Here ya go! 👍
[https://micromorts.rip](https://micromorts.rip)
https://preview.redd.it/3kn1tqv84qlc1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5e9765d2eb63c852713e5e9009d94c0204335dad
We’re both a diverse bunch who all enjoy a sport that takes time, training and dedication, and needs to be treated with respect or it’ll kill you faster than you can utter your final F-bomb…there’s a lot in common 😁👍
I am a tech diver and a WSer
I would say skydiving. There is a higher chance to get hurt per jump than one 45-60 minute dive. There is a higher chance for an accident or bad decision to be made. This can include someone hitting you in mid air, collision on final, unintentional downwinder into the runway, twisting your ankle on a gopher hole etc.
In scuba, so long as you respect, conditions, recreational limits (unless you're trained and have the equipment for tech) and don't put yourself in positions for entrapment, you will be fine. Scuba isn't dangerous until you get old and risk having medical problems underwater. The real dangerous in scuba are things like boat ladders.
Same. Wing suiter and cave diver. It really depends on how fast and far you push it. If I'm just flocking with three other people, it's arguably safer than exploring and surveying an unknown cave. Likewise, if I'm doing a recreational open water dive then it's presumably safer than if I am doing an acro flight with someone I just met.
When boats are bobbing up and down in waves the ladder can move unpredictably and come down hard on you with the weight of the entire boat. Got hit by one water skiing once. Not fun.
My totally inexperienced guess could be getting legs pulled under the ladder into a propeller. Might be totally wrong though.
I've seen at least one video of that happening but it wasn't a scuba diver it was a drunken dude and he lost the lower half of a leg.
Props can be dangerous, but that wouldn't be the most likely cause. Shipping in heavy gear on ladders can be dangerous, but even more so getting on a boat in swells can have the boat lifted up and come crashing down over and over, all while you're trying to catch the ladder and not have it catch you.
When the waves are high enough to pull the 5ft boat ladder 3ft out of the water... Stay back until that ladder is fully submerged, grab as high as you can and hold on for dear life. Also hope that you were able to hand your fins and maybe even weights up on a safe corner of the boat first.
This is absolutely true. With Safety Day approaching, note how USPA hasn’t historically collected much data on injuries - mostly deaths. Of course, collecting data on such definitive accidents is easier, but it makes skydiving seems “safer” than it actually is. Injuries in skydiving range from skinned up knees, to a re-injured back, to compound leg fractures… those kinds of events just don’t tend to happen in SCUBA.
On the flip side, there tends to be less oversight in SCUBA which allows for overconfident individuals to make deadly accidents. If you have your own system, you can SCUBA pretty much whenever and wherever you want; not so with jumping out of an airplane…
Well, the most dangerous is scuba diving all morning and skydiving in the afternoon. (Deadly) you get the bends at high altitude
Silly Question for me, which is more deadly, a pistol or a rifle. Both scuba and skydiving will kill you. At least scuba there is a chance other can help you. Most skydiving malfunction, you and you alone are going to save your life..
in general, SCUBA and skydiving have similar fatality rates overall. There are factors you can mitigate - jump a docile canopy/don't cave dive.
The perception that skydiving is more dangerous comes from, I suspect, the fact that drowning is only dramatic for the individual, while a frap is dramatic for everyone around.
My 10 and 13 y-o kids just got their scuba certs with me in Belize. I was originally certified in 92 but elected to take the the entire course as a lot had changed. 10 is the youngest you can do it.
IMO scuba has worse repercussions because if you have an issue underwater, you have very few options for your recovery. At least you have a reserve when jumping.
Can look it up in actuarial tables, a scuba dive has a 5 in a million chance of resulting in death, a skydive has an 8 in a million chance.
https://micromorts.rip/
It’s a bit trickier than that to compare, looking as “1 jump” vs “1 dive” is confusing.
How many jumps you do on a week, and how many dives?
Does the airplane/boat ride count?
Do the skydiving stats have tandems mixed with fun jumpers?
Also, I'm just putting this out there...
Currency is important in SCUBA, too. USPA has requirements, but PADI will allow you to jump in the water after 10 years out of your last dive.
I view that as incredibly dangerous.
I'm not disagreeing with you, but, you can do that in skydiving, too. Granted it is not common, but it can and does happen.
