bad dives, what did you learn?

What are the worst conditions you have dived in, and what did you learn?

A little while ago I tagged along for my friend and his son's second OW certification dives. In retrospect we should have cancelled the dive, but he was eager to complete his certification before his upcoming trip to Hawaii. Conditions were suspect before we got in the water. During predive briefing the waves were already at 2-3 feet. Having dived in moderate surf before I wasn't too concerned with the waves. My dive instructor was actually glad to have me along since that made 4 divers, each with a buddy. That also meant my instructor had a certified diver with one of his students while he worked on skills with other student.

Getting out was pretty uneventful. We timed the sets, and everyone got past the surf zone without getting tumbled and without incident. As we got out to the drop down point there was quite a bit of swells even at the surface. My friend actually got a little sea sick at the surface bobbing up and down. Mike, the instructor dropped down first and set the dive float. We then dropped down as a group. I stayed with my friend and Mike took his son to work on skills. Visibility at best was under 10 feet. We then started to experience quite a bit of surge. It became difficult to stay in one place on the sandy bottom. Just kneeling there was becoming difficult and the surge was really pushing us back and forth. At one point the rope to the dive float actually was pulled up out of the sand.

At some point we started swimming along trying to get in a short dive. Visibility by this point was getting worse. I could barely make out Mike's fins even at about an arm's length ahead of me. At this point Mike turns around and looks at us, then give us the thumbs down sign to call the dive. As we head in we find that the waves have now really picked up. As we get closer to shore the waves are now about 4-6 feet. I wait with my buddy's son while Mike takes my friend in first. Mike then comes back, buddies up with the son, and I head in next to them. I make it to shore okay, didn't get tumbled but came close when large wave breaks on me. I was lucky to have good grip on my fin because the wave almost took them out of my hands. The son gets hit with the same wave, gets tumbled, and loses his brand new prescription mask and a fin the process. Mike our instructor is right there to pick him up and we get out on the beach minus some gear.

In retrospect we should have called the dive before we got in the water. Now, having been out in big surf and diving with lots of surge I have a little experience, but that tells me conditions suck anyways and it's better to come back when viz and conditions are better. Sometimes the best decision is before you even get in the water. Also, pressure from an artificial time frame can make you attempt something you would not have done otherwise. Wanting to complete the dives before going to Hawaii prompted us to try.

In our defense, the waves were manageable when we started the dive. I've been in those size waves before and have handled them no problems. We just didnt' expect them to get bigger during the dive. The tides weren't moving very much and we weren't in long enough for the tidal surge to contribute. Leads to point number two, conditions can change and you have to be aware of them and adjust. We called our dive immediately when surge and viz dropped.

The good new is we eventually got the fin back when it floated back to shore in the surf. Someone actually found the mask the next day and returned it to the dive shop so King Neptune was kind enough to return the gear.

In the future I'll be sure to wait for better conditions. At least I know what it's like and have the experience of large surf.

Fun and safe diving.

The only times I've had semi-bad dives are because of lack of proper communication/planning with the buddy before the dive. Note that I was under the impression that with lost visual contact, you generally do the 2-3 minute look-around and then surface.

1. Taking photos with a new camera, so I asked my buddy to slow down a bit before we started. We had dove a few times before already, so I didn't think we needed to talk too much. Did the dive, slowed down to take some photos, and my buddy just shot off in around 10ft of visibility. Gone, so I looked for a couple of minutes and then surfaced. I saw his bubbles up ahead and turns out he decided to just solo out the dive. It was Ogden Point, an easy dive to navigate, and it wasn't exceptionally dangerous, but I was still a little peeved. Talked to him afterwards about how I wanted to deal with lost buddies, and how I prefer to keep side-by-side with my buddies. Dove at least 10-15 more dives with him, and never had a problem again. Just communication!

2. Just got strobes for the camera, so I communicated that I wanted to do a slow dive. Unfortunately, my buddy just shot forward rather than stick by my side, although I had communicated it. Once again, about 10ft visibility in a more difficult navigation area with boat traffic. Eventually, I stopped to take a couple of photos, and he was gone. Because of the boat traffic, I decided to just navigate back to shore, where I waited for him. He did exactly the same thing. Very safe, I think. I communicated my concerns with him later. No more problems.

