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.

We conducted a survey on close calls while scuba diving in relation to a series of articles published by InDepth Magazine on close calls. The goal of this InDepth/Business of Diving Institute 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.

InDepth Magazine and the Business of Diving Institute collaborate on a series of scuba diving industry surveys to better understand where we stand on dive industry issues, identify workable solutions, increase awareness of opportunities, and, most notably, fuel discussions among dive professionals.

We thank the following scuba diving industry leaders for directly supporting this initiative: Shearwater, DAN Europe, and GUE. We also thank all of you who took part in these surveys and studies.

This post is part of our Dive Industry Compass series by the Business of Diving Institute and Darcy Kieran, author of:

TL;DR Overview

The “Survey Results: Close Calls While Scuba Diving,” a collaboration between InDepth Magazine and the Business of Diving Institute, reveals that close calls are remarkably common, with 94.5% of divers reporting a personal experience, including high frequencies in specialized areas like rebreather (63.8%), cave (53.5%), and tech diving (48.8%).

Despite most divers sharing these incidents (95.1%), a concerning minority, particularly 15.2% of tech divers and 8.3% of non-tech divers, experience pushback or shame, hindering essential safety dialogue.

Crucially, almost one in four (24.7%) dive professionals encountered a close call while providing training, with common incidents including surfacing with insufficient gas (28.4%), major equipment problems (26.5%), and unplanned solo ascents (24.1%).

Key contributing factors often involve errors in judgment due to inexperience (29.2%), equipment issues (28.0%), and unfamiliar conditions (27.3%).

These findings urge the scuba diving industry to move beyond accident statistics, fostering open discussion and collaborative strategies to significantly reduce near-miss percentages and improve overall dive safety.

Detailed Survey Results

How serious an issue is “close calls” in scuba diving?

On average, 94.5% of scuba divers who responded to the survey reported having personally experienced a close call while diving. 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 a 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 in scuba diving 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 from 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 from people with whom they 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, as tech diving requires even greater attention to detail to prevent 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-diving 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 “accidents” in the dive industry. Based on the results from this survey, there are plenty of “near-miss incidents.” I suggest we work together to reduce that percentage to a low single digit.

In which type of incident did you experience close call(s) while scuba diving?

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 survey on panic & near-panic while scuba diving)
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 incidents, but there is one that grabs my attention. Approximately one diver out of four has experienced an unplanned separation that resulted 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 408 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.

Video Summary & Thoughts

Have a look at more scuba diving market research, surveys, reports & statistics in Your Dive Industry Compass.

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Survey Results: Close Calls While Scuba Diving