What is your worst dive?

[Elkfriend]

Mine are actually a couple of 'hate-love" dives, they were spectacular, but also scary and with hindsight maybe risky. One was the "blue hole' in belize, the other one was "twilight zone" on Saba!

Both very deep dives 140ft or so, but the worst were the friggin sharks. Yes, I know they are supposed to be harmless but:

In Belize, the boat operator pours a couple of buckets with fish remains and blood into the water, to attract the sharks and get them worked up pretty good. Just for entertainment of the divers on the boat.

Then you go diving there. The sharks associate divers with food, so they follow you so closely that they can almost sniff your bum, looking for food.
Encouraging such behaviour with wild animals is plain stupid. I hunt and camp a lot in the Rockies here in Canada and rule #1 is do NOT feed wildlife. This is how attacks on humans are caused down the road!

In Saba, the dive was just scary because on the deco stop, you are hanging like bait in the water and the way the sharks circle you (very close) is a bit unnerving.

On both dives, my wife and I were both scared ****less, but the dives also were so beautiful that I will never forget them!

 

[viola123]

That seems a good idea.

 

[k ellis]

Well Id have to say the worst dive as in actually during the dive was a lake called swepco near siloam springs. The visibility had to be a whopping 6 inches and the entry was a nightmare. It was during a friend of mines open water cert so I went along for the ride.

As we were down about 15 feet you would almost thing your in a windowless room during a cloudy night for all the good the light did.

As far as worst pre dive and post dive was my dive in Key Largo. There was no current under water yet the waves on the surface were in excess of 5 feet in height so grabbing the decent lines buoy to begin my decent was quiet interesting.

 

[Mr. Nudi]

Few months ago we went out on Memorial Day for a 3 tank dive at Catalina. Needless to say, we get to the boat and we find out they overbooked it by 6 people. The boat could hold 22 which is a little on the crowed side, but add 6 more to it and it sucked. Was asked to condense our two dive bags into one and take the other dive bag back to the truck.

From there, looking around, my gf and I were surrounded by all students, just fresh out of their pool session the day before. Luckily the DM put us at the back to get us in the water faster, rather than having to wait to get in after the students. On top of that, the captain parked on a level ocean bottom for the students with nothing to look at but a few rocks and sand.

Even better.... as we are ready to jump in another diver w/o a buddy asked to tag along with us at the last. It wasn't a problem until we got in the water and all he wanted to do was snap pictures of the rock pile the entire dive. Each time we wanted to move and explore more sand and a potential structure, we would have to stop, wait for a picture, proceed, stop, wait...... This happened for dive two as well.

In the end.... we said f* dive three and drank on the boat.

Now.... each time I reserve spots on the dive boat, I ask if there are students on board. I don't mind a class, but when the entire boat is packed with students.... NO MORE.

In the past year, even though I am still new, I come to appreciate etiquette A LOT!

 

[Dr Neil]

My worst/suckiest dive was my very first boat dive. (Also a comedy of errors.)

My teenage son and I had logged 20+ quarry dives and decided to venture into the ocean and dive the Chesapeake Light Tower with a local dive boat.

The comedy started with the top of my brand new wet suit blowing overboard. Thank goodness it floated and the captain turned around and the DM fished it out of the water.

At the dive site, the boat could not tie onto one of the tower legs due to the surge so it anchored and the DM tied it in at the bottom of a tower leg.

We got in the water and the visibility was nonexistent. The water temp was 50 degrees. Somewhere near the bottom of the leg, my son lost one of his weight pockets making him rather buoyant. I grabbed on to him to hold him down.

We start crabbing along the bottom in search of the next tower leg. We successfully found legs 2 & 3 but somewhere between legs 3 & 4 we were caught in the surge and ended up out in the sand. We looked around for a few minutes for a landmark to no avail. We finally decided to surface not knowing where we were going to come up. We surfaced about 50 yards away from both the boat and the tower. Now facing the fear that we would get caught in the current and would be in Delaware before the boat picked us up, we both swam for our lives.

