Mildly regretting a dive?

[Trace Malinowski]

Right after I had graduated from college, my girlfriend, Linda, wanted me to prove I could get a real job outside diving. I interviewed for a sales manager position. The base salary (back when they had base salaries) was $75,000 annually. I got the job. Four days later, I was driving to work in my Geo Tracker with the top up and the A/C on, so that my hair wouldn't get messed up and ruin the whole suit and tie look. A guy passed me with the top off his Jeep, wearing a mala bead (or whatever you called the beads we wore in those days) necklace, hair blowing in the wind. That had been me just four long days ago!

When I returned home, I phoned an advertiser in Skin Diver Magazine from St. Lucia. Dolittle's Resort (from the Rex Harrison film) had an $895 all-inclusive 5 dives per day package (AM, PM, nightly night dive) including air! I booked it and found myself in St. Lucia by the weekend. I was single again on a honeymoon island feeling the heartache of being dumped, but enjoying the diving. The manager, Cheryl, hadn't been diving in months. I convinced her to go out with us one night.

As we left the dock, one of the dive boats was mysteriously starting up on it's own as if haunted. Three times this happened until the captain pulled the battery. Once underway, Cheryl and I buddied up for an incredible night drift dive. Lots of marine life, great visibility, gorgeous underwater pinnacles. We ended up far, far away from the boat. While waiting to be picked up, we floated under the prettiest Caribbean starlit sky and big full moon, talking about life, the universe, and everything. The conversation became more deep and intimate (that's how far away from the boat we were!), and we began connecting in that way you just know something could spark. At one point, she had that surrendering look in her eyes, where I could maybe have kissed her. I hesitated. I didn't know where I was emotionally. I still loved my ex. I might even be able to get her back. I was super attracted to Cheryl. Being there with her, in that moment, felt like the most romantic place on earth. How would I deal with falling for a woman thousands of miles away? Hell, did she even want me to kiss her? Was my radar off? Before I got my head sorted, the sound of the boat's engines broke the spell.

I have regretted not leaning in and risking that kiss for the past 24 years.

 

[Bob DBF]

I have not regretted any dives, but there are a few I would not care to repeat.


Bob

 

[D_Fresh]

Regret the dive? No. Even a boring dive is way better than a day of work, but I have regretted the cost.

A friend of mine wanted to dive and I wanted to dive with him, but he insisted that he Only dives with one particular dive op. There are many dive ops in the immediate area and this one is the most expensive by far.

Anyhow, did the dive with him, on a site I've been to many times. The dive was fine, but repetitive/boring at a cost of about 2+ times the going rate. Cost of being a good friend I guess

 

[helodriver87]

I have not regretted any dives, but there are a few I would not care to repeat.


Bob

My thoughts exactly. I had a particularly rough one awhile back in Ginnie. Buddy was going a bit fast and I didn't realize how hard I was working to keep up until the CO2 buildup started to get noticeable. Air starvation, increased narcosis, etc. Getting hit like that several hundred feet back is...less than ideal. But I learned quite a bit from it. Can't say I necessarily regret it, but it's definitely on the short list of things I never want to experience again.

 

[Bert van den Berg]

Was buddied up with two experienced divers only to find out during the dive that they were both photographers. Spent ages at spots so they could get just the right shot. They never mentioned their cameras during our dive planning.

 

[KathyV]

I've been seasick on some LOBs and would have been happy to miss that part of the trip, but things always got better after a day or so.

Once on a shore dive I was wearing a new weight belt for the first time and it slipped off and I popped right up to the surface - not a great dive.

Once we were on a dive in St. Kitts and the vis was so bad my husband and I quickly decided to give up and head back to the boat. We knew that that the boat was nearby and we could hear it but we couldn't see it. We surfaced to find the boat and make our way back to it. I wouldn't have minded missing that dive.

Everybody else had made the same decision and surfaced and came back to the boat, but the Captain was diving solo and it soon became obvious that she was trying to find the boat, couldn't see it, but refused to surface. We all sat on deck and tracked her bubbles and she swam round and round until eventually she found the boat.

We immediately headed over to Saba where we found much better vis.

