How Often Do You Abort Dives?

[Diver0001]

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.

A lot of wisdom in that post!

I triggered on the term, "not feeling it". I once had a buddy blow off a dive a few minutes before were were due to hit the water. We were mostly geared up. The reason he gave was, this: "Rob, I'm really sorry. I can't explain it, but I have a bad feeling about this dive."

To confirm, I asked him if he wanted to back out of the dive and he said, "yes". Based only on that, we packed up and went home. No hard feelings. No questions asked. A few days later we did the dive anyway when he was mentally "feeling it". I never saw him has being weak for that. On the contrary, he gained a great deal of respect from me that day for showing the cajones to speak his mind when so many others would not have.

Peer pressure is a real risk factor for divers. The number of dives you cancel isn't important. Having the guts to cancel the ones you don't "feel", is.

R..

 

[Steve_C]

Not sure what counts as an abortion of a dive. Come up with extra air left? Couple times I have had an equipment issue and returned to boat/shore and fixed the issue and then did a dive.

Very first dive I met an instabuddy at the quarry. Anxious to dive. Viz had gone kaput. Swam out and dropped horizontal. Saw the bottom a second before my face hit it. Had a same quarry buddy. After going to surface twice to look for him in the first 5 minutes I thumbed the dive.

In cold water I thumbed a couple because I could feel my legs getting a bit heavy and knew it was time. Also in cold water I am more likely to not do a second dive if we are talking a quarry or the like.

Have had dive thumbed by buddy for cold/air a few times. Always have escorted them back to boat. Sometimes that ended my dive and sometimes not depending on conditions, understanding with boat, whether I am in solo configuration, etc.

Have had a couple buddies thumb a second dive due to nausea, fatigue, etc. I have always buddied up with some one else then for the second dive.

Once I had planned a 4 dive day in the Keys but had some nausea on the boat during the first pair of dives (very unusual for me) and I canceled the afternoon dives and only did two dives.

I don't count dives canceled due to weather. In NC that would probably be 30-40% of the dives depending on the year. But the op I usually use usually cancels the day before so that is no big deal.

 

[Wingy]

Once in Thailand sat out the third dive after developing a screaming migraine at 25m and blowing chunks repeatedly.
Once in Bali on a night dive due to rough shore entry resulting in loss of one contact lense (I can dive with one eye shut) then losing my primary torch when handing it to guide who's torch failed..he failed to grab it in the current. We dropped down and were forced to crab along the rocks due to the current really picking up when my back up torch lanyard broke and guides back up also failed...
Bora Bora had a tank leak but fixed it then went back down.

Also do not count dives as aborted due to weather.....if theres no boats leaving, its hard to dive.

 

[Foxfish]

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


Wow.... and was he unconscious?

R..

Ha. Like the one about Mc Donald's.

He was a recent friend and not someone with whom I'd done much diving. We anchored in about 10 m of water and had just started the dive. We dropped to the bottom and all appeared okay. I swam off a little way looking at the reef and noticed a big hole that went down another 6 m so I dropped into the hole to have a quick look. When I came up a little while later I looked over at my buddy. He was doing what appeared to be frog hops along the reef and the bubbles were profuse and erratic. This went on for some time. I motioned for him to come over but he seemed to ignore me. I swam over and looked into his mask. His face look pale to bluish and bloated - like death warmed up. He appeared to be spaced out though he was breathing. I dropped one of his weights and swam him to the surface. When we got to the surface he was conscious and we climbed back onto the boat. He had a blood nose. He said he had trouble equalizing and shouldn't have done the dive. I didn't press him on the matter any further so I'm not really sure what happened. I'm not sure he really knew what happened. I went and retrieved his weights and we called it a day.

 

[shoredivr]

I'm going with the definition of 'abort' that means ive got to the dive site, either a shore dive or a boat dive. I'm either
Observing the entry, putting my gear together or (twice) fully kitted up. More than a third of my dives are solo, and it's easy to abort one of those for me. I've aborted dives if I didn't feel comfortable for some reason (weather, waves, feeling off physically, feeling off mentally, not happy with instabuddy). Sometimes resisting peer pressure, too. Usually the abort is before getting in the water, once just before jumping off the dive boat deck. It just wasn't right, waves too choppy. I actuall can't think of a dive I've aborted in the water. I don't know how many aborted dives in the many dives I've done, but I am happy that if it feels like that day is not a day to dive, then I don't. The water will be there the next day.
I used to do the same thing with riding a motorcycle, back in the 1980s

 

[tracydr]

Most if my aborts have been night dives where my husband's finicky lights for his video decided not to work. I've had a few for personal reasons, mainly just not feeling like diving that day.
My most significant abort was last March. I squatted down and realized that my knees were so sore that I couldn't.
Turned out that I had severe osteonecrosis in both knees, probably from a steroid treatment I'd gotten several years preciously. I still think that I got slightly bent the day before. I had vertigo at 125 feet and came up rather fast to a safety stop. I believe if I wasn't bent, I had enough nitrogen in my bones to cause some more infarcts to already damaged bones.
I've since found out that I have a clotting disorder which puts me at risk for blood clots and definitely contributed to the problem. I learned a lot from that last dive and when I start back up again I will be making sure that I don't ever bubble too much or cause myself to get hurt, barring unforeseen problems.
Moving to North Carolina next summer and I can't wait to try cave diving! Not to mention wrecks, meg tooth diving,etc. I'm sure it's better than Arizona or Oklahoma!

