Do you listen to the Voice?

[Tonio Anastasi]

This is the voice that tells you not to dive. It's a hunch or intuition that it's not your day to be diving. Supposedly, it is the little light that goes off in your head to warn you of danger. I did one dive where I essentially ignored the voice, and I had another experience where I heard it loud and clear.

Earlier this year, I went on a cave dive that would stretch my training and experience. We had planned this trip for a while, and in the weeks before the trip, I was having second thoughts about whether I was ready for the dive. I thought about all the ways that it could go wrong. My worry peaked during breakfast, and on the way to the site, I had nervous butterflies and knots in my stomach. I had never been that worried about a dive before, but I tried to not let it show. As soon as we pulled up to the sight and I started getting my gear ready, the nervousness was gone and I was all green lights. The dive was uneventful. What confuses me is that if there was ever a dive that I was going to thumb, this would be the one, yet I completely ignored the nervousness, the fear of dying, and everything else that told me to call the dive before it started.

The other day, I was home in my kitchen, when I heard a noise like my neighbor dropped something (I live in a condo with shared walls). I was about to disregard it, but something struck me as odd, and I felt like something was urgently wrong. I ran to the water meter and I could see that the dial was spinning but I knew that I wasn't using the water. I shut it down and looked around the house. A pipe had frozen and burst in my bathroom. Luckily I had caught it just as it happened, so it wasn't a big mess. I'm not sure what set me off, I just had a feeling that something was wrong. There was never a rational thought in my mind that it was below freezing outside and maybe I burst a pipe, but my first reaction was to check the water meter. Maybe, subconsciously, the sound of the water rushing through the pipes bothered me?

The burst pipe isn't as potentially dangerous as diving, but what I can't explain was why one circumstance was direly urgent, while the other was just uncomfortable. It seems like it should be the other way around and I should be less concerned about a burst pipe than the most challenging dive I've done so far.

Does anyone have any insight or similar experiences?

There were a couple of time when I did not listen to the voice.
Got in the water and eventually, when the voice started to turn to a scream. I turned around and exited.
Got out in time before conditions deteriorated. I do mostly shore dives here, so deteriorateing sea conditions means difficulty getting out or needing to be air lifted out.

 

[m3830431]

There were a couple of time when I did not listen to the voice.
Got in the water and eventually, when the voice started to turn to a scream. I turned around and exited.
Got out in time before conditions deteriorated. I do mostly shore dives here, so deteriorateing sea conditions means difficulty getting out or needing to be air lifted out.

As we all now there are the voices and ther are the VOICES, Panic is not an option it will kill. I just read an article on DANS no different than many where two individuals did not make it due to panic as usual both had workin equipment and plenty of O2.

good links.

http://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/Communications/diving/panicq&a.htm

http://whyfiles.org/sports/scuba/qlist.html

Also check out DAN :no

 

[Barracuda2]

I heard "the voice" when searching for a digging chain at a local working quarry, zero viz. This chain, like a giant chainsaw, digs trenches about 4-5 ft. wide and 6-7 ft. deep, loosening rock, gravel, and sand. While searching in one of these trenches, I became very uncomfortable. I could visualize me down in this trench with 6 ft. verticle walls on each side of me, kind of like a grave. If either wall were to cave in, I would definately be history even though I was roped to a line tender on the surface. Our search team from the sheriff's department has a standing policy that if anybody gets "spooked" about the mission they are on, there is no problem to abort the dive and let another team member pursue it. We really emphasize this policy in each and every mission so team members don't let ego get in the way. I surfaced, and since I was the DM on this mission, I called the whole thing off. Because the walls were verticle, made up of mud, gravel, sand, rock, there was a definate chance that they could give way. I determined that it was too dangerous, so we went to a grappling hook method, and did find the chain. The operator lowered the "bar" where the chain laid, and I followed the "bar" down to the chain and used a short chain and hook to fasten the chain to the bar. They brought it up and reattached it to the "bar" and went on with their digging. If I hear "the voice", I listen and obey.

 

[Jeff Toorish]

I heard the voice a few days ago diving off Jupiter, Florida.

The day was very cold, I was diving side-mount because that's that I had with me. First two divers were great but getting back on the boat at the end of each was tough, especially with the camera.

The voice clearly said, do not dive that third dive. I didn't.

It was, in fact, the first time I sat out a dive ever. Remarkably, two other dive masters on the boat also sat it out.

Jeff