Called the dive before the dive.

Yesterday, I made the 2 plus hour drive down to Roubidoux (Waynesville, Mo) to get in a cave dive. I got to the site before my buddy, and started to assemble my gear, in side mount configuration. I brought my first LP95 down to the water, and did a surface bubble check, and sure enough, I had bubbles coming from the port on my 1st stage where my LP inflator hose attached. I took the hose off, and double checked the o-ring, checked the threads for any issues there, and put it back on. Still had bubbles. I swapped out my LP hose, and yet still had bubbles. I then moved the hose to the other side of my 1st stage, and put in a port plug, and that port was still leaking. I decided to take a break from it, and put together my stage and o2 bottle while thinking about my 1st stage issue. As I put my o2 bottle in the water, my reg started to free flow. I tried to make some adjustments on it, but it kept free flowing. Now, I have this personal rule of mine, 2 gear malfunctions, and I call it a day. I was at my limit, so I packed up my gear and called it a day. My buddy got to the dive site, shortly after I began packing up. I explained to him what happened, and he started with well, we could try this, or maybe we could do that. I explained I had my own personal rule, and I wasn't going to force the situation. It just wasn't meant to be on this day. The whole reason I am telling this story is to remind everyone the golden rule, that any one can call any dive at any time for any reason. Even if you aren't in the water yet.

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Originally Posted by deepdiverbob

Yesterday, I made the 2 plus hour drive down to Roubidoux to get in a cave dive. I got to the site before my buddy, and started to assemble my gear, in side mount configuration. I brought my first LP95 down to the water, and did a surface bubble check, and sure enough, I had bubbles coming from the port on my 1st stage where my LP inflator hose attached. I took the hose off, and double checked the o-ring, checked the threads for any issues there, and put it back on. Still had bubbles. I swapped out my LP hose, and yet still had bubbles. I then moved the hose to the other side of my 1st stage, and put in a port plug, and that port was still leaking. I decided to take a break from it, and put together my stage and o2 bottle while thinking about my 1st stage issue. As I put my o2 bottle in the water, my reg started to free flow. I tried to make some adjustments on it, but it kept free flowing. Now, I have this personal rule of mine, 2 gear malfunctions, and I call it a day. I was at my limit, so I packed up my gear and called it a day. My buddy got to the dive site, shortly after I began packing up. I explained to him what happened, and he started with well, we could try this, or maybe we could do that. I explained I had my own personal rule, and I wasn't going to force the situation. It just wasn't meant to be on this day. The whole reason I am telling this story is to remind everyone the golden rule, that any one can call any dive at any time for any reason. Even if you aren't in the water yet.

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At least you checked them before you suited up. I am bad about lying tanks at the water's edge, and don't check for leaks until I am actually in the water. I hate to think of how many times I have had to get out of my gear, and go back to the car to get a spare reg, etc. FWIW, if I call a dive, there isn't much that can make me change my mind.

Amen! I was diving a few weeks ago (open water) with a buddy that was new to me; and relatively new to diving. We were buddied up on a spearfishing liveaboard since we were the only two not spear fishing. She had some issues on a couple of the dives, one of which really unnerved her. I did my best to calm her, get her back to the boat, and enlisted the aid of the crew to get her out of the water and back in the boat ASAP. After she was calmed down and thinking clearly she started apologizing to me for causing the dive to be cut short, and skipping the second dive. I stopped her in her tracks and told her no apologies will be accepted as there is absolutely no reason to apologize in the first place. I explained to her the Golden Rule and told her it was not more important, but just as important as never holding your breath. She was speechless. The trip leader on the boat, also a cave diver chimed in when she started to apologize again and laughed gesturing towards me, "Lori, how many dives have you called before?" And went on to tell her it was the rule and we stick to it.

I got an email from her a few days after the trip thanking me for diving with her and also telling me "you are the best dive buddy EVER!" I gotta ask myself, who has she been diving with before??? smh

Lori

Couple years ago, came down to cave country from Buffalo, NY for cave training. After 4 days of training dives, I was going to do a couple more days of "fun" dives before returning to Buffalo.

