"For the simple feat of "surviving" their extreme sport – which also happens to be their job – the couple has been showered with lucrative publishing deals, while the rest of us who live safely and quietly are struggling to afford a holiday."
These guys were/are professional diving instructors who had plenty of training - all of which was to AVOID the mistakes they made. Not about their survival, but the whole point of all this training we go through is to prevent accidents.
And then to assume their insurance will cover everything, so it's no problem. John Lippman, the head of DAN Asia Pacific (disclaimer - I know him) says their insurance would only cover 100,000 of the search, which at last estimate is likely to cost in excess of 400,000. Yet they are busy getting an AGENT and flying to New York to meet with him so they can sell their story.
As a Dive Medic, working in evacuations and a professional diver - these guys are really dodgy characters.
Anyhow...today's article....
Stupid divers put other lives at risk
For the simple feat of "surviving" their extreme sport – which also happens to be their job – the couple has been showered with lucrative publishing deals, while the rest of us who live safely and quietly are struggling to afford a holiday.
The pair was swept out to sea after allegedly disregarding the rules and surfacing away from their dive boat on Friday. They were found after a 19-hour air and sea search which cost taxpayers an estimated $100,000.
The subsequent story and self-filmed footage of them waving for help has already netted them a four-figure sum from the UK's Sunday Mail, and they're now negotiating with the US 60 Minutes for a deal rumoured to be worth $250,000.
But the couple's eagerness to cash in on their "misfortune" has not just ticked off ordinary people like me. Angry volunteers who risked their lives in the rescue operation have called for the cost to be repaid.
As they jetted out to New York yesterday, the couple said the rescue would be covered by insurance. But with thousands of dangerous rescue missions each year, our volunteers are fed up with people taking unnecessary risks in the name of extreme sport at a rising cost to the community.
President of the NSW Volunteer Rescue Association Gary Raymond is worried about the message it sends when people are able to make money from their "acts of stupidity".
"It makes them out to be survivor heroes, but if they don't obey the rules of their sport they are just survivor fools," he said.
"It should be mandatory for people who do extreme activities to have insurance and, if they don't, they should pay the cost of the rescue."
Mr Raymond said it would send a more preventative message if Neely and Dalton donated all of the money from their story to the rescue associations that saved their lives.
"These sports have rules for a reason. Like the caver (Geoff McDonnell, who got stuck in the Wombeyan Caves) a few weeks ago, these people broke the rules. The chance of the casualty rate rising after that is huge because we have to go into the same environment in which they got themselves into trouble," he said.
"They have a choice. We don't."
grrrrr......
Similan Diving
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