New Jersey woman dead - Key West

[diverrex]

When I had about 100 dives, I signed up to dive with a resort operation that had many boats and attempted to put groups together with similar experience. I was by far their most experienced customer. It was a problem for me because I wanted to do some of the most advanced dives in the area, and they could not get enough divers with that much experience and that interest to meet their minimum number for a boat--4. I later switched to another operator with a lot of boats that was known for attracting the most experienced divers. I had more success with that operation,but I was still one of their most experienced customers.

Divers with many hundreds or thousands of dives may look back at 100 dives and rightfully consider that to be relatively inexperienced, but the reality is that a diver with 100 dives is pretty darned experienced when compared to the totality of the diving world, at least well within the top 10%. A lot does depend upon the quality and variety of those experiences--100 easy resort dives following a DM is very different from 100 dives that include a lot of advanced training--but it is still very accurate to describe a diver with 100 dives as experienced.

Experienced, maybe. But proficient, capable, skilled, maybe not.

 

[Kay Dee]

Experienced, maybe. But proficient, capable, skilled, maybe not.

The is very apt. And while not all divers are the same of course, it depends much on how long one takes to get those 100 dives, and in what conditions.

Personally I'd go with what another poster stated and that is that someone with a hundred dives would or should only be considered 'experinced' (even by themselves) when compared to say someone wth 50 dives or less. This doesnt apply to all, but to most IMO from my years of teaching / observing / diving experience.

 

[boulderjohn]

Of course the kinds of dives you have in your background makes a difference--IO said precisely that: "A lot does depend upon the quality and variety of those experiences--100 easy resort dives following a DM is very different from 100 dives that include a lot of advanced training--but it is still very accurate to describe a diver with 100 dives as experienced." It is possible that a diver who has done nothing but 100 resort dives following a DM has more dives than the DM being followed.

I did a dive in Hawai'i a few years ago, and I was placed with a group of experienced divers. Before the dive, we were told that we were going to be following a brand new DM who was just learning the local ropes. We were told that every one of us had more logged dives than the DM we were following.

 

[Steelyeyes]

Article says that she was reportedly an experienced diver with over a 100 previous dives.
At 100 dives you are just "really" learning what you doing. Additionally if 100 dives are spread over several years that is NOT an experienced diver.

I was on a dive boat in the Sea of Cortez with a man that had over 200 logged dives, mostly in the Caribbean. He tried as hard as he could to swim down with a substantial bubble in his BCD. The DM had to go up and show him what was wrong so he could descend to the rest of us. Other people get the hang of it far sooner.

My wife and I were just on the Cayman Salvor earlier this year. We had a fantastic dive. Saw a 300 lb. grouper and were visited by a long finned mako shark. I'm really sorry that this woman's dive ended so tragically.