Dive Industry Market Statistics | Survey | Scuba Diving Safety
Survey Results: Close Calls While Scuba Diving
Understanding scuba divers' encounters with “close calls” and how we could better learn from sharing these diving incidents.
Darcy Kieran is the author of the handbook “Your Career and/or Life as a Scuba Diving Instructor: How to Make a Good Living Out of Your Passion for Scuba Diving” and a unique advanced logbook & checklists for scuba divers, divemasters & instructors.
InDepth Magazine and the Business of Diving Institute are collaborating on a series of scuba diving industry surveys to better understand where we stand on key dive industry issues, identify workable solutions, increase awareness of opportunities, and fuel discussions among dive professionals.
We thank the following scuba diving industry leaders for supporting this initiative: Shearwater, DAN Europe, and GUE.
We conducted a survey on close calls while scuba diving in relation to a series of close-call articles published by InDepth Magazine. The goal of this InDepth/Scubanomics survey is to better understand how often scuba divers encounter “close calls” while scuba diving and how we could better learn from sharing these incidents.
How serious an issue is “close calls” in scuba diving?
On average, 94.5% of scuba divers who answered the survey stated they had personally experienced a close call while on a dive. That’s pretty much like saying everybody!
It is clearly not a one-off thing. Close calls are common. So we shouldn’t feel ashamed. We should openly discuss these incidents and work together to reduce the frequency of close calls.
How frequent are close calls in certain specialized types of diving?
- 63.8% of rebreather divers have experienced at least one close call while diving with a rebreather
- 53.5% of cave divers have experienced at least one close call while cave diving
- 48.8% of tech divers (besides cave & rebreather) have experienced at least once close call while tech diving (excluding cave & rebreather dives)
Now, the big question: are we sharing and discussing these incidents?
With whom did you share your close call experience(s)?
Only 4.9% of scuba divers said they had not shared their close call experience. That’s a good sign. When setting up this survey, we thought divers were keeping these incidents to themselves.
For those who discussed their close call adventure(s), they did it with:
- other divers: 88.9%
- their dive instructors: 28.4%
- their student divers: 19.1%
- non-divers: 16.1%
Respondents could select more than one answer, which explains why the total is above 100%. Clearly, we can share a close call experience with more than one group of people.
Vice versa, 87.0% of survey respondents said that other divers had shared close call experiences with them and 71.6% that at least one of their dive instructors had done so.
If you’ve shared your close call experience(s) with others, did you feel pushback or shame by people with whom you shared it?
The short answer is ‘no’ but there’s a bit more to it than that!
On average, 79.1% of scuba divers who shared their close call experience(s) with others did not feel pushback or shame by people with whom you shared it.
On the other hand, 15.2% of tech divers and 8.3% of non-tech divers experienced pushback and shame. That number should really be 0% if we want to have an open dialogue on scuba diving safety.
It’s concerning that tech divers experienced twice as much shame and pushback since tech diving require an even greater attention to details for preventing dangerous mistakes.
In which situation did you experience close call(s) as a dive professional?
Dive professionals (instructor trainers, instructors & divemasters) could select more than one situation.
- 81.2% while diving for recreational purposes (non-training dives)
- 24.7% while providing training
- 21.2% while receiving training
- 21.2% while guiding other divers (e.g., tour guide)
Almost one out of four dive professionals experienced a close call while teaching. Let that sink in!
Meanwhile, 13.3% of scuba divers (non dive professionals) experienced at least one close call while receiving training.
We shouldn’t assume that we are doing a good job at safety simply because of a low rate of “accident” in the dive industry. Based on the results from this survey, there are plenty of “near-miss incidents.” And I suggest we work together on reducing that percentage to the low one-digit.
In which type of incident did you experience close call(s)?
Survey participants could select more than one type of incident.
- 28.4%: surfacing at the end of a dive with less gas than the planned minimum
- 26.5%: major equipment problem
- 25.9%: panic or near-panic (check our prior survey on panic & near-panic)
- 24.1%: unplanned separation which ended in a solo ascent
- 21.6%: uncontrolled buoyant ascent
- 21.0%: getting lost underwater
- 19.8%: hypercapnia (excessive CO2 in the bloodstream caused by inadequate respiration)
- 19.1%: physically out of gas on a dive
- 18.5%: entangled or entrapped during a dive
- 13.6%: mild/severe DCS (decompression sickness)
- 13.0%: major narcosis (N2 or CO2)
- 3.1%: switching to the wrong gas mix
- 2.5%: personal health issue
- 2.5%: oxygen toxicity/hyperoxia
- 2.5%: hypoxia (low oxygen levels in the blood)
We could discuss each one of these types of incident, but there is one that grabs my attention. About one diver out of four has experienced an unplanned separation that ended up in a solo ascent. So much for relying on the buddy system! There is certainly value in being self-reliant.
What factors do you think contributed to the close call(s) you have experienced?
- 29.2%: error in judgment due to lack of experience
- 28.0%: problems involving the use of equipment
- 27.3%: inexperience in that environment
- 26.1%: unfavorable weather or dive conditions (e.g., current)
- 22.4%: complacency
- 21.7%: pushing your limits and/or misplaced motivation (goal-oriented diving)
- 21.1%: poor and/or failure to communicate
- 19.9%: overconfidence
- 19.9%: poor decision to continue to dive
- 17.4%: unfamiliar conditions/environment
- 16.2%: haste
- 11.2%: skipping steps in pre-dive checks
- 8.1%: inadequate choice of equipment for the dive
- 8.1%: peer pressure
Who answered the survey on close calls while scuba diving?
We had 208 survey participants split almost equally between scuba divers (47.6%) and dive professionals (52.4%).
40.7% of respondents were residents of Europe, and 38.9% were from the USA.
11.7% of respondents had been certified for less than 5 years, 16.7% between 5 and 10 years ago, and 71.6% had been scuba diving for over 10 years.
Also from Darcy Kieran:
- Handbook: Your Career and/or Life as a Scuba Diving Instructor: How to Make a Good Living Out of Your Passion for Scuba Diving.
- Logbook: Advanced Scuba Diving Logbook with Checklists for certified scuba divers, divemasters & dive instructors.
- Handbook: Advanced Guide to SPF Scuba Diving for Scuba Divers, Divemasters & Dive Instructors: Develop Better Scuba Diving Skills, Dive Safer, Save Money & Have More Fun!
- Handbook: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide To Scuba Diving: How to Increase Safety, Save Money & Have More Fun!
- Logbook: STARTER Scuba Diving Logbook with Checklists while getting your open water diver certification!
- Reference book: Scuba Diving Industry Market Reports, Data & Statistics.
Side note: During your surface intervals, have a look at my novels with a scuba diving twist, starting with “Mystery of The Blue Dragon” and “Shadows on Ocean Drive.”
You could help the dive industry by taking part in ongoing dive industry surveys. You will also find results from our past scuba diving market studies here.
Don’t be left out! Subscribe to Scubanomics: The Dive Industry Compass to be the first to know about new dive industry market data & insights. Otherwise, be our “dive business buddy” on LinkedIn, Facebook, and elsewhere.
What now? Have a look at the complete Scubanomics Table of Contents.
