Today is not a good day to dive...

[FurtekJR]

I have been diving for several years and consider myself to be a very "safety oriented" diver (I generally subscribe to the DIR philosophy of diving). I believe and follow the principle that any diver can "call" a dive for any reason (or no reason).

I also strongly believe that a diver shouldn't dive if they don't feel well (or otherwise don't feel "up to" diving that day). Today, I was faced with making one of the more difficult diving decisions that I have had to make. My local quarry was hosting a "Polar Bear" dive today and I was really looking forward to going and getting in some good pre-season dives. It has been a few months since I have been diving and I am going nuts out of the water. Anyways, on Wednesday or Thursday of this week I woke up with a minor ear ache. It felt like a relatively minor outer ear infection. I used alcohol ear drops and it generally felt like it was getting better. I was also fairly congested most of this week. To top it off, I also got about half the amount of sleep that I normally get. As much as I wanted to go diving, I decided to see how I felt yesterday and make my decision. Yesterday morning I woke up ok and felt like I would have been able to clear my ears and safely dive today. I got my tanks filled yesterday afternoon and did all my pre-season checks and loaded my gear in my car. I decided that I would take it fairly easy and, obviously, call the dive if I had any difficultly clearing my ears.

This morning, I woke up with a minor sore throat and quite a bit of congestion. In addition, my ear ache was not completely gone. Ultimately, I made the decision not to dive today and unloaded all of gear from my car.

It's never easy to decide that today is not a good day to dive. It was the first time that I have had to make this decision and I was a little bit surprised at how conflicted that I felt. I really wanted to dive today. Ultimately I know that I made the right decision.

 

[tstormdiver]

Kudos on knowing your limits. The dive site will still be there when you're feeling better. No sense in risking injury. I also hold to that any diver may call any dive at any time, no questions asked.

Last year I agreed to take a newer diver on a cold water dive. The quarry is 1-1/2hrs away. We got there & once we got waist deep in the water, my inflator decided to act up. I decided to call the dive. I could have dove & manually inflated, but I did not feel comfortable diving with a beginner who had never been in cold water before & malfunctioning equipment. We were both disappointed & went home.

 

[CamG]

Greetings FurtekJR and I understand your feelings very well. Just this past fall in Oct. / Nov. I came down with the flu. Well I was never tested but it lasted for about a month and half. H1N1? Who knows! What I did know was i had one more check out dive to complete my Adv. Nitrox and Deco. certification. It was unbearable and very depressing. I eventually had to just focus on staying home and getting better.
I made it back into the water in December to finish. I dove every week end that month.
Take your time to heal and be able to dive safe and enjoy it. Read and research dive interests and I like to re-read training books and plan dives. It keeps skills sharp then I visualize the gear up and dive! It sounds crazy but will keep the dry rot at bay till you can get wet. I also keep pool arrangements at a close standby. It is better than nothing and a lot warmer than ice diving!
Hang in there brother, spring is coming!
CamG Keep diving....keep training....keep learning!

 

[TSandM]

It's always hard to call a dive, when the decision isn't completely clear. I've had the experience of calling a dive from a charter boat,when I didn't like the conditions at the site -- and despite knowing that I'd paid for the trip and wasn't going to get a refund. That was hard. So was turning a dive about ten minutes into it in Jackson Blue one day, just because I wasn't having fun and didn't want to be there any more.

But the worst is having to call a dive when there is one person counting on you to be there so THEY can dive. That's the worst part of this as a buddy sport, for me.

 

[noreastDIVER84]

I know about calling a dive. I have called 5 dives to date:

The first one was because the site was a clusterphuck of divers(over 75 divers under 2 bridges in a strong current)
The next time the vis wasn't the greatest and there were some triggerhappy spearfishers going in saying it is hard to mistake a person for a fish(yes it could be, but when you are triggerhappy that is another story)

The next was in Belize and I had been congested and having a hard time equalizing. I did the first dive and came up with a headache from not being able to fully equalize.

The next two dives were in Costa Maya, I was congested and did not feel I was going to be able to equalize.

I do not like to call a dive, but I have determined my limits and regret that some of the dives were called because of other peoples stupidity. But I would rather stay out of the water than have something stupid happen.

 

[Garrobo]

I would have a hard time calling a dive since I fly 900 miles to Ft.Laud, and then drive 100 miles to the motel in the Keys, too late to cancel either the motel or dive shop. A couple times I have felt a little shi**y so hired a DM to accompany me on the dive just in case. Usually turns out to be old age acting up and I'm OK when I hit the water. Salt water breeze and a boat ride out to the reefs and wrecks is a cure for a bunch of temporary ailments.

 

[Sas]

But the worst is having to call a dive when there is one person counting on you to be there so THEY can dive. That's the worst part of this as a buddy sport, for me.

I know! That's the worst part about it for me. I recently had to call my first boat dive. I had had multiple problems with a regulator I had borrowed from a friend. I was able to get another regulator off another friend (as I wasn't happy with the first set, in the end a good call as there was something wrong with it in the end), all worked fine. But then when I jumped in the water my HP hose blew up. I had a spare... but it was going to be a 40m decompression dive and after all the problems I'd had in the morning trying to get setup I wasn't in the right frame of mind.

I offered to pay for my buddy's dive but he didn't accept! He said it was no big deal, but I still felt bad about ending his dive too. Especially as he had to sit on the rough surface with me for an hour.

 

[Deep South Divers]

Good on ya. I would have had a lot of respect for the diver that called it, for any reason.

Live to dive another day.

 

[diver 85]

Don't dive today & live to dive tomorrow,----maybe??......sounds like you made a good call IMO.....

 

[BuoyantC]

I heard the best quote from Capt. Karen of Lost Island Voyages two years ago.

" If in doubt, there is no doubt. The answer is no".