Debriefing a Challenging Dive- a real-life experience

A while ago I wrote about the liveaboard I was on recently where we aimed to increase people’s understanding of human factors and give them chance to practise the skills we teach. I mentioned that debriefing was a big part of the week, so I thought I’d share possibly the most interesting debrief, which came from a challenging dive along a sandy slope. The brief had been that we would do a negative entry in the blue, descend and let the current push us onto the reef. From there we’d hopefully see a big school of Barracudas before zig-zagging up the reef until we hit a sandy, shallow slope where we’d swim along and search for macro life while doing our safety stop.

In reality our entry was changed to a normal (positive) entry, and when we descended, we found ourselves on a sandy slope, with no reef in sight. After about 5-10 minutes I didn’t want to be there anymore. The current was pushing us away from the direction we were swimming and worse, it was pushing us down. I was finning hard and could feel my breathing rate increasing. I looked around at my team and they were all doing the same. I caught the eye of the diver next to me, shook my head and gave him a thumbs up sign. He nodded and repeated it. As the guide looked back at us, I again stuck my thumbs up. He replied with a thumb up, followed by pointing towards the shallows in the direction we were attempting to fin. He then turned and carried on finning. I was surprised, I had expected him to return the signal and begin ascending immediately. It wouldn’t have been a problem; our tender was following us and able to pick us up. I turned to look at the diver next to me and realised he’d swam off. I saw him finning very hard in the direction we were aiming but going slightly down, not up. Confused I looked at where he was going and realised, I could just about see the reef we’d been aiming for. He wasn’t there long before he came back to where I was still trying to stick with my group. He shook his head and wrote on his wet notes “a lot of effort for shit rock”.

He looked up at the guide, looked at me and stuck his thumb up. I thankfully agreed. The guide saw our signal and nodded, but continued swimming. My teammate and I glanced at each other again, and he got out his dSMB to signal to the boat we were coming up. Everyone else continued to follow the guide. Once we had completed our safety stop and were back on the boat, we started discussing what had just happened. We were the two most experienced divers in the group, and I felt a responsibility to call the dive as much for everyone else as myself. I was worried that some of the other divers might be struggling, and I was frustrated that the guide hadn’t called the dive. My teammate explained that he’d gone to look at the reef as soon as he could make it out to see if it was worth continuing to put the effort in, but didn’t think that was the case, which is why he’d come back to me to end the dive.

Once everyone was safely back, we had a debrief. It turned what had been a very negative dive (pun not intended) on mine and my teammates side to a really positive experience. The guide explained that he had thought it would be much easier to do the safety stop in the shallows and that once we reached there that the current would reduce. We explained our fears for the rest of our team, and that the effort/reward ratio made it not worth it for us. Some of the team pointed out that they had loved it and never felt like it was too much or that they were in trouble. The other teams had had similarly mixed results and one of the biggest learning points came from the cruise director who said that if this happened again, he would ask the guides to abort the dive and we could try again in a slightly different spot, or later on.

Without the debrief I wouldn’t have trusted that guide any more, as I believed he was ignoring the thumbs up sign, my team mate would have remained concerned that we could all be put in danger and I’m sure the guide would have thought we were being difficult!

We ended up repeating the dive later that day, and it went very well. We were dropped slightly closer to the reef, and most divers managed to see the Barracudas. The current wasn’t pushing us down any more, just sideways which made it more manageable, helped by the fact that this time once we left the reef we were going with it.

As the trip went on, most people started to think differently about their diving. Some focused more on their proximity to the rest of the team, or the individual members. Some worked on their communication skills. Many learnt new signs. If someone did something “odd” debriefs brought out how it made sense to that person to do what they did, which I suspect stopped some of the bickering I’ve seen on other dive boats when frustrations build up. Because we’d built up a psychologically safe space, it also meant we’d built a friendlier space, where concerns could be addressed and worked on together.

After the success of this trip the second Human Factors in Diving liveaboard is happening on 12th-22nd July, going to Cocos Island. Prior to that I'll be running an HFiD: Applied Skills class at Scuba Adventures in Plano, Texas, the weekend of the 5th and 6th July. To join us, click here for the class, or here for the liveaboard.

Jenny is a full-time technical diving instructor and safety diver. Prior to diving, she worked in outdoor education for 10 years teaching rock climbing, white water kayaking and canoeing, sailing, skiing, caving and cycling, among other sports. Her interest in team development started with outdoor education, using it as a tool to help people learn more about communication, planning and teamwork.

Since 2009 she has lived in Dahab, Egypt teaching SCUBA diving. She is now a technical instructor trainer for TDI, advanced trimix instructor, advanced mixed gas CCR diver and helitrox CCR instructor.

Jenny has supported a number of deep dives as part of H2O divers dive team and works as a dive supervisor and safety diver in the media industry.

If you'd like to deepen your diving experience, consider taking the online introduction course which will change your attitude towards diving because safety is your perception, visit the website.