... didn't happen.
You know the rule that if you don't feel good about the dive then you shouldn't do it. Many times we hear from folks relating a diving incident where the tell tale markers and warnings were there ahead of time but were ignored.
Here is a simple story of an incident that didn't happen. Because it didn't happen I can't give you any of the gory details and there is nothing to pick apart. The is no blame to be laid and there will be no law suits. No rescue, no heroics, no funeral.
It was going to be a perfect day for diving Deception Pass... the best current window I've ever seen with a max flood of only 1.8 kts and we would be going in at .9 knots. Many times I wait for it to drop to 1.8 kts before going in and when it changes we are coming back out at over 2 kts!
Fact is, we have done the surface ride at maximum current flow. The whirlpools don't get serious until it gets over 7 knots and faster makes for an even better ride. We've been below the event horizon more than once.
The year before we had a bumpy ride getting thrown to the surface in a matter of seconds from 54'. And my birthday dive March 23, 2003 was a close call. Shane and I were doing a deco dive on the very bottom of the pass when I holed my drysuit.
But those were the only dives there where we've ever had a problem. We have been all over DP and usually have 60 minute dives.
So Saturday morning March 19, 2005 looked to be a piece of cake... one I had been looking forward to for a year.
A nagging feeling began growing in the back of my mind... it said I shouldn't do the dive. I couldn't see any reason not to... and I had folks expecting me to do it with them. I didn't want to let them down... but still that nagging feeling was there.
A week before the dive several things crowded into my life that forced me to back out of diving Deception Pass. Because I didn't go, several others on this board didn't go either. At first I felt bad about letting them down... now after thinking about it I realize that I did them a favor.
We will never know what would have happened... but something was going to go wrong. Today my wife said to me, "I had a bad feeling about that dive and figured that I was going to get a call. I knew that something bad was going to happen."
So... a serious incident at Decption Pass didn't happen.
You know the rule that if you don't feel good about the dive then you shouldn't do it. Many times we hear from folks relating a diving incident where the tell tale markers and warnings were there ahead of time but were ignored.
Here is a simple story of an incident that didn't happen. Because it didn't happen I can't give you any of the gory details and there is nothing to pick apart. The is no blame to be laid and there will be no law suits. No rescue, no heroics, no funeral.
It was going to be a perfect day for diving Deception Pass... the best current window I've ever seen with a max flood of only 1.8 kts and we would be going in at .9 knots. Many times I wait for it to drop to 1.8 kts before going in and when it changes we are coming back out at over 2 kts!
Fact is, we have done the surface ride at maximum current flow. The whirlpools don't get serious until it gets over 7 knots and faster makes for an even better ride. We've been below the event horizon more than once.
The year before we had a bumpy ride getting thrown to the surface in a matter of seconds from 54'. And my birthday dive March 23, 2003 was a close call. Shane and I were doing a deco dive on the very bottom of the pass when I holed my drysuit.
But those were the only dives there where we've ever had a problem. We have been all over DP and usually have 60 minute dives.
So Saturday morning March 19, 2005 looked to be a piece of cake... one I had been looking forward to for a year.
A nagging feeling began growing in the back of my mind... it said I shouldn't do the dive. I couldn't see any reason not to... and I had folks expecting me to do it with them. I didn't want to let them down... but still that nagging feeling was there.
A week before the dive several things crowded into my life that forced me to back out of diving Deception Pass. Because I didn't go, several others on this board didn't go either. At first I felt bad about letting them down... now after thinking about it I realize that I did them a favor.
We will never know what would have happened... but something was going to go wrong. Today my wife said to me, "I had a bad feeling about that dive and figured that I was going to get a call. I knew that something bad was going to happen."
So... a serious incident at Decption Pass didn't happen.
