How Often Do You Abort Dives?

[Locus]

Of my ~25 dives to date I've aborted at least three or four. Once I had an o-ring blow out on what I suspect was a too-loosely connected angle adapter, causing my primary second stage to leak, so dive over.

Another time it was because my buddy had trouble equalizing and then got vertigo on our first descent of the day, leaving us all dressed up with nowhere to go.

During our AOW course my buddy exhausted herself on a long surface swim and had to end the last dive of the day (wreck dive) the moment we had fulfilled the dive objective.

Although it sucks when it happens, I rarely find that an aborted dive does not provide a clear lesson on what could be done better in the future.

 

[Lake Hickory Scuba]

Well as an Instructor I would have to say quite a bit. Especially when students have trouble transitioning from the pool to open water. Outside of teaching, in the past 20 years, there has been several times that I have aborted for one reason or another.

Just a few incidences that comes to mind,

1. Had a drysuit all of a sudden flood and became way too negatively buoyant. After inflating (BCD) just enough to become neutral again, then had a major free flow. To make things worse, water temp was around 48 degrees.

2. Same week, at 55ft, began to get tunnel vision, then all of a sudden, black out (no vision). Stayed calm and my buddy assisted me to the surface.

3. Was doing a search for one of my Dive Teams for a pontoon (the actual pontoon not the boat itself) that was found on sonar, then realized that it was a fuel tank from a F86 fighter jet. (Not really an emergency however ended the dive and did some research for hazmat reasons) Still have the fuel tank to this day.

4. In July 2011, (The Greatest Moment Of My Life), was teaching an Open Water Class (Check Out Dives), when I was notified that my wife was in route to the Hospital, of course 14 hours later my daughter was born. The look on the students face when I told them was priceless, but they understood.

5. Another drysuit incident, (well almost), when you gotta go, you gotta go. Looked like a penquin running to bathroom.

I could go on for a while, but I will give someone else a turn.

 

[uncfnp]

None so far but I have altered dive plans based on conditions or last minute gear issues.

 

[kmurray719]

As often as I need to. I've aborted dives because my ears wouldn't clear past a certain depth. I've aborted dives because of a leaking drysuit. I've aborted dives because of three strikes (I have a rule that once three things go wrong, no matter how minor, I'm done with the dive) I've ended dives because surge was making me really queasy. I've ended dives because I was freezing. I've also had days where we show up and the ocean just looks miserable and even if we could get in to dive it wouldn't be any fun and we decide to just go get pancakes instead.

I dive because I love diving. Sometimes my diving is about challenging myself, but mostly it's just about having fun and enjoying the ocean. If either of those things are not happening or look like they're not going to, I have no problem aborting a dive. I'd rather be on shore regretting not diving than be diving regretting not staying on shore!

 

[mala]

I average about 1 abort every thousand so far.

first was bad bottom conditions.
second was drysuit flood
third was buddy related.

 

[xyrandomyx]

As I suspected, the ratio varies quite wildly: between about 1 in 10 and 1 in 1,000 dives. And as I said in my original post, confirmed by several replies, there's no 'right' number: if something goes wrong or things just don't feel right, calling the dive off is a good idea.

---------- Post added December 23rd, 2013 at 08:30 PM ----------

...

I aborted a dive when I went to the entrance point where we left our fins and found that someone who had just left the area had taken my fins and left his--wrong size. (Very frustrating--I had been waiting patiently for hours for the chance to do that dive.)

...

This, in my opinion, is the most tragic reason for aborting a dive posted so far. You must have been seriously unhappy.

---------- Post added December 23rd, 2013 at 08:33 PM ----------

...

4. In July 2011, (The Greatest Moment Of My Life), was teaching an Open Water Class (Check Out Dives), when I was notified that my wife was in route to the Hospital, of course 14 hours later my daughter was born. The look on the students face when I told them was priceless, but they understood.

...

And this is the best reason posted so far. Diving's awesome, but some things are far more important.

 

[FinnMom]

I've aborted from the water very rarely, but many times from the parking lot and 100% due to my own stupidity: 95% of the time I forgot something such as 1 fin, entire wetsuit, drysuit's undersuit, dry gloves (in winter) and once because I didn't check my air when gearing up => I got everything wet before I turned on my air, then when the o-ring leaked I knew I couldn't change the o-ring without everything getting wet => me no dive :-(
Always check that everything is present, in place and functioning when you are still at the car!

Many times I (or someone else) have/has not had to abort a dive because
* I carry a set of backup gloves in my gear bag, also extra wool socks & extra dryglove liners - ditto for the kid's bag if she is with me
* I have a 3mm hood in my car (one 3mm is OK for a short winter dive, 2 on top of each other is perfect)
* I have lots of different o-rings in my coin purse & in my gear bag (I've got my purse even if I'm not diving)
* I put on my regs and test them at home so I notice an empty/low tank, also can't leave a reg set behind
* I carry 2-3 lights so forgetting 1 is not a biggie (not a cave diver)
* I have extra weights and occasionally even an extra weight belt on the floor of my back seat ;-)
* I either use a packing list (early days) or dive so frequently I can envision the entire gearing-up process and don't easily forget things anymore

*** I know that ears not clearing doesn't mean you can't dive. It just means you can't decend. Enjoy a shallow dive in the warth & sunshine of the shallows, it's excellent bouyancy practise and there's often many living things to see. I also know that sometimes ears clear just fine, but quite slowly: start a leisurely 5m dive and you may notice that 15 min later you are at 12m and perfectly comfortable.

 

[James R]

I can remember two times...

1) It was a fairly cold day, diving dry, I caught a big cramp in my left hamstring about 30 sec into the dive. I thumbed it right then and there, my two buddies went on without incident.

2) Went for a dive with my HP100 doubles & drysuit. I was being levered to a feet up position by the tanks with no air in the suit just after starting the dive. I could not figure out what was going on so I thumbed the dive, got back on the boat, and found that I had put my backplate & wing on the bolts in the wrong holes (my plate and wing have 3 sets of holes you can use) so the tanks were way too high on my back. I haven't made that mistake again heh...

Remember: any diver, any reason, no repercussions.

 

[Skittl1321]

Have aborted 1 of 21- the dive was so damn boring (less than 2 ft visbility, cold, and just nothing going on) I thumbed it and we surface swam to another area of the lake and started over with about 5-8 ft visibility, still cold, a bit deeper, and we could see a few fish on occasion). I have the dives logged as 9a and 9b. The characteristics of them were different enough I wanted notes on both, but it seemed disingenuous to call the 20 minutes we spent on 9a a full 'dive'.

 

[PfcAJ]

I've aborted a few due to conditions. Almost never for gear, I bring spares along and I'm not superstitious.