 

[Diver0001]

After my last post, I'd like to relate a story about a dive that went ahead due to "peer pressure" and could have ended badly.

A group of divers and crew took a boat trip out on the North Sea. We left at about 11pm to get to where we would be diving at about 7am (IIRC). Nobody slept overly well and several were sea sick before getting to the first dive site.

The boat anchored over the wreck and we all geared up. I was to dive with two buddies that day. One of them was fit and the other wasn't. He didn't want to miss the dive and I didn't want him to miss the dive. I gave him a pep-talk and we got all geared up. He wanted to go but I could see he was struggling. I figured if he got in the water that he wouldn't feel so sea sick and his head would clear so I kept pushing him.

We plunged. The line to the wreck was at an angle and we descended through about 30 metres of swirling algae before arriving on the bottom. Upon arriving he let go of the rope and fell to his knees on the bottom, hunched over like a runner who had just crossed the finish line. I could see his breathing was out of control. He was panting. I took position in front of him and signed to "slow down", to "breathe".... gave him signs for "no problem" and "wait".... at first he didn't look at me, but when he did, it was frightening. He suddenly looked up but didn't look in my eyes. I could see that he looked right through me, like I wasn't there.... and then BAM!!! he took off to the surface like a bat out of hell.

I managed to get a hand on him and deflated my BCD to slow him down. He had ahold of the up-line and was swimming like he had seen the devil himself. About 1/2 way to the surface he slowed down and at 5m he suddenly stopped, turned to me, perfectly calmly, and said, "OK" and then signed that his breathing was ok and he would do a safety stop. I waited for him to do his SS and surface and then myself and the other buddy descended again and finished what was left of the planned dive.

And THAT is what peer pressure will do. This was a diver with several hundred dives under his belt but because of me pushing him and him not being strong enough to put the brakes on we got ourselves in a situation that could have ended very badly. At the time I just felt terrible that he missed the dive and mostly wondered what had happened that he couldn't control his breathing. It was only after the fact that I realized that my own behaviour had contributed significantly to him putting himself in that position.

R..

---------- Post added December 24th, 2013 at 03:18 AM ----------

Ha. Like the one about Mc Donald's.

He was a recent friend and not someone with whom I'd done much diving. We anchored in about 10 m of water and had just started the dive. We dropped to the bottom and all appeared okay. I swam off a little way looking at the reef and noticed a big hole that went down another 6 m so I dropped into the hole to have a quick look. When I came up a little while later I looked over at my buddy. He was doing what appeared to be frog hops along the reef and the bubbles were profuse and erratic. This went on for some time. I motioned for him to come over but he seemed to ignore me. I swam over and looked into his mask. His face look pale to bluish and bloated - like death warmed up. He appeared to be spaced out though he was breathing. I dropped one of his weights and swam him to the surface. When we got to the surface he was conscious and we climbed back onto the boat. He had a blood nose. He said he had trouble equalizing and shouldn't have done the dive. I didn't press him on the matter any further so I'm not really sure what happened. I'm not sure he really knew what happened. I went and retrieved his weights and we called it a day.

Wow.... sounds like that could easily have ended in disaster.

R..

 

[Foxfish]

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.

Some good points but I'd also add if you are aborting dives frequently then have a think about underlying problems. If it is gear, get good gear and check it before the dive. I normally check air pressures, regulator operation and BCD operation the night before a dive. If it is weather, why not check the forecast on the net. In our area you can get a pretty good idea a week in advance. My rule of thumb for comfortable diving is no more than 15 knot winds and 1.5 m swell. If you are frequently aborting dives because of health issues is this really the sport for you.

That said, if you need to abort a dive then you should do it and not feel pressured to continue. Your buddy should respect your decision without question and not pressure you to continue. On a recent dive my buddy was anxious and not feeling well. I guided her back to the boat. It was a charter and her over riding concern was that if she bailed I wouldn't have a buddy. She'd had a bit of trouble on the previous dive with her ears. She needed to be more assertive about not diving. A simple 'Sorry but I'm really not feeling up to this', is all that is needed and then head straight back to the boat. Save the detailed explanation for later.

 

[manni-yunk]

If we are defining aborted a dive, as ending a dive earlier than planned, but after the dive started, for a reason that was either not repairable, or caused a member of the team to thumb the dive -


Then Ive aborted quite a few. In somewhere near 350, I have probably aborted 20 or so for various reasons and will do so again in a heartbeat.

 

[Griffo]

I've aborted a number of "second dives" when I just wasn't up for it, or I was colder than expected. If you are cold starting a dive, it's definately not going to improve! I've also cut a couple of dives short for the same reason.
I've had to abort a couple due to regulator issues either on the surface or shortly after descending. I've now changed brands.
I've thumbed one dive as soon as I was able to as it degraded into a dangerous and scary dive. And there's been a couple where i've ignored the DM and thumbed it due to concern over remaining gas supplies.
So I think my % is actually quite high but all for good reason. I certainly have never regretted thumbing a dive, I have regretted NOT thumbing a dive however.