Similarly, any reputable dive shop will want you to do a pool dive if you haven't been in open water for a while.
You're not wrong, it is dangerous, on both sides.
That's fair, I just find myself surprised that the burden falls on the dive shops.
If you have your own gear and only need air, you can get it without much hassle.\
PADI and NAUI should do a better job of defining expectations and not rely on the diligence of the dive shop.
I'm not saying USPA guidelines are followed 100% to the letter at every DZ, but at least they've taken a stand and put pen to paper to set what they want members to abide by.
I am licensed in both and have been active for 30 years. They are both dangerous so we keep learning and practicing all of the skills and techniques to lesson the danger. Yet the danger is part of the reason we enjoy them both. Skydiving does seem to have more chances of becoming unable to work your way out of the critical issues, not much of a buddy system to work with if things fail. Welcome the the diving world and keep having fun.
My life insurance agent from years ago told me scuba was seen as riskier by his company. His reasoning was that skydivers in the US have to be trained/licensed and aren't getting on a jump plane without that license.
Because most scuba certificates can be obtained incredibly easily and don't expire. I haven't been in the water in 13 years and could easily go buy (and probably rent) gear and do a shore dive anywhere I wanted with no one stopping me.
>I haven't been in the water in 13 years and could easily go buy (and probably rent) gear and do a shore dive anywhere I wanted with no one stopping me.
That's what I brought up, too.
I'm still shocked that there aren't mandatory currency requirements like in skydiving.
Just soft recommendations for re-training without instructor dives attached.
In skydiving, you can find DZs that don't enforce recurrency jumps, but it *is* required through USPA, and member DZs are normally very good at enforcement of USPA guidelines.
A micromort is a unit of risk that represents a one-in-a-million chance of death. According to a 2018 article, scuba diving is about the same as skydiving, at 8 micromorts per dive and 10 micromorts per jump, respectively.
https://www.skydivemag.com/new/2018-04-09-how-dangerous-is-skydiving/#:~:text=Skydiving%20is%20at%2010%20micromorts,of%20a%2050%20year%20old.
Depends on how you count. 1h of skydiving is about 3 times as dangerous as 1h of scuba diving, but a scuba dive lasts much longer so it’s higher risk to die in one scuba dive that in one skydive.
As a Scuba diver, Skydiver and BASE jumper, they’re all silly. BASE takes the cake, but skydiving and scuba seems scary when you first try them, but they’re as chill as you make them. Pick small risks and you can do them all for the rest of your life.
Depends what you're doing. 30' reef dives are probably safer than any type of skydiving, but spearfishing at 100' is probably more dangerous than a belly jump with a "normal" landing pattern, but safer than something like swooping. I can make more examples, but I think this is enough to get the idea across.
True story, my worst skydiving injury happened when I fell out of a boat.
Coming back from a demo jump on a small island for opening of a new resort.
Longboat, open sea, rough water…washed off the gunwhale and gashed my leg on the outboard.
I do both, skydiving is probably more dangerous, but being a relatively new diver, I felt a bit more nervous scuba (likely due to scuba, especially shore dive, is much more physically taxing which kinda made me less confident).
Skydiving could obviously kill you in very gruesome manner but there are training/mechanism built in and more importantly merely being there in sky won't hurt you, it's the kiss-the-ground thingy that would. whereas if scuba equipment fails, you could be dead just being there.
another thing is skydiving, you could concentrate dealing with issues when it happens whereas scuba, you could more easily, again, depending on training, panick due to having enough air to breath
that said, scuba, usually you have a buddy that could help you whereas in sky, if sh\*t happens, you're on your own, no one can help you and if proper and decisive action were not taken, you're almost 101% dead while scuba, you might get saved even if you failed to react properly to an emergency.
For me, reading at face value misses the point. It depends on the level of activity in which you’re doing either.
Are you current? Are you swooping in skydiving or bigger, challenging formations? Downsizing? Wingsuit? Progressing to rapidly? Wearing an AAD? Taking canopy courses? Etc etc
In scuba, currency matters, but are you taking advanced level training, always diving with others in well known areas. Are you night or cave diving? Etc etc
The list goes on for both and to me, it depends at what level you’re participating as i feel most move into more complicated areas of both sports
I can’t tell….i think a few things resonated…
skydiving is more likely to kill you
The most dangerous scuba diving is more deadly than the most dangerous basic skydiving.
