and another to actually have to do it on what was supposed to be a relaxing &amp;#x27;touristy&amp;#x27; dive.&lt;p&gt;On another occasion, a dive instructor took me and my partner (who was on an introductory dive - she doesn&amp;#x27;t have a license) into a cave, which is also more dangerous than I would&amp;#x27;ve preferred.&lt;p&gt;These experiences - combined with the general experience of wasting the whole day on a rocky boat breathing diesel fumes for an hour or so of diving - make me reluctant to dive again, unless the sight is particularly picturesque.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>maratc</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m no marine biologist but you can be certain that humans are not a regular diet of barracudas.&lt;p&gt;Once, a 5-meter tiger shark came to me out of the blue and got too close, but as humans aren&amp;#x27;t a regular diet of tiger sharks either, it swam away.</text></comment>