When I was younger, 6 consecutive days of diving was no-sweat. AND... when you have to travel 1,400 miles to see the caves, you try to pack as much diving in as possible.

But when I was loading up my car in the morning, I realized my tail was already dragging. So I called my partner and invoked "Golden Rule". No apologies asked or given. I just didn't feel physically 100%, so I didn't dive.

Since then, I always schedule at least 1 "dry day" in the middle of my vacation weeks.

had the same happen to me last week, one little thing after another. called the dive.

Yup, it's good judgment to realize when today's not the right day. I missed two days of diving on our recent caving trip because I was sick. I could have pushed it, but cave diving is not the setting in which to push it.

Years ago I used to deal with being sick by ignoring it. As a college student I spent a Christmas break working as a logger with a case of pneumonia, and I used to work on construction and ski patrol when I had bronchitis, gastroenteritis, or was just hung over. But that was when I was 20. Now at 55 I have more sense, or less grit. :)

I also follow the rule of: 3 things go wrong while preparing for a cave dive = call the dive. Some days are just better spent on the surface.

Mike

I had a series of "all those little things that could go wrong". I took it as a hint that it wasn't my day to dive. God Bless Mike and Kevin for being the perfect buddies! :D

Over the years either me or my dive buddy have called the dive before it ever gets started for various reasons. One particular dive sticks with me. My dive buddy had stopped in Ashburn, Ga. at one of those Ride Share parking lots on Interstate 75 and picked me up. With gear loaded we headed South to Peacock Springs excited about the up coming dives.
My son callers me and ask had we heard what was going on in New York? I said no we didn't have the radio on. With that information we stopped at a local truck stop and watched one of the towers fall. My dive parter was a fireman for the Perry fire department so neither one of us would have our heads thinking straight for a cave dive so we both mutually agreed to call the dive and head back home. This was 9-11


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I called a dive at Little River once at the surface. Gear issue too. Forgot my wetsuit in Clearwater.

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Originally Posted by Greenwood_60

I called a dive at Little River once at the surface. Gear issue too. Forgot my wetsuit in Clearwater.

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Funny, I think it was last year at REACT that I realized my dry suit was in Albany, sent William back for it, he came back with the suit, but without the rock boots.

I have called a dive before the dive as well. I don't have a set limit with zero tolerance though. I was at Ginnie the other day and found a couple of minor equipment issues. I fixed them and had a nice dive. If I had a two stikes rule I would have been done for the day.

The flip side is I could also have zero mechanical problems and just not be feeling it. Of well. Katie and I are always perfectly happy to go do something else for the day.

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Originally Posted by a64pilot

Funny, I think it was last year at REACT that I realized my dry suit was in Albany, sent William back for it, he came back with the suit, but without the rock boots.

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That was New Year's weekend - we met at Jug Hole.

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Originally Posted by Slüdge

That was New Year's weekend - we met at Jug Hole.

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That was when William locked the keys in the truck, I think I'm beginning to see a trend?

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Originally Posted by a64pilot

That was when William locked the keys in the truck, I think I'm beginning to see a trend?

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Yep! Damn truck. :)

I believe strongly in the calling a dive anytime rule with NO backtalk. I try to make a point of demonstrating this with new divers. Sometimes it's just a gut feeling, and sometimes it's a couple of little things going wrong. I will be MUCH more unhappy with you if you make a dive you're not really into, than if you call a dive. If you have so much invested (time, money, emotion) into a dive that you're not willing to call it when that's the right thing to do, then it's already time to call it.

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Originally Posted by gschaut

When I was younger, 6 consecutive days of diving was no-sweat. AND... when you have to travel 1,400 miles to see the caves, you try to pack as much diving in as possible. . . Since then, I always schedule at least 1 "dry day" in the middle of my vacation weeks.

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Same here.

For those of us who live a long ways from the caves, it's an understandable tendency to "cram" in as many dives in the time we have. Can't tell you the number of times I've done that during my 1st 10 years. Still, if things are not going well above the water, they don't seem to get any better once under it.