Once back on the boat the DM didn't even realize where we had surfaced. That fact scared me more than anything. Needless to say, nobody on the boat wanted to do a second dive.

As a foot note, another diver surfaced with my son's weight pocket so both of our lost items were recovered.

 

[DeepSeaDan]

I posted this years ago, but it defineately relates to the question...


http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/non-diving-related-stuff/7275-up-my-chicken-guts.html

Regards,
DSD

 

[Grish]

My worst was probably actually the one I did a couple of weeks ago on the F.W. Abrams wreck in the outer banks. Not 30 seconds into the dive I got stung so badly on my lip by a jellyfish that I was yelling and cussing into my regulator. It was generally the same story 2/3 of the way down the line getting repeatedly stung all over my face, and on the bottom it was cold, green, 25 feet of visibility with a reasonably strong current and hardly any fish. My buddy and I quickly aborted the dive, and on the way up I again, got stung all over my face and ears. During our safety stop on the hang line, my lips got stung really badly AGAIN, and I just went up after that. I was ready to cry. My whole face hurt, my lips were swollen and dotted with red sting marks, and the dive had been generally blah.

 

[MonkeyBiz]

I don't have a lot of dives, but I had one that pissed me off...

Went on a boat dive with 4 other quite experianced divers. They were all dry, had computer ect and alot more experiance than myself. Did dive #1, 46 feet to the sand, 20 some minuites, Dive #2 20 Foot to the sand 30 some minuites.. No prolbems. Went to a new wreck, 93 feet to the sand. Keep in mind, water temp is 45degF, I'm in a 6mm wet while they are dry, I'm on regular gauges, they have mutiple computers, they all have enviro sealed regs, I have a Mark 20. To try to be "safer" my buddy and I decided to Shoulder up so I was "diving" on his computer. he has a larger tank so that was already on my mind. Was told that the wreck should be right at the bottom of the anchor line. Start decent, get below 60feet can start feeling the cold and the compression. get to the bottom and nothing. lead diver turns around, looks at us and did the shoulder shrug saying, "I don't know where it is." So he picked up the anchor and started swimming, looking for the wreck. 30~vis. I look at my gauges and somthing didn't look right. So now I have on my mind I'm cold, feeling pressure unlike anything i've felt, we weren't really sure where the wreck was, I was "diving" on my buddie's computer, who had more air, and wasn't breathing nearly as rapidly as I was, and now something doesn't look right on my gauges. On top of that I felt I was adding to much air to my BC to get bouency under control. I mentally hit the panic button.
Told my buddy, I had to go up. he asked if I was ok, to him yes, but breathing was way high, didn't like my situation and was cold. that I had to go. He asked if I needed him to go with me, I said I should be good, but I had to go. From my training as a firefighter, I had the place of mind to make a slow controlled asent, do a safety stop ect. As I was asending, I was doing the short quick breath thing, and couldn't slow myself down. While at my safety stop monitoring my depth/air gauges realized that my gauges looked normal again. Didn't make sense, but I was back above the thermocline and in 52ish degreeF water, so I was comfortable, but still couldn't catch my breath. completed my safety stop and finished my asent. Got top side, spit my reg and could finally breathe. I felt fine, was mad at myself, but was fine. Got back on the boat and realised what looked wrong on my gauges. When I was at depth, the color red wasn't red any more. I was so mad at myself.

What I learned.
#1 Don't EVER think diving on sombody else's computer is sufficiant.
#2 Know you limits. Dropping that deep, with my limited experiance was overconfidense on my part.
#3 Knowing you buddy is essential to any dive (he and I have been best friends for 8+ years.)
#4 I'm SOOO glad I have been privlideged to have some great training.
#5 Familiaty with you equipment is essential (I had just bought my stuff the week before)
#6 "Warm up dives". Dropping 100% deeper than I had been in 9 years is stupid.
I'm sure there is more, but I don't need to write a book.

