How often do you abort dives and why?

[agilfox]

I am still a newer diver, in my case I had (1) aborted and (2) never got in the water.

1. Cozumel Drift diving, there was one day the current was hauling.I was struggling to stay with the group, found myself starting to panic a bit towards the end. Then realized at the rate I was breathing, which even though I had tried to calm myself back down had already put myself at the point I needed to start my ascent process now to not run out of air. Let the guide know I was going up to safety stop, he shot up SMB for the boat, I just hung out on the surface floating for a bit till boat picked me up. Rest of the crew continued the dive for another 15 min. This was my first ever ocean dive trip, I had all of 5 dives when I stepped foot on that boat. I had an amazing time and the crew we had was fantastic.

2. Next morning, chose to sit out. Rash on my arms and a bit mentally wonky from the day prior, just needed to breathe. Got on the boat and went for a ride with the gang. 15 min into dive 1 of the morning I was kicking myself, but as always said "Rather be on the boat wishing I was in the water than in the water wishing I was on the boat. I was raring to go for dive 2 that morning. Finished the trip with an amazing dive

3. San Carlos, day 1, dive 3 started getting a headache. I had been trying to pay attention to breathing and well yea screwed myself up. Back to shore for some people swap and back out for dives 4 and 5. Dive 4 I was fine for a bit, finished the dive but chose to sit out dive 5. Some Dramamine and a nap and I felt fine. Though I picked the good dive to not bother gearing up, the group I was with 2 newly minted students and the instructor (good friend of mine) had a gear malfunction and they were back on the surface in about 15 min.

Each and every trip out I learned something. The San Carlos trip for me was a long training weekend. Did dives for Navigation and Deep SSI certifications. I hope to continue to learn and better myself with each situation I am faced with on each dive.

Total of 27 dives now.

 

[VikingDives]

I thumbed a shore dive in Pensacola years ago, right after I was certified. The site was reputed to be very laid back as long as you dove within an hour or two of high tide. I jumped in with my wife at the "right" time and we were immediately getting sucked out into the gulf by what felt like a rip tide (it wasn't, but it was fast). We ended up plowing through about 10 fishing lines on our way up to the surface, much to the chagrin of the guys attached to those lines on the shore.

They weren't pleased with us, but I'm pretty sure we'd have had ride in a Coast Guard ship (at best) if I hadn't made that call when I did. We were in the water for such a short period of time, I didn't even bother to log that dive, and I'm a perpetual note taker.

I thumbed a dive this year because I noticed my friend's son was getting cold.

For me, diving's about the stories you get to tell. In the moment, you might wish that you could have a few more minutes in the water, but having good stories about dives has little to do with bottom time, and a lot to do with paying attention to what's going on.

When I was learning to be a police officer, my training officer used to say, "Don't be in a hurry to get yourself killed." and the way he said it he meant, "Don't rush, it will kill you." and, "If you are going to do things that may be dangerous, you're better off thinking it out when you have time. You might still get killed, but thinking keeps you from getting in over your head." He'd have been a good diver, I think.

 

[TMHeimer]

flightofpenguins, Assume you were at Ft. Pickens. I had a similar "missed" tide experience last winter there--and got "hooked" once near the jetty. All of those inlets that lead to bays on the East half of the Gulf (at least) have those diurnal (12 hr. change of) tides, but they aren't regular at all--not exactly every 12 hours, sometimes not close. As well, at times high tide will be at a considerably different time than on the NOAA tide predictions. Look at buoys to see how tilted they are (and which direction). Throw a stick in the water and see how fast it goes.....

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I thumbed a dive on Saturday ... not that I had a lot of choice.

Got up early, packed the car and headed out to Whidbey Island ... a 75 mile drive with a short ferry ride in between. As I approached the side of the island where the dive site is located I started noticing the wind picking up. When I arrived at the site it was blowing like stink and the waves were crashing over the jetty. Took me about 1.5 milliseconds to decide it wasn't diveable today. Got in my car to head back.

Strike One

Just about then the phone rings. My friend John, who lives up near Anacortes is calling to ask me if there's any chance I could head up his way this week-end to help him clear some crab pots that had fouled his mooring line. Apparently the wind, waves and current had dragged the pots a considerable distance to where they'd snagged, and he wasn't able to clear them without going in the water. I informed him that as fate would have it, I was just 25 miles away and had all my gear in the car with me. So instead of heading south to go home, I headed north towards his house. I got up there and started hauling my gear down the hill toward his boat dock. But rainy conditions, steep hill, and heavy gear aren't a good combination. I slipped while carrying my tank, which landed valve first ... snapping the handle off the tank valve.