Starting a dive with marginal gear + bringing with you the frustration(s) of trying to make the dive go is not the way to do it. However, I think this is a mindset you have to discover for yourself.

I wish there was a "like" button here. I too in open water have aborted a dive just because it didn't feel right. No shame. It is accepted what ever the reason... If some one teases you, find another buddy.

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Originally Posted by deepdiverbob

Yesterday, I made the 2 plus hour drive down to Roubidoux (Waynesville, Mo) to get in a cave dive. I got to the site before my buddy, and started to assemble my gear, in side mount configuration. I brought my first LP95 down to the water, and did a surface bubble check, and sure enough, I had bubbles coming from the port on my 1st stage where my LP inflator hose attached. I took the hose off, and double checked the o-ring, checked the threads for any issues there, and put it back on. Still had bubbles. I swapped out my LP hose, and yet still had bubbles. I then moved the hose to the other side of my 1st stage, and put in a port plug, and that port was still leaking. I decided to take a break from it, and put together my stage and o2 bottle while thinking about my 1st stage issue. As I put my o2 bottle in the water, my reg started to free flow. I tried to make some adjustments on it, but it kept free flowing. Now, I have this personal rule of mine, 2 gear malfunctions, and I call it a day. I was at my limit, so I packed up my gear and called it a day. My buddy got to the dive site, shortly after I began packing up. I explained to him what happened, and he started with well, we could try this, or maybe we could do that. I explained I had my own personal rule, and I wasn't going to force the situation. It just wasn't meant to be on this day. The whole reason I am telling this story is to remind everyone the golden rule, that any one can call any dive at any time for any reason. Even if you aren't in the water yet.

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Having read that I remember my last dive which went like this:

10:00am I picked up my friend Alex at his place and asked him to lend me a clamp for my Sidemount stage bottle and he said yes, no problem and went back into his shop to get it (At least that's what I thought).

10:30am We get to the Cenote close to Tulum and start setting up our tanks to go exploring...

Sign # 1 The clamp never made it in the truck so I could not take a stage which changes the objective of my dive... Not happy but at least I will do something...

Sign # 2 Alex had switched the SPG for his stage bottle to another regulator and forgot to put it back...

We decided we would just go to an area of the cave that had potential for exploration and was still close to the entrance and we would just put a stage together to bring as extra safety only.

11:30am We are finally getting in the water and donning tanks

Sign # 3 The stage bottle's second stage starts free flowing... Fine! No safety bottles. The rule of thirds is safe enough anyway, no big deal...

1:00pm I'm surveying an existing line that I found and my primary light floods. OK, time to get out of the cave, I was getting close to my limits anyway...

I began swimming towards the exit and after 10 minutes I found Alex finishing the survey of the line he had just laid, so I just kept going out as I showed him my flooded canister dive light.

By the time I had packed all my gear and tanks back in the truck Alex comes out of the cave and tells me his scooter had died and he had to tow it out of the cave...

My point is that maybe the fact that we had forgotten a couple of things before the dive and even the free flow of the stage bottle Reg at the last minute should have been enough to tell us we should just not dive today.

I agree that any reason is good enough to call a dive, even if that is your buddy's superstition that x number of things wrong mean he/she should not dive.

For me though, unrelated issues only add to maybe compounding frustration. If it takes a lot of effort/legwork/driving to other places to fix several issues, it may be time to go for a beer and a sandwich. Otherwise, several problems easily resolved at the site just mean that I need to pay more attention in my planning pre-dive checks.

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Originally Posted by Angry Turtle

Otherwise, several problems easily resolved at the site just mean that I need to pay more attention in my planning pre-dive checks.

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Yeah, but it's tough diving without a dry suit, rock boots not so much :)

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Originally Posted by Greenwood_60

Yep! Damn truck. :)

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A couple of months ago we were about to dive Hole in the wall and I started looking around and asked William where's Bob? Bob was MIA
(Bob is the dry suits name, had to name it after my Daughter was walking through the house in the middle of the night, rounded a corner and it was hanging in the doorway)

I drove all the way from Puerto Aventuras to Dos Pisos (about 40 minutes) to discover I had left my dry suit at the dive shop. Oh well, I finally went to the ruins at Coba . . .