 

[ryanski]

my first OW dive outside of quarry was that same bull shark dive about 80ft

 

[Antmany2k]

this is a really interesting thread and i am enjoying reading it.

as for me i have had lots of testing/not to plan dives or boat rides where i feel seasick but never regretted them as they are learning curves and i like to think they make me a better diver as you learn more when things go wrong than when they go right.

the one dive i do regret was a shore dive in Lanzarote. went there with a friend/dive buddy and on the first dive of the first day i had the worst dive i have had to date. Water was a bit choppy but not too bad. was given a long wetsuit that was a bit tight around the chest and was thicker than what i was used to (i usually dive a 5mm shortie) so i couldn't sink. 4 or 5 rocks in my BCD pockets later and we are down and the wetsuit doesn't feel tight anymore. i am having an uneventful dive (to be honest i don't even remember the dive because of what came next) so the sea turned and was getting a lot rougher, we surfaced and swam to the exit (a concrete jetty with around 12-15 concrete steps and a railing). now at this point the sea is really rough and i feel sick, my wetsuit feels tight again and we are waiting our turn to get to the steps (about 8 divers were exiting before us) its my turn to get to the steps but a wave pulls me back and slams me against the concrete wall and knocks the wind out of me (also cracked the protective screen on my dive computer that i had just bought). i try and climb the steps but i can't breathe, the stairs are slippery from the seaweed/algae stuff and the waves are trying to pull me off the wall and i am holding onto the railing to stop it pulling me but im then getting smashed against the wall again. i make it up 3 or 4 steps and my legs are gone, i just feel drained and have no energy and can't lift them. people from another group realize i am in trouble and come down the stairs to help me up. they get me to the top and take off my bcd and i just lay on the floor and open the front of the wetsuit and i can breathe again. i just lay there and a kindly diver advises me to wipe my face cause somehow i have snot all over my face. turns out on top of the 22pounds of lead (im a big guy) i still had the 5 rocks in my pocket i forgot to dump. so in front of around 20-30 divers and a cafe full of customers (on the jetty next to the steps) i have caused a scene and then collapsed covered in snot.
the guide was apologetic and said that if the conditions had been like that before the dive then she would have called it off but i think she was just saying that to make me feel better. we had a surface break and then said we could do a shore dive from the beach on the other side which is in a cove so was sheltered. i declined while my buddy went off for the 2nd dive. i sat in the back of the dive van feeling wretched, highly embarrassed, ashamed of myself and wanting to give up diving and fly home.

my buddy and the guide talked me round and made me give it 1 more shot the following day with a wetsuit a size up. luckily after that it was fine and i continued diving. had the next dive gone badly i would definitely have ended my diving career after only 10-20 dives.

because of that i bought my own wetsuit so i know exactly how much lead i need and what weight i need to be under to wear it to avoid a repeat of that situation

 

[Neilwood]

Early on in cave diving I dove with an experienced caver whom I'd never been with before. He led and I followed. He made several jumps without a line and took me on a circular route (which I did not know about) until I was getting down to calling the diver due to gas consumption, my anxiety was climbing with each fin kick. Then we came to an area that I was familiar with and my anxiety went away. Never again would I dive with anyone who didn't place line jumps. By the way my experienced dive buddy died a few years later in the same cave, out of gas, alone, with no dive buddy.

Not a cave diver but here is my take on this one: the experienced buddy should have given you a better briefing. Any time there is a specific route to be followed, then all divers should know that route (in the event of a problem with the lead). If you don't both know the plan what happens when something goes wrong with him or his gear? You are left lost in a cave.

 

[The Chairman]

Sure I've regretted going out on a boat. I regretted the time I went out in Jupiter and, after having zero visibility had to head back in. I'm sorry for the time we headed out in Jupiter but could not get out of the inlet. I'm sorry for the time we headed out in Jupiter but bailed in moderately high seas because most of the divers were doing class or were beginners. There are a few more stories...

Note to self: avoid Jupiter!!!

After a 2.5 hour drive to Venice Fl, the waves made ingress and egress difficult and we only had derepmeT vis. You know, where the only thing you can see is a backward "Tempered" written on your facemask. I didn't find a single tooth, but I got to meet a ScubaBoarder, so that was good. I guess I regretted the drive more than the dive. Then there was the trip to Catalina and the flooded drysuit on the very first dive. Jeesh, that was horrid. But then I got to kayak with thousands of white-sided dolphin on some sort of migration. That was cool and a bit nerve wrecking as they hopped over the kayak. There was the time in the Socorros where the lens fell out of my mask just as I was about to splash, I fixed the mask and then splashed without my fins, had to come back up, handed off my GoPro for my fins and made the dive without it, only to come on a huge school of hammerheads. Arrrrrrrrrgh! So, I regretted parts of that dive, but I'll never forget it and I learned a lot as well.

Almost every dive has a point when I could have done something better, and almost everyone has a moment or three that stood out, making the effort worthwhile. I achieve Zen on almost every dive now, and I love that. My favorite position is the "Drifting Manatee". I am suspended inches off the bottom, my heels are just touching the bottom of my tank, my hands are folded in front of me and the current is gently moving me along as I take in the wonder of it all. My breathing is doing all the work as it gently lifts me over obstacles and lowers me into the crevasses. A neutral bliss where I feel connected to everything around me ad profoundly aware.