Strike! You're out!

Or when it is time to call it day...

Calling a dive

I have a rule. The three strikes rule.

If three things go wrong, I scrap the dive instead of trying to push through. I feel like the universe is trying to tell me something. These don’t have to be big things- broken hose, misplaced items, etc.

I have found that those dives where things are going awry leave me scrambling to fix things at the last moment and not in the best head space to manage a dive in a relaxed state.

Listening to my intuition is also key and understanding when a dive is beyond my level. A few years back, another cave diver reached out to me and my cave buddy wanting to dive. We all met up and talked...and decided that we would plan a dive. This diver was well aware of me and my buddies’ level of training. At the time, we were baby cave divers with about a year in and maybe 40 cave dives.

This diver wanted to do some dives that were way above our training at the time- staging and deco. After a conversation, we declined the dive and suggested something else that was in the realm of our training. Our decision completely pissed this diver off.

The honest answer is we were very okay with the choice. There is about 0 room for ego in this sport whether doing caves or a simple recreational dive. We see a lot of folks that “wanna go deep” for no reason other than trying to push a personal number. Or wanting to push their NDL and gas limits.

Over the years, I have seen way too many incidents that were solely the result of the ego. I can promise you there is nothing down there that is worth your life.

Dive safe ladies. Listen to yourselves. Get the training.