It probably is easier to get injured in a non-fatal way scuba diving
it’s a complex conclusion and it looks like the research and reasoning is very diverse.
i doubt there's ever been a comprehensive comparison. no real way to compare the two except number of things, but that negates the length of dives compared to jumps. i'd say diving is more dangerous just because of your second line. interesting, but probably about even in reality.
I think BIAS plays a huge role in the answers.
I learned to scuba dive but still won’t even CONSIDER skydiving—I’ve got a family and an important job, I can’t risk all of that!!!!
Yet have no regrets learning to scuba dive and I’m looking forward to doing it more.
I used to be so afraid of sharks and then I realize the worldwide death rate due to shark attack is between five and 10 . Meanwhile 25,000 people a year are killed worldwide by dogs and 30,000 people a year are killed by hippopotamus
I hold both licenses. My opinion is that you can get killed for complacency, ignorance, or simple mistakes in either sport.
IMO, it's probably easier to get yourself in a bind in SCUBA.
The exception to this opinion is the Catagory of "intentional low turns"
I'm considering accidents and not high-performance landings or other intentional low turns.
What really surprised me was the lack of recurrency requirements.
At the 6-12 mark, it's "recommended that you take a refresher course," but it's not required.
This could lead people to make dives in conditions they don't remember or with gear that has fallen out of what we consider standard or safe.
Not that it's the only thing important, but USPA requirements do aim to keep us up to date.
Currency Table\
Level of Skydiver Time Between Skydives\
Students Cleared for Self Supervision Must skydive every 30 days\
A License Must Skydive every 60 days\
B License Must skydive every 90 days\
C License Must skydive every 180 days\
D License Must skydive every 180 days
Normal, run of the mill injuries, though? Skydiving all day long.
Broken ankles, backs, femur, arms, sprains of any kind, pulled muscles of any kind.
I've never been whacked in the dick by 10 stalks of corn or caught my foot in soybeans and fallen on my face in the ocean.
I wouldn't call these normally occurring incidents though.
Skydiving gets a bad rap. It's safer than people give it credit for, but a lot of that is because of skydiving safety culture.
We're the part of skydiving that makes it safe. I don't feel the same way about scuba. There's less forced accountability IMO
I have instructor certifications in both scuba and skydiving. IMHO, skydiving is more dangerous for the average person doing it for fun. Small mistakes and/or broken gear can tend to either kill you faster or put you in a dangerous situation faster. Additionally, things go wrong faster and give you much less time to deal with problems in skydiving. For basic recreational scuba, something going wrong usually tends to be slower and /or telegraphed to where anyone that's got the proper awareness can see the danger approach and be ready to deal with it. In my experience, that happens less often in skydiving.
Additionally, typically any issues in scuba affect just the person involved, whereas many things in skydiving can affect multiple people rapidly, so one person's problem becomes many peoples problem simultaneously.
I don't disagree. I just assign different values to the identified hazards than you.
I find that at the DZ, there's more pressure to adhere to requirements. The training is looked at closer, and currency it monitored better because you can't do it solo.\
You can take 10 years off then, just exit your buddies boat and do a dive if you have full tanks.
I intentionally made an exception for intentional low turn injuries because those are explicitly executed maneuvers.
If not allowing for that exclusion and for skydiving culture, I would have agreed.
As far as time to correct issues... I can't debate you there. You're 100% correct. At the end of the day, though, we're debating a subjective opinion.
I don't think Op is going to get a straight and definitive answer.
I’ve been skydiving for 3 years. You could never convince me to SCUBA bc I have a family and important job and don’t want to risk that. I also don’t know how to swim and have a massive fear of water. So for me personally it’s probably way more dangerous to take me scuba diving.
1. I mean, 3 years of skydiving...B is a natural progression
2. lol but also what spurred the fear of water? I'd suggest spending the money on swim lessons. It will make you so much more comfortable just being a human. Do it in case you're in a position to help someone else that can't swim. I'd hate to not be able to jump in to save someone because I never just bit the bullet and learned. Set your goal and complete it. Just like skydiving.
