When is a newbie No longer a newbie.

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Fitzy

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Just been reading a thread about who still considers themselves to be newbie.

I am definatly a newbie with 30 dives in 6 months. I have just finished my AOW, have night dive experience a couple of shallow solo dives, (10-12ft) and am keen to do my rescue in another 20 or so dives so that i can learn how to be as good a buddy as possible while still considering myself a newbie.

I dive with a very experienced diver 3000+ dives who is my dive buddy and instructor he tells me that i will NEVER stop learning and I agree.

But Heck people, when i hit 200 dives I'd like to think I have done the basic apprenticeship and would like to move past being called a newbie.

So, maybe for divers that just want to dive and not become instructors/masters etc, a rating sytem could be helpfull?, providing there isnt one already. (If there is this will be am embarssing thread that i posted eh?)

0-200 dives = newbie diver
200-250 = novice diver
250-500 regular diver
500-1,000 senior regular
1,000- 3,000 experienced diver
4,000+ seriously exeprienced diver dude.

or something like this anyway.

Whats your thoughts?
 
hey Fitzy, most would consider that if you're comfortable in the water, have good skills and... maybe also have training in rescue skills (whatever the training agency) then you're deff no longer a newbie... it can take dift people dift lengths of time to become comfortable in the water.

Personally, newbie's a term I prefer not to use as it implies a 'them and us' situation and is off putting to lots of people.. like you said yurself you never stop learning!
 
  • Noob = anyone with a certification card.
  • Diver = requires training through Rescue and Nitrox. For most, this will take at least 100 dives, possibly many more.
  • Fish = requires at least DM-level training, advanced nitrox and decompression procedures. Probably at least 500 dives to become competent at this level.
  • Addled = anyone who dives deeper than 150 on air, deeper than 300 on anything, uses a rebreather or leaves the light zone.
In the old days, you could substitute life experience for much of this training. There were divers who didn't have all this training that nonetheless could fin circles around my guppy butt. Of course, in the old days you didn't need anything more than a wad of cash to rent gear, including filled tanks, from your local LDS. Now that you need an increasing array of c-cards to get fills, board boats, etc., your experience is increasingly becoming less important than your training. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

No matter what scale you use to measure yourself, knowing where you want to be is at least as important as knowing where you are. The key to safe, happy diving is to relax, have fun and never stop improving. Oh, yeah, and to dive within the limits of your training and experience.

Sign me,
Experienced/Addled
 
reefraff:
No matter what scale you use to measure yourself, knowing where you want to be is at least as important as knowing where you are. The key to safe, happy diving is to relax, have fun and never stop improving. Oh, yeah, and to dive within the limits of your training and experience.

Sign me,
Experienced/Addled

Very well said. This this should be the guiding philosophy of every diver.
 
Does anyone just Scuba anymore? Seems like a lot of fun is soaked out of Scuba with some threads. Not this thread but others.

I got in it just to see things and have fun.

I think if you can sit on a couch and breathe. Chances are you can Scuba too.
 
Its pretty impossible to do with dive number alone.

For example someone with 200 dives, 50% in quarries and 50% on 15m tropical reef in warm water and no current is probably less experienced with varying conditions and scenarios than someone with 100 dives all in the sea and has experienced currents, cold water, rough seas, low vis AND been abroad to do the warm water thing.

Width of experience counts for more than numbers.

You could in theory have a padi OW "beginnger" with 200 dives and a padi AOW/Rescue with 20 dives. From that scenario, certification level isnt a good guide either.

I do tend to agree though that ALL divers should receive rescue training as soon as practical. Without that its a little unsettling for the buddy.

You'll probalby find yourself when you no longer class yourself as a "newbie". You'll get to a site, make your own personal judgment about conditions without even thinking about doing it and on dives you'll be very relaxed and know exactly what you're doing throughout. When those things start to happen, for those conditions at least you wont be thinking "im new at this".

In short where your knowledge of a site or dive would allow you to tell others (if asked) what to do and what is happening as opposed to following the leader or waiting to be told what to do.
 
saturatedhonkey:
Does anyone just Scuba anymore? Seems like a lot of fun is soaked out of Scuba with some threads. Not this thread but others.

I got in it just to see things and have fun.

I think if you can sit on a couch and breathe. Chances are you can Scuba too.


LOL!
 
Untill you are more or less better than compitant with your given dive enviorment you are a noob.
Dive enviorments vary greatly so while you may not be a noob at your local "break water" you will be at your next challenge, and so on, and so on...
I know a person with about 400 dives that just doesn't seem to get it. so there's a special catagory for those as well.
I'm not sure what that's called but I'm thinking it's less than a noob.
mech
 
Hmm...interresting thread. Accorrding to reefraf's definitions, I should be "adled" (that would be the >150 on air, >300 on anything part), although I truely consider myself as a "newbie" in a whole lot of dive-situations -- and I definitely learn and am awed after every dive, even though we start to need four digits to count them. Even getting into the local mud-hole a cold december morning is still exciting....but then again, I know I am just weird :)

Training, certification and no. of dives doesn't mean a whole lot. Attitude does. And I prefer the attiitude of the conscious newbie -- listen, learn, think, reflect... -- to that of an "adled fish".

I think that the day I stop considering myself as a newbie would be the day I should stop diving.

Besides, I agree with DORSETBOY's sentiment of "them and us". We're all "just" divers.....
 
Fitzy:
Just been reading a thread about who still considers themselves to be newbie.

I am definatly a newbie with 30 dives in 6 months. I have just finished my AOW, have night dive experience a couple of shallow solo dives, (10-12ft) and am keen to do my rescue in another 20 or so dives so that i can learn how to be as good a buddy as possible while still considering myself a newbie.

I dive with a very experienced diver 3000+ dives who is my dive buddy and instructor he tells me that i will NEVER stop learning and I agree.

But Heck people, when i hit 200 dives I'd like to think I have done the basic apprenticeship and would like to move past being called a newbie.

So, maybe for divers that just want to dive and not become instructors/masters etc, a rating sytem could be helpfull?, providing there isnt one already. (If there is this will be am embarssing thread that i posted eh?)

0-200 dives = newbie diver
200-250 = novice diver
250-500 regular diver
500-1,000 senior regular
1,000- 3,000 experienced diver
4,000+ seriously exeprienced diver dude.

or something like this anyway.

Whats your thoughts?

Anybody with 3 or more PADI specialty diver patches :eyebrow:

cheers,
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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