11/10/2026
Interesting read!
Some of the closest calls shared by divers last week make for pretty frightening reading
After asking people to share their experiences, I've been reading through more than 450 comments and replies. There are some remarkable stories among them, but also a few recurring themes that I think are worth discussing.
One diver described becoming hypoxic on a CCR in barely a foot of water, realising that had he fallen forwards, nobody might have noticed anything was wrong. Another lost consciousness after continuing with a faulty solenoid and was rescued by his instructor, spending three days in hospital afterwards.
There were numerous accounts of divers becoming trapped inside wrecks, losing guidelines in complete siltouts, getting caught in fishing line or discovering they had considerably less gas remaining than they thought. One diver described spending 20 minutes trapped inside HMS Hood, wondering whether he would ever find his way out.
And then there were the incidents involving surface support. One diver spent 12 hours drifting after his dive boat departed without him, while another described being adrift for 16 hours. Several others had frightening encounters with boats and propellers while surfacing.
What struck me most wasn't necessarily the severity of the incidents, but how often relatively small problems escalated into potentially fatal situations. A missed check, a moment of distraction, an unexpected current, a buddy who wasn't paying attention or a decision to continue a dive when something wasn't quite right.
Another recurring theme was the number of people who recalled having a feeling that something wasn't quite right before the incident happened. Sometimes it was an uneasy feeling about the conditions, the equipment or simply the dive itself, even though they couldn't necessarily put their finger on what was wrong.
That made me wonder how much of this is hindsight. Once something has gone badly wrong, is it natural to look back and identify warning signs that perhaps weren't particularly obvious at the time? Or is there something more significant going on, and should we be paying greater attention to those instincts when something doesn't feel right?
Equally, there were numerous stories where an attentive buddy, good training or effective surface support made the difference between a frightening experience and something much worse.
There was also a fair amount of humour, including the diver whose rebreather apparently saved the b**r cooler from being washed overboard!
I think one of the most valuable things we can do as divers is talk openly about incidents, including our own mistakes. It's easy to look at someone else's experience and think we'd never make the same error, but I suspect many of us have made decisions that, with a slightly different outcome, could have resulted in a very different story.
Thank you to everyone who shared their experiences, particularly those who were prepared to admit where they'd gone wrong. I think there's a huge amount to learn from this discussion.
I'd be particularly interested in your thoughts on that feeling that something isn't right. Is it hindsight, or should we be more willing to call a dive simply because something feels wrong, even when we can't explain why?
