Have you called/ended a dive? Why?

[GrimSleeper]

I've called several dives ... the most recent one about three hours ago, due to lack of visibility. We were supposed to be doing a class dive, but when vis only allows me to see about half a body length, it's hard for me to evaluate what's going on. So we thumbed it. My student received it rather well, actually ... we're going to try it again in a couple of days. Hopefully by then this plankton bloom will have self-corrected a bit.

I've done the same thing - hard to evaluate a students' performance when you can only be sure where they are by hanging onto their shoulder straps!

I've called a fair few dives over the years. I've also NOT called a few dives, and I've got to say none of them got any better for the decision to tough it out...

'Any diver can call any dive at any time with no questions asked and no blame attached.' I'd guess most people don't run into that statement until they start technical diving, but it's something I tell Open Water students. If you're not happy being there, don't be.

 

[yodelhawk]

Last friday...buddy was cold and shivering afterfirst dive but wanterd to go and empty out his second tank. Told him flat out that I was not going with him and he finally agreed. When he took off his drysuit he must have dumped about a gallon out of each leg. He was so cold that he never mentioned that. When he finallt warmed up, he agreed that it was a good call.

 

[MMM]

I have called exactly two dives in my life. (DMs have called several more I have been on.) The first was in La Paz, Mexico. There was myself and two other paying divers on the boat (father and son). We headed out to a dive site but conditions were poor and the captain/DM were both saying it would be difficult and dangerous to reach the site. Father and son said "we are here to dive and will give you a bigger tip if you get us there". I said "no way, I don't want to go any further" and the boat turned around. I was a pretty new diver at the time but was experienced enough at reading people to know the staff REALLY didn't want to proceed, and probably with good reason. The next day, I was on a dive with the same two divers; they ended up having to be evacuated to the U.S. for medical care.

My only other time was several years later in Cozumel, Mexico. The op I was supposed to go out with cancelled due to the port being closed to craft under a specific size. The port was open to larger craft and the op made arrangements for me to move to a different op with a larger craft so that I could dive. I did the first tank but disliked many things including the (dis)organization of the gear set-up and water entry, but the thing that really made me gag was the diesel smell from the engine. I just decided to sit out the second dive and make like an iguana on the deck. Never regretted that decision either.

 

[nelsonrl]

Week before last - called a dive in Tahiti - hard to travel that far and call a dive, but it was the right thing to do. Currents were just to strong to be a dive I was comfortable with for either me or my wife. When we found out the dive company was going to the same place two days later, we decided to rent a car and enjoy the sights on the island. With the currents, who knows what it would be like, but we needed a day of rest anyway,

Dive leader told me later there was no current and it was a wonderful dive, but what we heck, we enjoyed our day, even if it did cost me a couple of black pearls. Bottom line, never feel bad about calling a dive for any reason. Even if your only reason is you don't like the color of the fishes in the sea. Sometimes things just don't feel right.

 

[BluewaterSail]

Called a few before submerging or even before entering the water due to surf or visibility.

In my AOW class, a couple of minutes after we submerged for the night dive, one of the students in an Aqualung BC got her console cable hooked under that lever that they use for bc inflation. It jammed in the inflate position. She couldn't get it out, shot to the surface, and proceeded to swim back to the beach. It took a minute or two for the instructor to realize, because he was leading. He turned around, saw that the light from the missing student was lying on the bottom, looked around, didn't see her, and told us all to surface. Then he could see her halfway to the beach, so he led us back to the beach. When we met on the beach, we found out what happened. He was so scared, he was in no condition to take the rest of us back into the water, so we called the dive.

What I learned from that was not about calling dives, but that I never want to dive one of those lever operated BCs.

 

[HJeffreyM]

Before a dive in Cancun I was feeling a bit queezy in the boat on the way to the dive site, but figured it was a bit of seasickness which usually goes away the minute I hit the water. After beginning the dive and reaching about 50-60ft it dawned on me that I had eated some bad tacos and this was not going away. I signaled my buddy and the DM that I was having stomach problems and was heading up. I managed to ascend slowly and get through a 3 min safety stop before hitting the surface and "feeding the fish."

 

[supergaijin]

On a professional level I've called dives mainly due to deteriorating conditions- ie. current becoming too strong. Once because of a diver panicking and swimming to the surface from 25m. That was scary.

As a recreational diver ... one time in Philippines diving one of the wrecks in Coron. Me and a friend had been there for a couple of months already and were renting our own boat. We entered a wreck and came out the side earlier than we planned but the current had changed dramatically and viz had gotten pretty bad (in the space of maybe 15mins). I remember having to crawl back to the shot line cutting myself up pretty badly (bought gloves after that) knowing that there are plenty of scorpionfishes and the like around the wreck. Luckily got back to the line and made an ascent but we blew pretty much all our air getting back.

Incidentally the same friend got entangled in one of the wrecks on a different dive (I wasn't there). He was buddied up with an experienced German diver as part of a large group. Somehow the order got mixed up and the German buddy thought my friend was in front of him. My friend got hung up somewhere inside. He was trying to reverse himself and couldn't. He checked his air and that's when his torch went out. Before his eyes adjusted it must have been the freakiest 20secs of his life. Finally he had to remove his equip to get free, then found his way out of the wreck and swam over the top to meet the group as they emerged.

 

[BVickery]

I thumbed my first ever check out dive due to equipment issues.

 

[Centrals]

1. The surface condition was too rough so we went somewhere else.
2. Poor vis. and got separated from everyone.
3. Equipment failure.
4. Blown away by the current on descend.
5. The current was too strong at the bottom.
6. Too narc(air and trimix).

 

[DepthCharge]

The majority of my diving is solo, but I have called dives. Usually before they start. Most for the simple reason that "it didn't feel right". Remember no dive is as important as the next one.