I've had a couple of experiences with trying to dive when my head wasn't in the right place. (One was because I had been involved in a 30 minute, increasingly heated argument with my husband because we couldn't find the dive site, and it was somehow my fault.) There was video from that particular incident. I will never get in the water when I'm all crosswise with things again. I called a dive in the open water basin at Minotauro a year or two ago because I had gotten out of my gear in the water and somehow just wasn't doing well with getting back into it. I felt the frustration level climbing, and called the dive for myself. My two buddies went on and had fun. I don't regret calling that dive at all.

I don't have a rule regarding gear failures. Gear wears, oh well. What makes me reconsider a dive are mistakes. If I'm making mistakes on the surface, it's going to effect my dive plan to some degree.

It's more of a superstition, but I follow the three strikes thing, diving, flying whatever

I should have specified that this dive was going to be 150 deep in the lower tunnel. If this was going to be a OW quarry dive, I probably would have pressed on a little more.

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Originally Posted by deepdiverbob

I should have specified that this dive was going to be 150 deep in the lower tunnel. If this was going to be a OW quarry dive, I probably would have pressed on a little more.

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Doesn't matter, they are both underwater, and if you don't feel right about it, don't do it.

All this talk of forgotten gear reminds me of my worst forgotten gear story. I was diving with Sheck Exley, and one of my former students, David. We had hauled our dive gear 2.5 miles,, and down a 135' drop to a sump. When I was gearing up, I realized I had left my mask at home, 100 miles away, Not to mention the 3 hours back to the cave exit. I was going to do the dive anyway, but Sheck said, "Not with me, you won't!". I realized that forgetting a mask was a sign of not having my head on straight, so I agreed and let Sheck and David make the dive. Later Sheck said he actually expected me to come through the sump after them.

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Originally Posted by a64pilot

A couple of months ago we were about to dive Hole in the wall and I started looking around and asked William where's Bob? Bob was MIA
(Bob is the dry suits name, had to name it after my Daughter was walking through the house in the middle of the night, rounded a corner and it was hanging in the doorway)

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Whoa! Not to change the subject of the thread, but I had my drysuit hanging from a hook in the middle of my garage....my father went into the dark garage at night without turning on a light....suffice it to say, Dad and drysuit went a few rounds.

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Originally Posted by FW

Doesn't matter, they are both underwater, and if you don't feel right about it, don't do it.

All this talk of forgotten gear reminds me of my worst forgotten gear story. I was diving with Sheck Exley, and one of my former students, David. We had hauled our dive gear 2.5 miles,, and down a 135' drop to a sump. When I was gearing up, I realized I had left my mask at home, 100 miles away, Not to mention the 3 hours back to the cave exit. I was going to do the dive anyway, but Sheck said, "Not with me, you won't!". I realized that forgetting a mask was a sign of not having my head on straight, so I agreed and let Sheck and David make the dive. Later Sheck said he actually expected me to come through the sump after them.

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West Virginia? I think I've read this story somewhere before.

-Jon

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Originally Posted by jlillest

West Virginia? I think I've read this story somewhere before.

-Jon

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Yes Organ Cave WV. I probably posted if before.

I usually use three gear issues as my rule whether they be setup or function. I have spares for a lot of issues that arise though however the feeling I have when I enter the water is important to me.

I've entered the water after dealing with three issues and didn't feel right one time. I told myself that if anything out of the ordinary occurred I would call the dive so when one of the people diving with me had an issue I was happy to end the dive. There is a bit of relief when you follow your instincts. The person who had the issue was confused when I returned the signal because I could have easily continued to dive with the other two divers. He actually seemed concerned...

Speaking of forgetting stuff, a few years ago Tracy and I went to do a dive with a buddy off Split Rock Point in Lake Champlain. We got there and I found that I had forgotten my drysuit. So Tracy and Dave did a dive while I hung out in Dave's new boat - a 14 foot rigid inflatable. After a while I thought: It's a beautiful sunny day with no wind; so what if it's May and the lake was frozen just a few weeks ago. I think I'll go for a quick dip!

