Number of dives metric

[boulderjohn]

I always find these stories interesting.

From the time I first earned a professional card, I have shown it. I have NEVER been matched with a beginning diver. It has, been,in fact, quite the opposite. I get placed with the best groups and the best dives. I get a lot of other benefits. Operators I work with seem to want me to be a happy camper who will come back and recommend me to their students. Funny thing.

 

[KeithG]

# of dives is an excellent metric for detecting inexperience (and hence low competence). 5 dives is a noob. it really can not be used to blindly detect experience / competence. i have over 800 dives, but really only about 10 different types of dives.

# of hours is a great metric for measuring diving value per dollar. on a live aboard, my four 60 minute dives were better value than your five 40 minute dives. i got more bottom time AND an afternoon nap.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I always find these stories interesting.

From the time I first earned a professional card, I have shown it. I have NEVER been matched with a beginning diver. It has, been,in fact, quite the opposite. I get placed with the best groups and the best dives. I get a lot of other benefits. Operators I work with seem to want me to be a happy camper who will come back and recommend me to their students. Funny thing.

I mentioned in the other thread about getting rejected from a charter in Maui because I didn't have the right brand of c-card. The other side of that story is that the dive op I ended up going with ... B&B Scuba ... was awesome! I got paired with Blesi ... one of the "B's" ... she was a mermaid ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[kensuf]

TDI has the same, at least for cave courses.

TDI has time minimums for almost all of their courses, at least the ones I'm qualified to teach have minimum bottom times.

And SDI does too. From the Openwater Diver Standards:

Open Water Execution

1.Students must complete a minimum of 4 open water scuba dives, and remain underwater for minimum of 15 minutes on each dive, for a minimum of 80 minutes total

 

[EFX]

Did you pay for this dive? Old Army addage, never volunteer for anything. In this case, information.

I paid for a 2-tank dive on a well known charter whom I will not name. I didn't volunteer any info if by that you mean offering my MD rating. They required the highest certification rating and your deepest dive in the past year on their waiver form. I didn't want to lie and list a lower cert. The waiver was filled out at the shop. When I got on the boat I didn't say anything. The captain had been given a list of names with certs.

I think the onus for babysitting should have fell on the charter, not the customer. They can have as many assistants in the water as they please. Sorry to come off as a bad dive buddy (which happens often).

I agree.

---------- Post added July 26th, 2014 at 04:23 PM ----------

I always find these stories interesting.

From the time I first earned a professional card, I have shown it. I have NEVER been matched with a beginning diver. It has, been,in fact, quite the opposite. I get placed with the best groups and the best dives. I get a lot of other benefits. Operators I work with seem to want me to be a happy camper who will come back and recommend me to their students. Funny thing.

You like stories?

Then let me continue the one I started regarding the 12 minute dive buddy with only 1 month of experience. This charter was a 2-tank dive on the same wreck at 50 feet in low current with 10 feet of viz. We had 3-4 ft rollers with some chop. Besides me and my "buddy" there were five other divers: an older guy whom I will call Bill and two other guys who all dove together on the first dive, and a father/son team. I asked my first buddy if he was ready to go again and he elected not to dive again. The son was "blowin' lunch" all the way out to the site and periodically at the site. The father chose to stay with his son and not dive the first dive. His son was feeling better and he decided to do the second dive and was assigned to me. His son was too sick and didn't do the second dive. I've got my equipment on and told the father I would wait on the 15 ft tag line running the length of the boat. This was the DM's suggestion (they didn't want fully geared divers rockin' and a rollin' on the boat any longer than they needed to be there) and the father agreed. I'm on the line waiting for what seemed like an eternity and all of a sudden here comes Bill down the line from the stern. I was waiting toward the bow where we were told quite emphatically to take the line dowm to the wreck. We were warned that the current was strong enough to take us off where in the low viz we would lose sight of the wreck. I'm thinking something happened to the father and they sent me a new buddy. OK. I start heading toward the anchor line when I look back and Bill has his octopus caught in the intersection with the lateral and the bow tag lines. I though Oh great, this is going real well. I go back to help him and while he's figiting to get his octopus tucked away we end up drifting down and off the line. We end up on the bottom and Bill starts swimming along picking up shells and other objects with not a care in the world and no wreck in sight. I tap him and give him the turn the dive sign and we head in what I hope is the right direction back to either the wreck or the boat. I'm thinking now, if we don't find the wreck we'll finish the dive, surface, and have the boat pick us up. What seemed like another eternity we found the wreck and there was the DM waiting for us! We finished the dive on the wreck and returned to the boat. If this wasn't enough excitement, while stepping up on the ladder my hand slipped and I fell back into the water with my legs going under the pitching ladder. Wham, the bottom of the ladder came down on my right shin. The pain was intense and I thought it could be broken. By the time I got back on the boat the pain came dowm to a dull ache. I didn't think any more of it -- just that I was lucky I didn't break it. While getting my gear off another diver said "Hey man, look at your leg". There was blood running down my leg and down the deck of the boat.

After asking what happened to the father the DM told me that when he got in the water he flipped and came back on the boat. He could'nt handle the sea conditions. The DM also though I was diving solo so he went down on the wreck to find me. So, I'm thinking, who sent Bill to dive with me? The captain? The second DM? It didn't occur to me ask any more questions. I just wanted to get back and have a good stiff drink.

 

[Jaydubya]

I kid you not. I had a shop refuse to take a deco procedures card for a dive to 110 (card says 150 on it). They said they needed a card with the word "advanced" on it for insurance purposes. This was a 3 hour drive from home. Thankfully I had brought my advanced nitrox card too. They took that one. Presumably they would not have accepted a master diver card either.


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[String]

It seems all agencies use the number of dives to qualitatively measure the experience of a diver.
Wouldn't it be better to use the number of hours underwater instead? Someone once went as far as suggesting me to log three 20 minutes dives instead of the one hour dive I did... WTF.

Rebreathers generally work on hours.

Hours don't really help. Someone could log 2hr dives at 3m under a jetty and still be a lot less rounded than someone with half the time in a variety of conditions.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I kid you not. I had a shop refuse to take a deco procedures card for a dive to 110 (card says 150 on it). They said they needed a card with the word "advanced" on it for insurance purposes. This was a 3 hour drive from home. Thankfully I had brought my advanced nitrox card too. They took that one. Presumably they would not have accepted a master diver card either.

... like the guy in Bonaire who didn't want to give me a nitrox fill when I handed him my trimix card ... remember what Forrest Gump's mama always used to say about stupid ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[String]

... like the guy in Bonaire who didn't want to give me a nitrox fill when I handed him my trimix card ... remember what Forrest Gump's mama always used to say about stupid ...

Ive had that. Refused to give me a nitrox fill with an advanced trimix card. So i tried my CCR card. Still refused. In the end he insisted on looking me up online to check i was an EAN instructor and THEN allowed me to use that dangerous gas.

I generally only carry my Adv Trimix card with me with the theory being that'll allow me to do any diving im likely to want to do on a trip. Not this time...

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

... I believe it was Andrew Georgitsis who couldn't get a nitrox fill once because they wouldn't recognize his GUE Instructor's card. Never mind that GUE is the organization that coined the phrase "air is for tires" ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)