What is a dive?

[Diver0001]

Been said before my problem is with definition of "Confined". I dive at an Aquarium. Dry suit, 25lbs of lead, full face AGA mask, 80cf tank, with air and communication lines from surface. Exhibit has a surge engine which bounces you up and down a good 2ft or more. Buoyancy must be close to perfect as you don't want to be coming in contact with any part of the exhibit while the biologist are watching you like hawks.

Tasks include doing a show for crowd, so talking, digging around in a bag for food items, feeding individual creatures all while hovering. Throw in vacuuming the bottom, cleaning glass, doing underwater power washing, drilling, etc... etc... etc...

I think these easily require much better buoyancy, dive skills, awareness of surroundings than the vast majority of my tropical open water dives.

A pool is confined water. No matter how big the "tub" is. Unless it's big enough that you can't see the other side and mother nature is in control of diving conditions, then it's a swimming pool.

R..

 

[mjh]

Diver0001, so is the definition of a "dive" you must deal with currents? Risk getting swept out to sea? Deep enough you can get bent? That would not apply to many who fresh water dive. Mainly my pet peeve, but I see plenty of tropical and cold water divers that would never be allowed in our tubs because they are lousy "divers".

 

[Diver0001]

I hear you. I'm not trying to devalue your experience or the complexity of the diving you do. I accept your judgement that some people who dive in what I would consider open-water conditions wouldn't be suitable for your dive team.

I am, however, trying to lay down a definition that I would accept if I saw it in the log-book of a diver who signed up for DM. Aquariums, no matter how large they are, are generally not deeper than about 6 metres and generally not subject to varying conditions or the possibility of getting disoriented.

R..

 

[Teamcasa]

I hear you. I'm not trying to devalue your experience or the complexity of the diving you do. I accept your judgement that some people who dive in what I would consider open-water conditions wouldn't be suitable for your dive team.

I am, however, trying to lay down a definition that I would accept if I saw it in the log-book of a diver who signed up for DM. Aquariums, no matter how large they are, are generally not deeper than about 6 metres and generally not subject to varying conditions or the possibility of getting disoriented.

R..

I log all dives now. I just don't add to my dive count those training or pool dives.
As for experience, if a diver's log book is so heavy he needs a forklift to lift it, chances are he has a suficent number of good dives logged.

 

[Walter]

Been said before my problem is with definition of "Confined". I dive at an Aquarium. Dry suit, 25lbs of lead, full face AGA mask, 80cf tank, with air and communication lines from surface. Exhibit has a surge engine which bounces you up and down a good 2ft or more. Buoyancy must be close to perfect as you don't want to be coming in contact with any part of the exhibit while the biologist are watching you like hawks.

Tasks include doing a show for crowd, so talking, digging around in a bag for food items, feeding individual creatures all while hovering. Throw in vacuuming the bottom, cleaning glass, doing underwater power washing, drilling, etc... etc... etc...

I think these easily require much better buoyancy, dive skills, awareness of surroundings than the vast majority of my tropical open water dives.

The solution is quite simple. Have two counts. One set is your open water dives, the other set is your aquarium dives.

 

[Dive Adventures]

You know reading what has been said here in this post, a lot of us including myself have logged a good number of dives that have been at shallow depths. You don't always have to dive deep to have an enjoyable dive.

 

[Splash-X]

In OW class, by SSI Standard, a dive is considered one that is at least 15 minutes @ 15 feet.

I log all my dives even if they are below 20 minutes because sometimes i do things like go deep, past 130 feet to check a buoy anchorage to fix a boat to etc, some say that if its not 20 minutes you should not log but in cases like this it most certainly is a dive! I have also logged a few dives below 15 feet but when you are trying to get a picture of something that does not want to cooperate at say 12 feet and you stay there for nearly 2 hours, thats a dive!
I dont log pool dives!

We all know that at some depths it may not be possible to stay the duration required to call your experience a dive. There is no clear wording I could find in my training standards that indicated what the rules are for this. I can tell you that anything over 60ft I would log as a dive as long as I stayed over 5-10 minutes. The deeper you go the more you can throw out the "15" or "20" minute rules because those are more of a guide to indicate what should and should not be considered a dive.

Been said before my problem is with definition of "Confined". I dive at an Aquarium.

I personally don't think that "confined" is so much an issue as making sure that you weren't logging all your dives in a 10ft pool. The huge aquarium in Georgia (Atlanta) as well as The Living Seas at Disney World are "confined" by definition but count as dives. They both have the needed depth to be considered a dive and there is plenty use of skill in this huge aquariums to add to your experience. I wouldn't suggest logging ALL of your dives here but there isn't a reason you can't log the trips you do take there.



Thanks just my $0.02

 

[elan]

I log all my dives even if they are below 20 minutes because sometimes i do things like go deep, past 130 feet to check a buoy anchorage to fix a boat to etc, some say that if its not 20 minutes you should not log but in cases like this it most certainly is a dive! I have also logged a few dives below 15 feet but when you are trying to get a picture of something that does not want to cooperate at say 12 feet and you stay there for nearly 2 hours, thats a dive!
I dont log pool dives!

another one over here is say ice diving we did 2 dives this march which were 15 and 25 mins long. According to the PADI 20 mins I should not have logged the first one. But who cares about PADI if I do it for my pure enjoyment and learned a lot from it.

To the OP. It's better under-count dives rather than over count In fact it's not a matter of dives count but what experience you get. If you have 200 dives in the pool it will be those 200 dives in the pool. you will not be advanced in the ocean or in a low vis lake despite of your 200 dives count.

 

[Dr Neil]

I have three diving reecords:
1. My open water dive log. This includes working with students.
2. My aquarium dive log. This includes recording what activity I did in the aquarium. I do this one for G&G.
3. My confined water log which does in theory record my pool dives, but mostly it records the students I had in the class session.

As far as length of time and depth for open water - if I submerged and did some type of activity it's a dive. The disastrous three minute dive to just 20 feet had some valuable information I needed to record.

 

[siikik]

My daughter was certified earlier this year through SSI and the rule (aside from pool sessions) was 15 ft for 15 minutes. That being said, I agree with the "did you do something" rule... if I didn't follow that rule, most of my BHB dives would be a wash since they were under 15 ft.




Ken