When have you called a dive and why?

[RJTY]

The last couple of days, there has been much discussion involving accidents, comfort, and safety. I would like to hear some imput as to what has led divers to call a dive, besides from bad weather conditions. Is it hunches? Gear problems? Buddie problems, ect.. Personally, I have not been in a position where I felt as I needed to call a dive. This could be a great learning thread for me as my diving experience increases. Maybe I will find myself in the same situation and decide to call a dive also.

 

[AJ Tudor]

Different areas have different lingo, if you mean by calling a dive, abandoning or cancelling a dive, then I've been in two situations. The first was on my very first open water dive, as in the one after the confined dives on the PADI program. I suffered from a fairly bad squeeze, it was really painful and in some ways I'm glad it happened on that dive so I knew what it was like, I had to back out of that dive because as soon as I reached 6 metres the squeeze was really bad. Yesterday the same thing happened to my buddy while we were diving, it got her at only 3 metres and was apparantly really painful. I've only had to cancel two dives and these were made up at some point, for example, yesterday we half cancelled the dive and swam back to our entry point at about 2 metres where we saw a huge shoal of Rud that we'd never have seen had we continued the dive as planned.

 

[RJTY]

Yes, that it what I meant, abandoning or cancelling. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Kim]

I've never actually called a dive in the water unless finishing a dive slightly earlier than planned counts (I was cold...alright!)
I have decided not to dive a couple of times before I actually geared up - but after I was at the site - because I didn't feel like it, maybe too tired, or slightly under the weather.

I would call a dive though due to many circumstances - equipment problems, conditions problems, buddy problems - anything that constituted something that I realised could become unsafe or unwise. Hopefully I'll always realise early enough when that's required.

 

[dive_lover88]

Just this weekend i called a dive off. 8 of us in a grp entered into the water, 4 were having slight difficulty equalizing but me and 3 other guys were at the bottom. The instructor told me to stay with the 3 of the diver while he helped the rest out.
When i descended i felt that the current was strong, about .75-.80 knts and had lost sight of the other grp. I thumbed the dive after we had lost sight of the rest and the vist going south. On the surface,we found out that we had been swept over a distance about 500-750m frm the boat.We finned back to the boat
The other grp had to get a life from a liveaboard which was also in the area.
I learnt that thumbing a dive doesnt mean it's the end of the world.It can mean between being lost and panicking and being safe and dry.
This is the 1st time i called a dive and i felt good about it(this is not to praise myself)
Safe Diving
Darren

 

[Queen]

I called a dive once when I was paired off with an insta-buddy who kept walking to the platform to do the giant stride and getting scared and shuffling back...this happened three times and I just said "no thanks".

 

[Nailer99]

I SHOULD have called off my third AOW dive for numerous reasons. I felt like hell that day, I thought it would be a good idea to do it with my brand new back-mount BC, the surge was stronger than I had dealt with before, and I was horribly frustrated trying to do my nav skills. but since it was "class", and I didn't know any better, and I felt that I was under pressure to perform, I went through with it, and it was a disaster. It was a good experience for me, though. I had been getting cocky prior to that dive, and it trashed my ego. This was just 6 weeks ago, but I've done 10 dives since then. I'm still painfully new, but I learned a couple of important things that day:

Call a dive at any time, for any reason. I, for one, will never question a buddy who thumbs a dive.

Second: You're never as good as you think you are. Especially me.

 

[Mo2vation]

geeze - called them for lots of reasons:

* Spidey sense tingling... nobody needs any more reason than that.

* Equipment issues with buddy - free flow, lost weights, DS leaking, fogging, etc

* Heebee Jeebies on a night dive (see spidey sense, above)

* Couldn't Clear - buddy or me... unable to clear. Its unsafe to dive in pain.

* Conditions - they changed, or we mis-judged them, or one of us just got cold, or hot, or whatever.


I've called lots of dives. In the dive brief I always make it clear to my buddies that anyone on the team can thumb a dive for any reason at any time. We all try to work through things, but sometimes you just gotta thumb the thing.

Calling a dive is never an issue.

---
Ken

 

[Walter]

I sometimes get a feeling that things aren't right. I've always trusted that feeling. When I get it, it's always been my policy to not make the dive or to end it ASAP if I get it during a dive.

If conditions aren't right (weather, seas) I'll skip the dive. I remember planning one deep dive with three other divers. At one point, I was not happy with the safety of the dive plan, so I excused myself from participating in the dive. The other divers agreed to alter the plan for additional safety and I did make the dive.

If things start going wrong, I abort the dive. I think I saw a post Jeff made yesterday where he aborts a dive if any two things go wrong, even if they are minor. That's an excellent policy.

If it becomes evident I'm not at the top of my game, I'll call the dive.

If my buddy is having trouble, I'll call the dive. If I get cold, I'll abort before it gets out of hand (really, Kracken, I do).

The last dive I called was because a couple big fish were too friendly.

 

[Mo2vation]

If it becomes evident I'm not at the top of my game, I'll call the dive.

There is no shame in self-thumbing. If I'm just not feeling it, I bail. You gotta trust that feeling and dive with people that respect that.

---
Ken