Dive Charters

[scubert]

here are my $0.02,

the boat captain IS a bus driver, with just a few asterisks attached.
It is the Capt's job to get you to the wreck and back, to keep a well serviced boat, to respond to problems on the surface, and to not run me over with the boat.  All the basic things a bus driver would do on land.

Where their work now requires more than this, it is primarily the fault of divers and their overly litigious relatives. 

When a diver dies because they weren't qualified for a dive, whose fault is it.  THE DIVERS!

Where the hell is the personal responsibility in this world when someone can make their own decisions, based on their training and the plentiful information about nearly ALL wrecks (or other dives) and when they kill themselves the DRIVER of the TRANSPORT is held responsible??

Would this be the case if I took a cab to a bridge and base-jumped off of it, killing myself in the process?  What about if the cab was a charter bus?  NO!  Unless the driver ran me over

It would be a different story if dive boat captains were actively recruiting divers for dives.  Trying to "sell up" a dive to an unqualified individual.  Then they might have some culpability, as it would then be partly their responsibility to make sure the "buyer" could use their "product".  But even then the DIVER still should be capable enough to access their personal situation and skills to determine final suitability of a dive.

If you are unable to make the right decision on whether or not to dive a certain site, you are probably unqualified to dive it.

BECAUSE of divers who overestimate their personal abilities, or who simply LIE to get on a charter, captains are now forced to do the things Deano listed in his post.

1) YOU are responsible for YOU.
2) See #1.