3. Lastly, I was diving with an inexperienced diver. Talked thoroughly with him beforehand about all the planning and communication. All of a sudden at around 30ft (still descending), he just started finning up. I followed him and asked him what the heck was going on at the surface. He said he had cramps in his leg. I then asked him if it happened again that we would try to take care of it underwater, and if not possible, we'd slowly ascend together, as just shooting up quickly is unsafe. Then we finished the dive.

Those weren't necessarily bad dives. They are just my worst so far, and they were still enjoyable. I learned that proper communication with buddies beforehand so that you're all on the same page is imperative.

The only really bads dives I recall were early on and had to do with cramping--hereditary for sure. One time both legs AND parts of both arms cramped. That's scarey even in 8 feet of water. Last few years the potassium pills have eliminated 80-90% of them, even in cold water. I have also since learned how to sense a cramp was coming and what to do to prevent or delay it--ei. some resting, some slower swimming, using arms and one leg only, the usual cramp removal fin stretch if needed, etc.

That sounds sorta like my 4th dive of my ow certification. There were 5' swells, and on bottom the instructor had to hold onto me to get me to do some final tasks as I kept getting pushed around on bottom.

We could not make headway back to boat infact. We ascended and after a few minutes the boat came over to get us.

My instructor, who was great, said I now have some good experience with rougher seas.

I have always respected the water, but after that dive, even more so.

Let's see. What did I learn from bad dives. OK: Righty-tighty, lefty-loosey. Be sure to put on your flippers. Don't spread your legs when doing the giant stride. De-air your BCD. Don't forget your lead weights. Regulator goes in mouth, not hanging loose. In a heavy current grab the rope or you'll be on your way to Cuba. Don't touch Mister Moray or you'll forever be picking your nose with your middle finger. Turn on wrist computer before jumping in. I have others.

OK, so of the 5 posts here, two related to OW training dives, which is a little troubling. I'm adding a third. Mine would have to be my AOW training dives in a quarry with nearly zero viz beneath a wicked thermocline -- especially the night dive. I get and bought into the whole "if you do it here you can do it anwywhere" thing, but I'm not sure that's the right approach. I wonder how many people don't come back after that bad initial training experience. I know of at least one person who hasn't been back and has nightmares about it. Pity. Anyway, not to hijack this to another topic, what did I learn? What I already knew/suspected: warm, clear tropical waters are better than a cold, dark quarry any day. :cool2:

Well, I did a dive off the Peace boat on San Miguel island in bad weather. It was windy and the surface was very choppy, and the captain warned us that there appeared to be a little current. We had scooters with us, but decided not to use them on that dive, because we wanted to save the batteries for a later one. We dropped along the anchor line, but at about 70 feet or so, it went into a dense clump of kelp, so we moved off the line to go around that. We never found the anchor line again. The current was ferocious and the dive was deep -- structure began about 80 feet or so. We spent 10 minutes trying to find somewhere to get some shelter from the current, but we were being blown like crazy, and working way too hard for that depth. Eventually, my husband thumbed it, and we shot a bag and ascended. When we surfaced, we were a long way from where we had dropped, and we were nowhere near the boat (which in SoCal is a gaffe, because they anchor their big dive boats, and divers are expected to make it back to the boat). The chase boat had to pick us up, as it picked up every team which had decided to try the dive without scooters.

What I learned: Stay on the anchor line to the bottom, so you know where it is, even if that means hand-over-hand to do it. I didn't learn, but got confirmed, that having the good sense to call a dive that's going sideways is a good thing, as is having the skills to make a free ascent easier. And that it's better to swallow your pride and signal the chase boat than to risk getting low on gas or CO2 toxic, trying to be good kids.

