Why is it so hard to thumb a dive?

[TMHeimer]

I've been fortunate in that I've never had to come close to thumbing a dive from a charter. Which, admittedly is good considering travel, cost, maybe getting up at 4:30 A.M., etc.--all factors we SHOULD discount, of course.
I did thumb one shore dive early on (maybe my 20th dive or so) in Rhode Island. Too much surge, too little viz (hard to see the others in the group or even my own buddy). Peer pressure no factor--I didn't know these guys until that day--I gave the signal and returned to shore. So, some 600 dives later, last summer I entered on a Connecticut shore dive at extreme low tide over slippery mossy rocks and some chop, knowing full well the exit would not be easy. It was not. See my thread "Harrowing Exit". I guess once in a while you can still do something stupid.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

There is never a 100% chance that you will survive every dive, even surrounded by the most competent guides and baby sitters. You might have a 99.99999% chance you will come back alive, but never 100%.
Listening to the little voice that tells you to thumb a dive or not may or may not be of any significance. Sometimes the little voice will scream away for no apparent reason and everything goes fine. Other times everything is going smooth and there is no reason in the world to call the dive, and all of a sudden disaster strikes. As long as we take care if the obvious precautions, there really is no guarantee that nothing bad will happen. We know this when we sign up. If you want to be safe then never leave the house.
There is nothing wrong with thumbing a dive, but it's more important to learn to call a dive before it happens if there is any doubt. It's up to you to figure out if it's all imagined or if there is a ligitimate concern to skip a dive. If you are the emotional mystical type that calls dives constantly because they just don't feel right, realize that you may loose dive buddies because of the inconsistency. Many military and commercial diving candidates wash out because of the low tolerance to risk. But if it's real in your mind then it's your reality and that's all that matters. People who chronically call dives because of some imagined paranoia should possibly consider another sport.
Diving is risky and is not for everyone.

 

[GLOC]

Objectives certainly help. However, even with those lines "drawn in the sand" if you have a strong authority gradient between the members, if the most 'authoritative' person decides to carry on after the 'subordinate' person thumbs it, there is often little the other can do because they either ascend on their own or they have to stay at depth. There are numerous reports where this has happened.

GLOC, the short (intro?) course you did at the AAUS conference was great, I hope you come back in the future so I can get in on the full day version. I'm looking forward to doing the on-line class in the meantime.

Chris, I will be at DEMA where I have two presentations covering some of the material I presented at AAUS plus some new material; all of which is about improving human performance, recognising the positive and negative impact of human factors both at the individual level, but also higher up in the organisations and equipment manufacturers. I am looking at running a two-class immediately after DEMA, maybe the Sunday/Monday before I drive/fly over to Denver where I will be delivering a course with the National Park Service Submerged Resources Team. If there is enough interest, I will get something organised. In terms of Galveston, I don't have anything planned, however I do have a course planned for both High Springs and Orlando in Jan/Feb next year if you want to book on. Looking forward to seeing you in the future.

The online class is a great way to get a grounding in the theory and provides some practical exercises and case studies to connect back with the real world of diving. This page has a number of short extracts from that class so people can see what it is about.

 

[jonhall]

I attempted multiple times to get OW Dive 1 before I thumbed it. I was running on little sleep (didn't sleep well night before), running behind due to long check in line that morning, plus arms length viz. Perfect storm of discombobulation. I knew when I had enough on about the 4th attempt to descend and I couldn't get comfortable
Last weekend I went diving with a regional group. Did 2 dives Saturday. First ones after certification. About 30 minutes into 2nd dive, I just had enough and thumbed it.
I'm glad I've learned to do this early in my diving career.

Curious as to what conditions led you to thumb the 2nd dive after 30 minutes. Why did you "just have enough?"

Being in Indy and knowing the diving options around here is one of the reasons I travel to dive warm, clear waters. About the worst I've been in had about 15-20 ft visibility. And although it doesn't happen on all dives/trips, I appreciate the dive ops that have more than 1 dive master/guide on a boat that actually go on the dive. This allows the diver having a problem to surface and return to the boat while the rest of the divers continue (have seen this happen many times.)

There is a difference between a person thumbing a dive after taking several minutes trying to equalize one's ears and descend (they can be taken back to the boat) and a person already ½ way through a 60 minute dive thumbing it because they had enough (everyone goes back to the boat.)

Probably because of the better conditions I dive in, it would have to be something pretty bad in my mind that would make me thumb a dive knowing that others have paid $$ for the dive (peer pressure.) There are so many factors and situations that can give rise to a diver being uncomfortable. Being uncomfortable would have me alerting and swimming closer to my dive buddy. Emergency/ life threatening situations, such as out of air, is a different story.

The best thing for a diver (especially a new one), of course, is to practice and become more proficient and comfortable with diving.

 

[Marie13]

I was beat and my knee was bothering me. My stamina isn't the best yet but I'll be working on that over the winter. These were my first dives after certification.

 

[Neilwood]

Had no problems thumbing one of my AOW dives (was my 12th dive) due to low visibility despite having a fair bit of time &money spent on it (had to drive over an hour to get to the boat and then had another 20-30 minutes travel on the boat to the dive site) . Visibility was barely 1m, my dive buddy had difficulties getting down (new drysuit user) so when we dropped I went to about 3m initially where I had already lost visual contact with him and the instructor, carried on down to 9m (as was the plan), stayed for about 20 secs at which point I treated it as lost buddy situation and ascended to the surface where I found them exactly where they had been. Instructor asked what do you think to which I replied forget it. Discussed it back on the boat on our way back in and he agreed the right call had been made and I was right to have the courage to call it. Did the same dive 2 weeks later and everything went 100% OK.

 

[icechip]

It's also tough before you even get wet! Just this morning after arriving at the site, we called off a dive due to winds out of the south, which tend to blow out the cove we wanted to explore. There were three of us planning to dive. Me and my usual dive buddy and a kid from the local high school who has been wanting to get more cold water diving under his belt. When we called the dive, the kid was bummed, but was reminded that the ocean will always be there.

 

[Bubblesong]

I have another factor to consider, all the gear cleaning and tank refill hassle I have to do if I waste it on a crappy dive. This will get me to thumb a dive even if I drove two hours each way.