09/21/2026
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This week, we're focusing on Just Culture and Psychological Safety, and what it actually takes for someone to feel able to speak up.
A fairly new CCR diving couple joined more experienced friends at a shore diving location they'd never visited before.
Before they even arrived, something wasn't right.
On the drive there, one diver said she'd been seeing double. The briefing missed important details. Questions weren't asked because the other divers were more experienced. Pre dive checks were cut short because the others were already on their loops and ready to go.
Then underwater, more things started to happen.
Her computer wasn't behaving as expected. She struggled with buoyancy. The dive was taking longer than planned.
She cried behind her mask because of the stress.
Twice she was asked if she was OK.
Twice she said yes.
She wasn't.
Eventually she disappeared in reduced visibility and was later found on the surface, panicking, after making a rapid ascent from 18 metres.
They went home alive.
It's easy to say that any diver can end any dive, at any time, for any reason. But having permission to speak up or call a dive doesn't necessarily mean someone feels able to use it.
Experience, status, not wanting to disappoint others, not wanting to ruin the dive and not wanting to be the person who can't cope can all change that calculation.
This blog explores why the social cost of saying “no” can sometimes feel more immediate than the physical risk of saying “yes”, and why Psychological Safety is created by much more than simply telling people they're allowed to speak up.
Because the goal isn't to create a diving community that calls more dives.
It's to create one where calling a dive is the easiest, most normal and most supported thing to do.
Read the full blog here:
When 'I'm Fine' Isn't True: Speaking Up and Ending the Dive
https://www.thehumandiver.com/post/when-im-fine-isnt-true