Strike Two

But I still had an option ... my AL40 pony had plenty of gas in it for a quick trip down the mooring line to unfoul a couple crab pots. I wasn't thrilled about getting in alone without a backup air supply, but it was a pretty straightforward job, and would only take a few minutes. So I finished hauling gear down, went to put on my drysuit, and the neck seal split.

Strike Three

And I'm out. He's pulling the boat for the winter next week-end, so we really wanted to get this job done. I told him I'd be back the next day with my spare suit and enough gear to handle any additional mishaps.

Drove 210 miles that day, plus two ferry rides, and never even got wet. I did go back Sunday morning and got the job done ... and feasted on fresh Dungeness crab for dinner that night.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[guyharrisonphoto]

Drove 210 miles that day, plus two ferry rides, and never even got wet. I did go back Sunday morning and got the job done ... and feasted on fresh Dungeness crab for dinner that night.

So, it was worth it, after all!!

 

[lunula]

I've had to abort 3 dives. The first was the 2nd of a two-tank dive during our very first boat dive. I got really sea-sick and just couldn't do the 2nd dive. I thought it was a fluke until the next day we had to do the exact same thing. I got wise after that a found motion sickness medication. Was a bummer because I've been on many other kinds of boats and never had any issues with motion sickness.

Also had to abort a dive once because we saw a leak in my husband's tank and we weren't willing to risk it.

 

[Freewillow]

I aborted only one or two dives on a total of 800+. This was with my wife and kids. Dropped from a dive boat with the dive director claiming that there was no current- HOW WRONG WAS IT.

We jumped and it took us a few seconds to be, at the surface a few hundred feet from the ankered boat. We all went to the bottom and it took us +/- 15 minutes to go back to the anchor . Since the current was too strong and my daughter had less that half the initial pressure in the tank, I called the dive.

50 % of the diver that day went down the current a mile and landed on another ship. The other half, more experienced, did the planned dive.

The other one was in Sudan, wrong drop, impossible to reach the reef because of current. Bottom was too deep (+/- 50m ) to attend progression at such a depth. Better to calmly deploy SMB and wait for the dinghie.

 

[redt1de]

Precisely one in about 200 dives. It was in Cozumel and currents were mixing all over the place. We went through a swim through and hit a massively upwelling trying to pull us to the surface. A few of us clung to some rocks for a minute and decided to call it. We had over a half tank left and probably could have continued, but were diving HP120s with Aldora, so decided to call it a day. I mean we got 30 - 40 minutes of bottom time already, so why fight it?

 

[Octopusprime]

Thank you very much for everybody's thoughts. I carefully think about and analyze everything I do so this is very helpful.

However, it looks like divers don't abort dives as much as I do, so I will need to work on it.

Not sure if you're referring to mine, but I think yours is great too!

Dog bowl. ... If your not comfortable end the dive. The question is did you learn from them???

To me all of them are related to anxiety or stress. But to look at them specifically. Fog up - every new diver has a skill they need more work at than others. Mine was mask off skills. I hated water in my nose. So on every dive when I was finishing my safety stop I
I would flood my mask and clear. After a while I was clearing without thinking about it. No more stress.

Exhaustion - this is common. Working hard or overheating geting in exposure suit in hot weather causes heavy breathing which will only get worse under water. Learn what works for you. Personally I like to be first (or close to it) off the boat so that I can relax and float while everyone else is getting off the boat. Also on decent when we get to bottom I set tile in. Adjust gear get neutral and breath before starting dive.

If anything happens during the dive that causes stress stop. Relax get calm. My guess is it is more likely you were over tasked. It may just be all the new gear. To a new diver having a differnt BC can be enough of a task. If you have to think about the power inflator buttons it will cause stress. So limit your tasks. If you have new unfamiliar gear do not take a camera or anything else to do... Just enjoy your dive.

 

[Neilwood]

Thank you very much for everybody's thoughts. I carefully think about and analyze everything I do so this is very helpful.

However, it looks like divers don't abort dives as much as I do, so I will need to work on it.



Not sure if you're referring to mine, but I think yours is great too!

What is a good rule to stick to is that any diver can abort any dive. One of the causes of injuries is people getting pulled into what BSAC (British Sub Aqua Club) call the "incident pit" - link

Very easy to try to push through a problem thinking this will improve etc when in reality you are actually moving deeper and deeper into the pit.

I would have more respect for someone aborting a dive than getting themselves deeper into trouble and forcing others to take risks to help them.

It is a lot better to be arguing about why you aborted a dive than not being able to argue about anything due to injury or death.

A good course of action in an incident - stop, breathe, think and act. Most incidents will give you enough time for that. The only exception might be OOG but your buddy should be close enough to help if diving properly.