So you have x amount of dives...

[aquaregia]

It's hard for me to really describe, but I have a pretty good internal idea of what constitutes a dive. That is, I know whether or not to log it after I've done it.

I don't log pool dives, even ones with several hours of skills that necessitated swapping tanks while underwater.
I didn't log carving a pumpkin in a pool even though I was down for an insanely long time and used well over a hundred cubic feet of gas.
I didn't log a 10 minute dive in a pond to try out a mate's doubles (felt like a pool to me).
I didn't log a dive where I had to help my buddy back to shore after three minutes.
I combine rescue class dives into a single dive, even though it's usually a few dives of 5-10 minute bottom times with 30 minute surface intervals.
I did log (as a single dive) three immersions in awful vis with 5-10 min in between, trying to find a place that I could see enough to dive (didnt )
I did log a nine minute dive where I just sat and watched sea lions.

 

[Jaydubya]

It's the experience that matters, not the dive count. Dive count is a crude measure of experience at its very best. Instructors can log hundreds of dives and relatively little bottom time, while exploration divers can log hundreds of hours of bottom time with relatively few dives. Both types of experience are valid. In one, dive count is a good metric, in the other, bottom time is the better metric.

Since very few of us are instructors or exploration divers, consider that on a recent charter to the wreck of the Hebe, I spent 90 minutes under water in one dive to 110 ft, while another divers made 2 dives spending less than an hour total time. In 50 weeks I would log 50 dives and 75 hours of dive time while the other diver would log 100 dives and 50 hours of total time.

At the end of 50 weeks I'd be more experienced at diving the Hebe than the person with twice as many dives on the very same wreck. The other person would be more experienced at ascending and descending, climbing ladders, making entries, changing tanks, doing pre-dive checks, dealing with rolling seas during the surface interval, etc. (which is a valuable form of experience since those are important parts of diving).

 

[ScubaFeenD]

What constitutes a dive is def a moving target. As you get better and more experienced the percieved difficulty necessary to constitute a real dive changes. So early on short and shallow and as you get more time in the water more challenging conditions or typical conditions will be what defines a dive.

 

[Thalassamania]

I log all exposures to pressure, pool, ocean, lake, pond, chamber, etc.; but each is classified according to the location. If someone wants to know, "how many dives have you made?" I would not include pool or chamber dives, because what they are asking for is a measure of experience that is not really increased in the pool or in a chamber.

The place were it gets tricky in repetitive dives. Before computers there was a clear definition, a 10 minute surface interval, today it is a little less clear cut ... though I still use that criterion for convenience and consistency.

 

[aquaregia]

At the end of 50 weeks I'd be more experienced at diving the Hebe than the person with twice as many dives on the very same wreck. The other person would be more experienced at ascending and descending, climbing ladders, making entries, changing tanks, doing pre-dive checks, dealing with rolling seas during the surface interval, etc. (which is a valuable form of experience since those are important parts of diving).

I think this is a nice point. I normally dive underfilled steel 72s, and I'm a hoover, so my dives are often half the time of those of my easy-breathing friends with their HP100s. For the same number of dives, they have more hours underwater. For the same number of hours, I've done more entries at Monastery. Additionally, I'd say probably 30% of my dives are the same two dive sites, so I do have less breadth of experience as someone who travels to dive more.

I was recently asked how many dives I had when introducing myself to a local shop. When I responded (rounded to the nearest 10) the owner seemed relieved and unconcerned. I think she was just looking for something other than "17, including the one where we snorkeled with the pretty whale sharks". I think once to reach a certain point, nobody's really going to ask for a number and not want to discuss the diving itself in depth (I suppose that's 100 for PADI pros?). I had a buddy with 11 dives once who was in all ways a better diver and buddy than some I've had with several hundred.