BTW, I subsequently did a dive, off the same boat, on a much more exposed location (Farnsworth Banks) in equally bad weather. Current was even worse, and the dive was absolutely uneventful -- but we followed the anchor line to the rock, and we had our scooters, which is a lesson in how having the right equipment for the conditions can make the difference between a scary story and a good dive

Back a few years when I had my own boat, we used to frequent one of the local wrecks. We had more than a dozen dives on this wreck and were pretty familiar with the area. This particular day the surface current was ripping, my buddy and I went over the side at the same time and when we came up we were already 20 feet away from the boat and losing ground fast. We started swimming for the boat with everything we had and were barely making any progress. It took more than 10 minutes of full out swimming to get back to the boat. If you stopped for even a second you were blown back. At one point I was just inches from touching the swim platform kicking as hard as I could and going now where, finally got it and my buddy was able to grab me and work his way up to.
This was very scary, as we were in the open ocean and if we were separated from the boat who knows what would have happened.
From that point on I always used a trailing line from the stern and another line from the stern to the bow. We also would enter 1 at a time from then on.
I've learned other lessons the hard way, this one just sticks out more than some others.

Two bad dives that stuck to memory:

First bad dive was when I took a dry suit class very early into my diving career. I'm an (over)analytical and independent person, and ended up taking the class with someone who was prone to excessively being in control of the situation. Being outsized more than two to one, I found myself repeatedly physically moved around underwater without consent, before I had time to correct problems myself or just think. More than once I even got turtled at the bottom of the water by this instructor, be it intentional or not. (it got frustrating to the point where I just gave up trying thanks to his meddling)
LESSON LEARNED: Aside from being much more wary about who I get instruction from, it also made me cynical about recreational certifications -- probably good for my wallet. I'm still an illegal dry suit diver.

Second bad dive was brought about through the combination of rough conditions underwater (being tossed back and forth 8~10 feet), being semi-deep, swimming hard and not breathing enough for the exertion.
LESSON LEARNED: Not to take trivial objectives (i.e. get to point B in a recreational dive) too seriously during rough conditions. Also learned first hand what CO2 symptoms are. (and realized SAC pushing is a bad idea under certain conditions)

Hudson Grotto, Florida 2002... I had dove with this guy once before and was impressed. We kick out to what we thought was the 80 ft buoy and descend. We are both heading down like a parachutist before he pops the cord. 10-20-30-40- flooooooop into the ickiest, foul smelling muck in the world. Vis was already horrid and we somehow managed to make it worse. I carefully extract myself from the goo. I can hear my buddy breathing and while we both have HIDs, we can't see each other. I remember giggling at this point. By some sort of aquatic miracle, we reach out and find each other. I shrug and he shrugs. I point and make the gesture to swim and he nods. It's not quite derepmeT visibility (where all you can read is Tempered backwards), but it's close. Before we swim far, we run into the stern of a boat. This must be the boat they lost when they sunk it. I take a reading perpendicular to the wall that stopped it, so they will have a good idea where it is. After all was said and done, this crappy dive turned out to be quite fun. Lesson learned? People lie. Well, he didn't mean to, but the 80 foot float was only in 50 ft of water. If you can't see the bottom, SLOW DOWN.

Bear Lake, Utah 2009. The Boy Scout camp asked us to locate a sunken sailing ship in 80 ft of water that they had "exact" coordinates to. My buddy (a DM) and I follow the kayak out about 200 yds from shore. "This is it" said the smiling man with the GPS in the kayak said. We purge our BCs and start to descend. 10-20-PUT-ON-BRAKES. Rly? What is it about 80 ft that people just can't get it right? At least I didn't smack into the bottom. We surface knowing that this ain't the place and the smiling guy in the kayak is over 100 yds away saying "My bad... it's over here!" We kick out and he assures us that this is it. We descend a bit further... to 30 ft and hit bottom. We ascend and the smiling guy in the kayak is another 100 yds away. I don't remember how many descents/ascents we did that day, only that we were well over a mile off shore when we finally hit 80 ft. Unfortunately, no one told me about the thermocline at 65 ft. We went from 66 (I'm in a 3 mil) to 46 degrees. From 10 ft of vis to less than 2. After only a few seconds, I am already chattering, I can hear my buddy close by, but I just can't find him. I am way too heavy and I can't get my inflator to work. It felt like the lake was trying to ingest me. I give finding my buddy one more try, yell "up" through my regulator and punch my inflator hard. I make the only buoyant ascent in my diving career, and finally slow my progress at about 30 ft. Being only a bounce dive, I swim to the surface. My buddy is waiting for me there. Lesson learned? People lie. The boat wasn't here, here or even here. On top of that, no one told me about the ridiculous thermocline on the bottom of that lake. At least I avoided any serious face plants. (Note- Some of my numbers might be off)