How Much is Too Much?

[lmorin]

Lots of times you have to trust the captain. In the Keys last March, the wind was pretty robust from the east and very few boats were going out. We usually dive with Horizon Divers. The combination of wind speed and the 8-10 ft seas were right at the Dive Op's limit of acceptability for their big boat and too much for the smaller one. The captain said he'd find us someplace decent to dive. Sure enough, the furthest buoy on Molasses was going way up, then way down, but the surge was both predictable and manageable. Vis was not great, but it wasn't horrible either. Four divers (on a boat that holds about 25) had a great dive that day, right along with a massive, heavily barnacled, old-guy-of-the-sea turtle who was waiting for us right under the boat.

 

[Van Isle]

I wouldn't trust a dive op unless they had a track record of being trust worthy. And even then I would trust my own senses. I've called more than a few dives (a few "big ones" in the past week) that have cost me money, time and effort because of not feeling well, not feeling right, or unsafe dive conditions. It's no big deal.

I'm gonna hazard a guess and say that most charters are in the business to make money and in general will go out as long as it's safe for the boat to go out. Then the onus is on the diver to call their own dive, relieving the operator of responsibility for a refund. If the boat can't go out, everyone gets their money back. This is of course in very broad terms, but I've paid $55 for a 7 minute wreck dive in 3+kts of current that we were assured was "a perfect slack."

YMMV

VI

 

[SteveAD]

A decision to abort a dive is never a wrong decision. Any time conditions make you wonder if you should abort, the answer is probably yes. I claim the WUSS lable with pride.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Lots of times you have to trust the captain. In the Keys last March, the wind was pretty robust from the east and very few boats were going out. We usually dive with Horizon Divers. The combination of wind speed and the 8-10 ft seas were right at the Dive Op's limit of acceptability for their big boat and too much for the smaller one. The captain said he'd find us someplace decent to dive. Sure enough, the furthest buoy on Molasses was going way up, then way down, but the surge was both predictable and manageable. Vis was not great, but it wasn't horrible either. Four divers (on a boat that holds about 25) had a great dive that day, right along with a massive, heavily barnacled, old-guy-of-the-sea turtle who was waiting for us right under the boat.

Not sure if it's any different in Florida, but around here the boat captain is responsible for the safety of the boat. The diver is responsible for the safety of the diver.

I've been on board a few times when the captain took us to the dive site only to have the divers look at conditions and say "not today" ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[NvScubaSteve]

A while back my buddy and I went on a drift diving trip out of West Palm. The seas were maybe 5-7 feet. A lot of people on the boat were chumming (I never thought I'd want to eat Cup o' Noodles with people puking all around me, but it was pretty cold that day!). It was easy to get body slammed getting back onto the boat, and one of my friends bashed his face on the transom when the boat took a weird roll, and he came aboard with a mask full of blood.

The next day the seas were 6-10 feet, and the boat still went out. My buddy and I pondered over whether we would be wussies if we didn't go. But we're both still fairly new at this, and we both have shoulder issues. We took a drive to the beach, and there were whitecaps on top of the whitecaps. Plus, the beach was strewn with more Portuguese Man of War than I've ever seen at once. An endless string all up and down the beach. We watched a large commercial boat of some kind riding up and down the waves -- pretty much the only boat out there that day -- and decided to let our money go diving without us.

I know it's entirely a personal decision based on one's own comfort level, fitness and training, but my question is this: How much is too much when it comes to wave heights and safe boat diving?

I agree with what the others have said.... When it conditions look like the fun factor is lost, find another activity. Besides, when the jellyfish decide its time to get out of the water you gotta figure the good times aren't in the ocean....

 

[Luku]

Most certification agencies recommend that divers "plan, conduct and log open water
no stop (no decompression) dives" ... in conditions with which you have training and/or experience.

If you felt that the conditions were beyond your training/experience, you did the right thing.

 

[FloridaRanger]

Wow ... what awesome, insightful and thoughtful responses. Thanks for reassuring me that we did the right thing. After struggling over whether to go or not, we pretty much assured each other on the way home we had made the smart, safe-diver decision.

I got dunked and banged around a lot trying to get onto the boat on the two dives the first day. My biggest fear on the morning of the second wasn't drowning but injuring my shoulder so badly I wouldn't be able to dive again! I've got a partially torn rotator cuff already.

By the way, the 6-10 foot seas estimate didn't come from me but from another diver who went the second day and has 1,000s of dives. But that guy is a former Green Beret and could probably flip the boat over his head if it tried to hurt him.

It's probably telling that at least half our group didn't go the second day. As others have mentioned, I think pressure to make money forced the captain's hand. If he didn't go out, they would have had to refund a full boat. As it was, they took out a much smaller group and got paid for a full boat. I'd like to think safety is always the bottom line, but I'm not that naive.

Also, these were not long swells but the boat bobbing up and down like a pile driver.

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

...My rule of thumb is always ask yourself how you'll get back on the boat. Getting off is the easy part ... but you always have to get back on. If you're uncomfortable with the prospect of boarding the boat in the prevailing conditions, don't go.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Bingo. The difficulty of reboarding is the thing newer dives may not realize/forget.

You may be able to flop into the water in nasty conditions.... but always consider how difficult it is going to be to reboard before making your final decision.

As already mentioned, frequency of the waves is often the deciding factor; 4' wind waves can be near-vertical and closely-spaced, causing the ladder to crash up and down quickly... but a long, rolling, 8' swell could be entirely manageable in the same boat.... But in general, the bigger the swell/waves, the greater the chance of bad injuries...

To the OP: You made a good decision. Always trust your gut feeling, as was already stated.

Best wishes.

 

[pfflyer]

I spent all of my adult life making my living as a pilot. The same decision comes up all the time and there is a great adage, very trite but very true. "It's way better to be down here wishing you were up there than to be up there wishing you were down here." One only needs to be "up there wishing you were down here" once to know the truth of it. Point is, there's always another day to go diving (or flying) if you make the safe choice. That may not be true if you decide to roll the dice.

 

[sydney-diver]

Don't always count on that if the dive is relatively shallow and you're still getting thrown around by the surge. And it depends what you had for your last meal.

I well remember at least one shore dive at about 15ft, looking for sea horses where I was heaving (in more than one sense ) during the whole dive.

I've had similar experiance, where there's surge pushing you around under the water, esp with kelp moving back and forward, it's all bad! Plus being seasick and surfacing down current from the boat is pretty dicey. Hard work swimming against a current when you're barfing...

Plus I've been on a charter where they rush a bunch of occasional OW divers into the water because they were starting to feel sick. One diver missed the line and started drifting and another lost her fin and start panicking. Both their buddies were still on the boat and I ended up having to go in to retrieve them since I was the only geared up non-OW diver that was ready.

The usual adage applies, if it starts going wrong it's not going to get better.