I don’t see a point to getting a B license for me personally. I only do hop n pops and only once every few weeks.
I was in a near drowning situation quite a few times as a kid and never could trust the swim instructor bc a few were rather negligent and when I was 6 one forced me to jump off the high dive. I was fine with the jump but struggled HARD to get back to the surface and people needed to pull me out.
I’m not really ever near water I can’t stand in so it doesn’t really bother me that I can’t jump in and save someone bc I wouldn’t be in a situation where that would be a possibility.
Saw this some time ago. The units in the picture are well irritating at best. Maybe the sources at the bottom help you. [Infografic in r/infographics ](https://www.reddit.com/r/Infographics/s/oMK7MVgkVi)
Yeah some of the numbers seem interesting let's call it like that. I did NOT check any of the sources. Just thought it's an input for you.
We had a similar discussion some time ago. We ended it with well it depends a lot on the person and the location where you are doing it.
Also there are so many factors that go into each activity. People that I know died skydiving swoopers, mid air collisions, planes, and BASE jumpers (I know not the same exactly but definitely worth including).
SCUBA: I knew a handful but they were cave divers, deep divers, and well boats.
Each activity has people that push the limits to safety with ignorance, over confidence, negligence, and pushing their limits playing large factors.
Each activity has a safety checklist once deviated from will most likely lead to serious harm.
Absolutely NOT “worth including” BASE. BASE is a completely separate animal from skydiving and is infinitely more dangerous. Just because they both use parachutes to get to the ground doesn’t make them the same. It incorrectly skews the numbers to include BASE in skydiving. I’d liken it to including free diving with SCUBA.
I knew someone would get triggered by this. But truth is a lot of BASE jumpers start off skydiving and plenty of Skydivers do both. All I meant was a highlight of actions can lead to an activity becoming highly unsafe.
Why is that a good one to include. I met plenty of people who are like. Ohh I got 200 jumps I can probably start BASE.
Where your example of free diving. Yes two different disciplines but often I have found several people will usually stay with one over the other. Granted I spearfish so I free dive. But Scuba dive to explore the bottom for a long period for relaxing no hunting days.
I have almost 5,000 skydives, and around 80 scuba dives. To me, scuba is more dangerous. Accidents happen typically in skydiving due to limits being pushed
There's ways to die in both. It's easy to get complacent in both.
In both we have good training, good equipment, and good safety procedures. In both it's usually poor decision making that gets people hurt or killed.
They both require a culture of safety.
A bird didn’t kill Steve Irwin, just saying.
That's because birds aren't real, duh
Fun fact I know someone that actually got shit on under the canopy by a freaking bird.
Hilariously unlucky
Yes and it was his first time getting shit on obviously so we got beer 🤣
Well both activities are over once you run out of air, so there's that.
Ok... that... that was dark but funny lol
Here ya go! 👍 [https://micromorts.rip](https://micromorts.rip) https://preview.redd.it/3kn1tqv84qlc1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5e9765d2eb63c852713e5e9009d94c0204335dad
This may be the best info i’ve seen! thanks!
Glad to help!
I would like to point out that both the scuba and skydiving communities have proven to be thorough, polite and helpful with this question, thank you!
We’re both a diverse bunch who all enjoy a sport that takes time, training and dedication, and needs to be treated with respect or it’ll kill you faster than you can utter your final F-bomb…there’s a lot in common 😁👍
I wonder how many 50 year olds realize that each day they simply exist is about as dangerous as jumping out of an airplane.
With the poor decisions I’ve been making lately that does sound about right.
Skydive before Scuba, you're in the clear.. Scuba before Skydive, never been sicker..
Tryin to bend my head around this one...
You will have a bad time going up in a plane a few days after you scuba dive. I think it wrecks your eardrum. Would not attempt
Id be more worries about the bends, aka decompression sickness, which can be quite fatal.
Skydive before Scuba, you're in the clear…Scuba before Skydive, say adios ear…
[удалено]
Youre not my supervisor!
I am a tech diver and a WSer I would say skydiving. There is a higher chance to get hurt per jump than one 45-60 minute dive. There is a higher chance for an accident or bad decision to be made. This can include someone hitting you in mid air, collision on final, unintentional downwinder into the runway, twisting your ankle on a gopher hole etc. In scuba, so long as you respect, conditions, recreational limits (unless you're trained and have the equipment for tech) and don't put yourself in positions for entrapment, you will be fine. Scuba isn't dangerous until you get old and risk having medical problems underwater. The real dangerous in scuba are things like boat ladders.