So I stripped out of my clothes and jumped in. I immediately regretted it - it was COLD! After swimming around for a moment I decided that I needed to be back in the boat. That was when I found that I couldn't climb in. It had big air tubes and no ladder, and I just couldn't get hold of anything to pull myself up. I pondered my options - stay in the water and die of hypothermia, swim the 200 yards to shore and hang out naked until Tracy and Dave came back, or GET BACK IN THE BOAT!

So I scrambled up the stern beside the outboard motor and got one hand on the transom and one foot on the motor just above the prop. Then I was high enough to see inside the boat and notice the grab handle on the inside of the air tube. I plopped back in, swam around to the side, and managed to heave myself out of the water far enough to get hold of the handle and haul myself in. Now before I jump into the water, I think for a moment about how I'm going to get back out!

Mike that is too funny!!!! rotflmao

Back in time, when Becky Kagan was filming at Eagles Nest for a TV news report, I happened to be there too. Brett Hemphil was there for an interview along with some other "names" in cave diving. We were geared up and waited for the interview to be over before getting in the basin. We grabbed our scooters and went down to the tree at 30' to hang our O2 and do our bubble checks. I soon realized that I did not have any of my reels. I had left them sitting on the bench. It was rather embarrassing to surface and ask if somone would please hand my reels to me. I am sure that any credability to my name as a cave diver went away right then and there.

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I love these types of strings! Dumb luck, or no luck at all. I did sit out a dive a couple weeks ago, at TAG (Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia), and that's rare for me. Sure I wanted to dive, but there were two good divers in the water, on a virgin push dive, and I thought about all the times that I was the one holding the reel, pushing. It's nice to hand it over to someone else, and or let the next guy get a shot at it. It's really all about passing on what we've learned, right?

Good for you. I wish I had done the same a while back. Might still be diving.

This is interesting to me because I've spent a lot of time thinking about it. I grew up surfing and I'm still really avid with it. If it's big, it's rare that you aren't thinking about getting dragged over the reef/rocks or pounded or sucked out some inlet as you're getting ready to paddle out and there's always an apprehension level. You're never 100% sure what's going to happen once you commit to it. When I started diving in general, and cave diving in particular, I never felt any kind of adreneline rush before starting a dive because it seemed really calm to me compared to the immediate brutality (paddling out) of surfing. I had to train myself to focus in on how I was feeling physically and mentally and unlearn everything I learned in surfing about blocking out fear, because that's not what you want. I've called a number of dives in and out of the water because I wasn't feeling right, or because one or two things went awry and I wasn't waiting for the next one, or because the dive plan seemed too hell bent for me.

I've been with people who have called dives for whatever reason. I have called dives myself before getting there.
so only last Sunday, I was dragging in the morning (so much so that someone asked me if I was ok,) tired at the dive site and even mentioned to my buddies that I might not do the dive.
I did the dive and while it was not a particularly eventful dive. All went well on the dive including a particularly slow ascent and stayed within my conservative 30/70 deco profile. I ended up in the ER that night feeling funny. Turns out not to probably not have been a DCS issue but this is a case where I should have listened. Thankfully it wasn't worse.

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Originally Posted by whodunit68

I've been with people who have called dives for whatever reason. I have called dives myself before getting there.
so only last Sunday, I was dragging in the morning (so much so that someone asked me if I was ok,) tired at the dive site and even mentioned to my buddies that I might not do the dive.
I did the dive and while it was not a particularly eventful dive. All went well on the dive including a particularly slow ascent and stayed within my conservative 30/70 deco profile. I ended up in the ER that night feeling funny. Turns out not to probably not have been a DCS issue but this is a case where I should have listened. Thankfully it wasn't worse.

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Dats right, my boy, ya see what happens when you go diving without yo daddy. You be needin sum o dat special voodoo gas, son.

I had the same problems, but always lucky, my buddies have all honored the golden rule, no questions no repercussions.
Bu t has costed me a couple of beers.....

Thats great! A good reminder to the rest of us as we try out all of our new toys in the days to come ;)