How Often Do You Abort Dives?

[j yaeger]

i recall quite a few that should have been thumbed...
but dived anyways.
smarting lessons...DOH!
coming out at an exit waaay down stream from planned exit due to buddys freeflowing probs in 32*f water and 7* air
and not being able to crawl up onto the ice because of it collapsing...
our shore helper missed the part where she was supposed to keep checking on us-with the rope!-it was warm in the truck...
any diver
can call any dive
at any time
have fun
yaeg

 

[Adventure-Ocean]

It's hard to say how many dives were cut shorter than planned. I did a lot of diving with a purpose, a job to do. The job could dictate when we were finished. I only cut short a couple of dives that were pleasure dives. My son cut his finger on a barnacle once and I had a problem with my BC inflator that annoyed me enough to cut short a dive once. Diving in warm, clear water had a lot to do with trouble free diving. Maintaining my diving equipment also helped. Bad weather or rough seas were easy to avoid because we had so many perfect, beautiful days to choose from. Your question has again made me reflect on the thousands of dives made trouble free. Thank you... Adventure-Ocean

 

[islanddream]

I've aborted dives twice and they were both in FL this summer. The first time was in Key Largo on our first dive of the day. The seas were very rough and the surge was horrible. I started throwing up in my reg and decided to abort after about 20 minutes in the water. The second time was in August in Jupiter. My computer read 69 degrees and I was absolutely freezing underwater! Came up after about 15 minutes in the water.

My "little voice" has told me a couple of times not to do a second dive. The most recent was in Coz in November when I felt seasick after the first dive and had an excruciating headache. I stayed on the boat and rested while the rest of my buddies did dive two. I didn't regret my decision.

 

[Diver0001]

How often do you abort a dive? I'm asking purely out of curiosity after going through my own logbook. There can't be a 'right' number. I was going to ask 'how many dives have you aborted?', but realised those of you with hundreds or thousands of dives logged probably couldn't count. You might be able to give a rough estimate of how frequently it's happened in recent times, though. By 'abort', I mean end the dive some time after kitting up for 'abnormal' reasons.

I've aborted four so far out of 80-something dives. My first post-cert dive I swam out to the buoy line, descended to about 0.5 metres (~2 feet) and came straight back up -- to nervous. After getting composing myself I dived later that same day, just needed to take it a bit slower than everyone else when kitting up and doing checks and such. The next was the deep dive for my AOW cert -- my buddy gave the thumb after descending to around 10 metres. The water was pea green, terrible vis, and he was a little spooked. The only I was really disappointed about ending was when I couldn't equalise -- the vis that day was beautiful, but I just couldn't get down to the wreck. The last one I aborted was last weekend -- terrible vis, just wasn't worth it.

So far I've had no 'interesting' ends to dives -- equipment failures or incidents of any sort. I've cancelled a good few more dives before getting out to the site, the weather being what it is. And I've had a few where we've opted for an alternate, more sheltered, site due to conditions at our first choice. I don't count those as 'aborted', though.

If you mean "abort" as in "not go diving" due to wind, weather, or any number of issues that affect one's ability to dive optimally at the time when the dive had been scheduled, including not feeling like it or being too tired... then the answer is "frequently".

If you mean "abort" as in stopping a dive in progress for some unforeseen reason that would make continuing unwise or unsafe, then the answer is 'seldom'.

R..

 

[freewillie]

It's more about the conditions and your dive buddy than an actual number or ratio. You and your buddy can be all set to go but then mother nature steps and ruins your plans. I've "thumbed" a few dives a few days before when it rained and we were issued a rain advisory to stay out of the water. Usually it's early enough in the week where we didn't rent gear. Once we got all the way down to the beach then realized surf was much bigger than expected reports and thumbed the dive then.

Several times my daughter thumbed the second dive after getting either sea sick on the boat and didn't feel like diving due to nausea, a few time she got too cold and thumbed due to exposure. Both times I had spent the money on the boat. Normally I would be a irritated. After one rough day where the waves were very choppy and we had a bumpy ride making both of us sea sick, she then thumbed the second dive and third dives. We sat on the boat and chatted. Once back in the marina we stopped at a restaurant to eat a little something to help our stomachs. Driving home she said, "thanks daddy for the fun day." Really? Turns out she did have a fun time on the first dive and just enjoyed spending time with me and leaving the two younger ones at home. Come to think of it, I just really enjoy spending time with her too.

 

[Foxfish]

As I recall I've never called to abort a dive part way through a dive. The only time I can think of even considering the possibility was yesterday when I had indigestion pains. They went after a while. I did once swim what appeared to be an unconscious buddy to the surface.

 

[Diver0001]

The only time I can think of even considering the possibility was yesterday when I had indigestion pains.

I get that every single time I make the mistake of eating at McDonalds before diving (or before any other activity for that matter).

I did once swim what appeared to be an unconscious buddy to the surface.

Wow.... and was he unconscious?

R..

 

[Dirty-Dog]

Not counting dives that never started, I've thumbed one dive. We were on Curacao right after hurricane Tomas and ended up canceling about half our dive days due to crappy conditions. On one of the days we did dive, we entered the water to dive Pierbai and thumbed it in just a couple minutes. You could not swim against the current, period, and the vis was about 2 feet.

 

[dmoore19]

Once, the glass came out of my mask on a night dive. I was about 5 minutes from the dive being over anyway. Slowly surfaced from about 20' and finished swimming to the boat on my back. Max depth on the dive was only 28FSW.

 

[MalibuJerry]

It is not the number of times you have done it that matters. You should always do it when conditions are not right or you are not feeling it. That could be frequent, it could be rare. The other question is how often do you dive and later say "I wish I had not done that?" That is where the errors and problems come in, not the waiting for a better day.