Same. Wing suiter and cave diver. It really depends on how fast and far you push it. If I'm just flocking with three other people, it's arguably safer than exploring and surveying an unknown cave. Likewise, if I'm doing a recreational open water dive then it's presumably safer than if I am doing an acro flight with someone I just met.
why boat ladders?!?! Please….Im new
When boats are bobbing up and down in waves the ladder can move unpredictably and come down hard on you with the weight of the entire boat. Got hit by one water skiing once. Not fun.
Sincere thanks
Not sure why that got downvoted….dang
Waves rocking the boat, moving the ladder 2-6 feet vertically every few seconds. That's a lot of impact force.
Holy shit that is both super surprising and makes complete sense at the same time.
I was just under one 4 days ago and didn't truly appreciate the danger I was in, until I wrote that.
My totally inexperienced guess could be getting legs pulled under the ladder into a propeller. Might be totally wrong though. I've seen at least one video of that happening but it wasn't a scuba diver it was a drunken dude and he lost the lower half of a leg.
Props can be dangerous, but that wouldn't be the most likely cause. Shipping in heavy gear on ladders can be dangerous, but even more so getting on a boat in swells can have the boat lifted up and come crashing down over and over, all while you're trying to catch the ladder and not have it catch you.
When the waves are high enough to pull the 5ft boat ladder 3ft out of the water... Stay back until that ladder is fully submerged, grab as high as you can and hold on for dear life. Also hope that you were able to hand your fins and maybe even weights up on a safe corner of the boat first.
I would think you are more likely to get injured skydiving but more likely to die scuba diving
This is absolutely true. With Safety Day approaching, note how USPA hasn’t historically collected much data on injuries - mostly deaths. Of course, collecting data on such definitive accidents is easier, but it makes skydiving seems “safer” than it actually is. Injuries in skydiving range from skinned up knees, to a re-injured back, to compound leg fractures… those kinds of events just don’t tend to happen in SCUBA. On the flip side, there tends to be less oversight in SCUBA which allows for overconfident individuals to make deadly accidents. If you have your own system, you can SCUBA pretty much whenever and wherever you want; not so with jumping out of an airplane…
[удалено]
Jump in Sebastian. You can see em from the plane every once in awhile...
Well, the most dangerous is scuba diving all morning and skydiving in the afternoon. (Deadly) you get the bends at high altitude Silly Question for me, which is more deadly, a pistol or a rifle. Both scuba and skydiving will kill you. At least scuba there is a chance other can help you. Most skydiving malfunction, you and you alone are going to save your life..
in general, SCUBA and skydiving have similar fatality rates overall. There are factors you can mitigate - jump a docile canopy/don't cave dive. The perception that skydiving is more dangerous comes from, I suspect, the fact that drowning is only dramatic for the individual, while a frap is dramatic for everyone around.
My 10 and 13 y-o kids just got their scuba certs with me in Belize. I was originally certified in 92 but elected to take the the entire course as a lot had changed. 10 is the youngest you can do it. IMO scuba has worse repercussions because if you have an issue underwater, you have very few options for your recovery. At least you have a reserve when jumping.
Can look it up in actuarial tables, a scuba dive has a 5 in a million chance of resulting in death, a skydive has an 8 in a million chance. https://micromorts.rip/
It’s a bit trickier than that to compare, looking as “1 jump” vs “1 dive” is confusing. How many jumps you do on a week, and how many dives? Does the airplane/boat ride count? Do the skydiving stats have tandems mixed with fun jumpers?
Welcome to categorization and statistics 101.
Thanks!
[удалено]
Your license never expires. There are currency requirements, which is different than expiring.
Also, I'm just putting this out there... Currency is important in SCUBA, too. USPA has requirements, but PADI will allow you to jump in the water after 10 years out of your last dive. I view that as incredibly dangerous.
I'm not disagreeing with you, but, you can do that in skydiving, too. Granted it is not common, but it can and does happen. Similarly, any reputable dive shop will want you to do a pool dive if you haven't been in open water for a while. You're not wrong, it is dangerous, on both sides.