 

[robint]

8 yrs ago, my worst dive, well actually 2 worst (I always say I have never had a bad dive as I LEARN something from every dive), but the least enjoyable dives I ever had were:

I was getting my AOW here in NM at the local dive spot, Blue Hole in Santa Rosa. It is a fresh water spring, deep and dark, bell shaped with a smallish hole at top. So that means it is always dark inside.
AOW Dive #1... multi-level dive, group of 5 divers went down with 2 DMs... it was very cold weather, middle of winter but water is steady 62 degrees year round. We were all in 7mm wetsuits and heavy lead. I am swimming along in the deep, dark, scary hole and suddenly notice that several divers are missing! I look around all panicked and realize that my hubby and daughter (who was 12 at the time) are headed to the surface. I turn to the DM, my eyes must have been the size of saucers, and he tried to calm me and tell me it was all okay. I was freaking out but I did finish the dive, just me and DM as everyone else had gone up. (turns out my daughter was cold and had to go up, hubby got caught in some bubbles from divers deeper than us which caused him to go up.) I actualy started crying when I surfaced as I was so concerned about my family, they were fine. Daughter and I decided to wait a few months to finish our AOW but hubby finished that weekend.

next ugly dive, a few months later at same place:
AOW Night dive: I was buddied with my hubby, it was my first ever night dive but he had already done his. We descended and I forgot everything I had learned. I couldn't read my gauges - duh, its night, and I couldn't remember to shine my light on them. I kept clearing my ears and looking at my gauges in the dark. We kept going down and down and down.... my hubby grabbed me, realizing I was "lost". He told me to add air, I did but still kept staring at my gauge! I had a light in one hand but couldn't figure it out! We ended up at about 50' depth before he got me stopped. Then I looked around and saw stuff floating upwards and figured I was still falling... so I added more air to BC. Wrong! We were in a bottom fed spring so everything floats upwards! So all of a sudden I start moving up, and I add more air. Hubby grabs me and tries to grab the wall to keep us from jetting to surface.... It was an ugly, ugly, ugly dive!!! By now I was panicking and wanted out of the water. I still couldn't remember how to view my gauges, it was dark and I was completely out of it! Hubby finally got me calm (remember he only has a few dives more than me!), showed me to shine my light on the gauge, and we circled around and at about 20 minutes we end the dive as I can't get comfortable and feel overwhelmed. Once we get out of water and hubby talks to me, I felt like an idiot...... but I learned a huge lesson. Don't get overwhelmed - you get tunnel vision. :shocked2: All I could think about was reading that stupid gauge! I finished my AOW that weekend and decided I love diving and can't wait to get in the water again.

After that dive, my hubby decided he wanted to become a DM. And he did a few months later, working for the dive shop with other students. He is now an instructor and loves loves loves it.... my very ugly Night Dive was a turning point for him as well as for me.

robin

 

[lmorin]

Last summer in Roatan. Not enough people had signed up for a scheduled boat dive, so someone began to recruit more divers from among the guests at the resort. By the time of the dive, there were 18 on the boat. Wind had gone from being gentle in the AM to a steady 20-25 mph by the evening. The site for the dive was on a reef with the mooring in 17 ft of water. When moored, the boat began to buck up and down with a large motion. We geared up and as the dive began, two people were knocked over by the boat motion. My wife and I were pushed into the lettuce coral on the reef the instant we hit the water. Our ankles were sliced. Too many people in the water; too many lights bouncing up and down; way too much turmoil and too much worry about being physically forced into the reef by the surge. My wife and I linked arms, found the DM, and swam around right behind him for 45 min. Too turbulent to get close to the reef and look for small things. Most divers were anxious to get back on the boat. But, those that were among the first to return suffered most from sea sickness, including me. In retrospect, everyone was in agreement that the dive should have been canceled and dubbed it, "The dive from hell."