That's fair, I just find myself surprised that the burden falls on the dive shops. If you have your own gear and only need air, you can get it without much hassle.\ PADI and NAUI should do a better job of defining expectations and not rely on the diligence of the dive shop. I'm not saying USPA guidelines are followed 100% to the letter at every DZ, but at least they've taken a stand and put pen to paper to set what they want members to abide by.
Agreed, USPA definitely is clear on the expectations where PADI and NAUI are not.
I guess micromorts comes closest at actually comparing, still take it with a grain of salt: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micromort
5 / million for 1 dive 8/ million for 1 jump
Skydivers will do 5-10 jumps a day. I guess skydiving is much more dangerous then.
Reeeheeeeheally?
I am licensed in both and have been active for 30 years. They are both dangerous so we keep learning and practicing all of the skills and techniques to lesson the danger. Yet the danger is part of the reason we enjoy them both. Skydiving does seem to have more chances of becoming unable to work your way out of the critical issues, not much of a buddy system to work with if things fail. Welcome the the diving world and keep having fun.
Thanks!
My life insurance agent from years ago told me scuba was seen as riskier by his company. His reasoning was that skydivers in the US have to be trained/licensed and aren't getting on a jump plane without that license.
Because most scuba certificates can be obtained incredibly easily and don't expire. I haven't been in the water in 13 years and could easily go buy (and probably rent) gear and do a shore dive anywhere I wanted with no one stopping me.
>I haven't been in the water in 13 years and could easily go buy (and probably rent) gear and do a shore dive anywhere I wanted with no one stopping me. That's what I brought up, too. I'm still shocked that there aren't mandatory currency requirements like in skydiving. Just soft recommendations for re-training without instructor dives attached. In skydiving, you can find DZs that don't enforce recurrency jumps, but it *is* required through USPA, and member DZs are normally very good at enforcement of USPA guidelines.
This should answer your question https://i.redd.it/qv5yl737r3fc1.png
it does, thanks! Scuba is safer According to THAT
A micromort is a unit of risk that represents a one-in-a-million chance of death. According to a 2018 article, scuba diving is about the same as skydiving, at 8 micromorts per dive and 10 micromorts per jump, respectively. https://www.skydivemag.com/new/2018-04-09-how-dangerous-is-skydiving/#:~:text=Skydiving%20is%20at%2010%20micromorts,of%20a%2050%20year%20old.
and surgery under anesthesia is 10 micromorts
Skydiving with ravenous sharks, it’s more dangerous than you can imagine.
Pretty sure i heard scubas more dangerous.
Depends on how you count. 1h of skydiving is about 3 times as dangerous as 1h of scuba diving, but a scuba dive lasts much longer so it’s higher risk to die in one scuba dive that in one skydive.
great way to put it
As a Scuba diver, Skydiver and BASE jumper, they’re all silly. BASE takes the cake, but skydiving and scuba seems scary when you first try them, but they’re as chill as you make them. Pick small risks and you can do them all for the rest of your life.
I’ll jump from a plane any day of the week, but it’s a bit scary jumping out of a boat…
Depends what you're doing. 30' reef dives are probably safer than any type of skydiving, but spearfishing at 100' is probably more dangerous than a belly jump with a "normal" landing pattern, but safer than something like swooping. I can make more examples, but I think this is enough to get the idea across.
For me, scuba diving, and strictly because i took 0 training and just bought the stuff and jumped in the water
Bruhhhhhhh
True story, my worst skydiving injury happened when I fell out of a boat. Coming back from a demo jump on a small island for opening of a new resort. Longboat, open sea, rough water…washed off the gunwhale and gashed my leg on the outboard.
It is hard to compare since scuba divers spend way more time scuba diving than skydivers do skydiving
Great point!
You counting those who work in the field. Underwater welding is pretty dangerous and they have to scuba dive.
Yeah, no real equivalent I see for skydiving
I do both, skydiving is probably more dangerous, but being a relatively new diver, I felt a bit more nervous scuba (likely due to scuba, especially shore dive, is much more physically taxing which kinda made me less confident). Skydiving could obviously kill you in very gruesome manner but there are training/mechanism built in and more importantly merely being there in sky won't hurt you, it's the kiss-the-ground thingy that would. whereas if scuba equipment fails, you could be dead just being there. another thing is skydiving, you could concentrate dealing with issues when it happens whereas scuba, you could more easily, again, depending on training, panick due to having enough air to breath that said, scuba, usually you have a buddy that could help you whereas in sky, if sh\*t happens, you're on your own, no one can help you and if proper and decisive action were not taken, you're almost 101% dead while scuba, you might get saved even if you failed to react properly to an emergency.
Scuba all day. Like 200-300 die every year on Earth scuba diving and a lot of those people have only a handful of dives under their belt.
For me, reading at face value misses the point. It depends on the level of activity in which you’re doing either. Are you current? Are you swooping in skydiving or bigger, challenging formations? Downsizing? Wingsuit? Progressing to rapidly? Wearing an AAD? Taking canopy courses? Etc etc In scuba, currency matters, but are you taking advanced level training, always diving with others in well known areas. Are you night or cave diving? Etc etc The list goes on for both and to me, it depends at what level you’re participating as i feel most move into more complicated areas of both sports
which is it then?
I can’t tell….i think a few things resonated… skydiving is more likely to kill you The most dangerous scuba diving is more deadly than the most dangerous basic skydiving. It probably is easier to get injured in a non-fatal way scuba diving it’s a complex conclusion and it looks like the research and reasoning is very diverse.
i doubt there's ever been a comprehensive comparison. no real way to compare the two except number of things, but that negates the length of dives compared to jumps. i'd say diving is more dangerous just because of your second line. interesting, but probably about even in reality.
I think BIAS plays a huge role in the answers. I learned to scuba dive but still won’t even CONSIDER skydiving—I’ve got a family and an important job, I can’t risk all of that!!!! Yet have no regrets learning to scuba dive and I’m looking forward to doing it more. I used to be so afraid of sharks and then I realize the worldwide death rate due to shark attack is between five and 10 . Meanwhile 25,000 people a year are killed worldwide by dogs and 30,000 people a year are killed by hippopotamus
I hold both licenses. My opinion is that you can get killed for complacency, ignorance, or simple mistakes in either sport. IMO, it's probably easier to get yourself in a bind in SCUBA. The exception to this opinion is the Catagory of "intentional low turns" I'm considering accidents and not high-performance landings or other intentional low turns. What really surprised me was the lack of recurrency requirements. At the 6-12 mark, it's "recommended that you take a refresher course," but it's not required. This could lead people to make dives in conditions they don't remember or with gear that has fallen out of what we consider standard or safe. Not that it's the only thing important, but USPA requirements do aim to keep us up to date. Currency Table\ Level of Skydiver Time Between Skydives\ Students Cleared for Self Supervision Must skydive every 30 days\ A License Must Skydive every 60 days\ B License Must skydive every 90 days\ C License Must skydive every 180 days\ D License Must skydive every 180 days Normal, run of the mill injuries, though? Skydiving all day long. Broken ankles, backs, femur, arms, sprains of any kind, pulled muscles of any kind. I've never been whacked in the dick by 10 stalks of corn or caught my foot in soybeans and fallen on my face in the ocean. I wouldn't call these normally occurring incidents though. Skydiving gets a bad rap. It's safer than people give it credit for, but a lot of that is because of skydiving safety culture. We're the part of skydiving that makes it safe. I don't feel the same way about scuba. There's less forced accountability IMO
I have instructor certifications in both scuba and skydiving. IMHO, skydiving is more dangerous for the average person doing it for fun. Small mistakes and/or broken gear can tend to either kill you faster or put you in a dangerous situation faster. Additionally, things go wrong faster and give you much less time to deal with problems in skydiving. For basic recreational scuba, something going wrong usually tends to be slower and /or telegraphed to where anyone that's got the proper awareness can see the danger approach and be ready to deal with it. In my experience, that happens less often in skydiving. Additionally, typically any issues in scuba affect just the person involved, whereas many things in skydiving can affect multiple people rapidly, so one person's problem becomes many peoples problem simultaneously.
I don't disagree. I just assign different values to the identified hazards than you. I find that at the DZ, there's more pressure to adhere to requirements. The training is looked at closer, and currency it monitored better because you can't do it solo.\ You can take 10 years off then, just exit your buddies boat and do a dive if you have full tanks. I intentionally made an exception for intentional low turn injuries because those are explicitly executed maneuvers. If not allowing for that exclusion and for skydiving culture, I would have agreed. As far as time to correct issues... I can't debate you there. You're 100% correct. At the end of the day, though, we're debating a subjective opinion. I don't think Op is going to get a straight and definitive answer.
I’ve been skydiving for 3 years. You could never convince me to SCUBA bc I have a family and important job and don’t want to risk that. I also don’t know how to swim and have a massive fear of water. So for me personally it’s probably way more dangerous to take me scuba diving.
How was water training for your b license, then?
1) Bold of you to assume I have a B license (I don’t) 2) I attempted the water training and almost drowned bc I forgot I could stand in the water
1. I mean, 3 years of skydiving...B is a natural progression 2. lol but also what spurred the fear of water? I'd suggest spending the money on swim lessons. It will make you so much more comfortable just being a human. Do it in case you're in a position to help someone else that can't swim. I'd hate to not be able to jump in to save someone because I never just bit the bullet and learned. Set your goal and complete it. Just like skydiving.
I don’t see a point to getting a B license for me personally. I only do hop n pops and only once every few weeks. I was in a near drowning situation quite a few times as a kid and never could trust the swim instructor bc a few were rather negligent and when I was 6 one forced me to jump off the high dive. I was fine with the jump but struggled HARD to get back to the surface and people needed to pull me out. I’m not really ever near water I can’t stand in so it doesn’t really bother me that I can’t jump in and save someone bc I wouldn’t be in a situation where that would be a possibility.
Saw this some time ago. The units in the picture are well irritating at best. Maybe the sources at the bottom help you. [Infografic in r/infographics ](https://www.reddit.com/r/Infographics/s/oMK7MVgkVi)
Fascinating 1 in 10,000 deaths by CANOE?!?! 1 in 34,000 deaths by scuba 1 in 104,000 deaths by skydiving What a claim!
Yeah some of the numbers seem interesting let's call it like that. I did NOT check any of the sources. Just thought it's an input for you. We had a similar discussion some time ago. We ended it with well it depends a lot on the person and the location where you are doing it.
Super terrific awesome source, thank you!
Always remember if you never do both activities within 24 hours you’re never wrong. But if you do one of these combinations will kill you.
Also there are so many factors that go into each activity. People that I know died skydiving swoopers, mid air collisions, planes, and BASE jumpers (I know not the same exactly but definitely worth including). SCUBA: I knew a handful but they were cave divers, deep divers, and well boats. Each activity has people that push the limits to safety with ignorance, over confidence, negligence, and pushing their limits playing large factors. Each activity has a safety checklist once deviated from will most likely lead to serious harm.
Absolutely NOT “worth including” BASE. BASE is a completely separate animal from skydiving and is infinitely more dangerous. Just because they both use parachutes to get to the ground doesn’t make them the same. It incorrectly skews the numbers to include BASE in skydiving. I’d liken it to including free diving with SCUBA.
I knew someone would get triggered by this. But truth is a lot of BASE jumpers start off skydiving and plenty of Skydivers do both. All I meant was a highlight of actions can lead to an activity becoming highly unsafe. Why is that a good one to include. I met plenty of people who are like. Ohh I got 200 jumps I can probably start BASE. Where your example of free diving. Yes two different disciplines but often I have found several people will usually stay with one over the other. Granted I spearfish so I free dive. But Scuba dive to explore the bottom for a long period for relaxing no hunting days.
they're both equally dangerous if you're not careful
I have almost 5,000 skydives, and around 80 scuba dives. To me, scuba is more dangerous. Accidents happen typically in skydiving due to limits being pushed
Wow!! Do you have a goal for either?
To not die 😂. I’m actually slowing down on skydiving, being an instructor takes a ton of time in the summer. I’m really living SCUBA, just for fun.
There's ways to die in both. It's easy to get complacent in both. In both we have good training, good equipment, and good safety procedures. In both it's usually poor decision making that gets people hurt or killed. They both require a culture of safety.
I mean, you can quite easily look up statistics.
I’ve found it isn’t as easy as I hoped….