When should I stop referring to myself as a beginner
- Thread starter Dogbowl
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When you feel comfortable with the fact that you are in control of your own safety and not thinking of anyone else as your escape route. Some divers come to that realization shortly, some never do.
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Beat me to it.
"Stay within your range, only you know what that is" -Best advice I ever got.
"Stay within your range, only you know what that is" -Best advice I ever got.
Scuba Legends
Registered
That is indeed a good question!
From a basic point of view 24-49 dives (based on your profile info) you are not a begginer anymore.
From my point of view you are not experienced diver neither. Just don't stress about it. Diving is not a competition. There are begginers and experienced divers. And there is experienced divers that learn from more experienced divers.
What matters is to be a safe diver with loads of common sense. And this kind of diver you can be with 4 dives. Or you can be a bold diver with 150 dives.
Remmember that "there is old divers and bold diver, but not old bold divers"
Happy bubbles
Gery @ScubaLegends
www.scuba-legends.com
From a basic point of view 24-49 dives (based on your profile info) you are not a begginer anymore.
From my point of view you are not experienced diver neither. Just don't stress about it. Diving is not a competition. There are begginers and experienced divers. And there is experienced divers that learn from more experienced divers.
What matters is to be a safe diver with loads of common sense. And this kind of diver you can be with 4 dives. Or you can be a bold diver with 150 dives.
Remmember that "there is old divers and bold diver, but not old bold divers"
Happy bubbles
Gery @ScubaLegends
www.scuba-legends.com
When you stop learning.
After 40 years and thousands of dives, and teaching for 4 agencies, i'm still learning.
After 40 years and thousands of dives, and teaching for 4 agencies, i'm still learning.
Bubblesong
Contributor
Plus one to sheeper, i got certified in 1988, dive a few times per year, but i still am a noob compared to someone who dives weekly, or tech dives, or repairs their own tech, etc. so i self identify as the “new Diver here-have to pay close attention to learning new tips” helps me progress.
I think there comes a point where you can gear up without significant thought, dive without consciously thinking about " add a touch of air here, remember to vent", clear your mask without having to remind yourself of the process etc - that to me is the end of the beginning.
I have to agree with @sheeper though - never stop learning though (and that doesn't mean courses). Every dive should be an opportunity to think "I could have trimmed better" or "Was I a good buddy on that dive?" or " I need to practise nav more" or "Can I streamline my gear more?" and so on. Always strive to be the best diver you can.
We all screw up occasionally but learn from them.
Example of one guy on my last trip - 5th dive so everyones' gear was pretty well sorted by then. He had no integrated weights (having lost the pockets prior to the trip so had weights in the BCD pockets). Long stride of the boat, surface swim over to the reef and start the dive - only to watch a 2kg weight nearly taking out another diver. Tries to descend but can't so heads back to boat, gets another 2kg weight and swims back to the reef (with a new buddy - they had agreed to split after the first issue), tries to descend again and no way is that happening. Goes back to the boat to have a good look at his gear and figure out what the hell was going on only to see his weight belt sitting in his box with 6kg on it. No wonder he couldn't descend! This is all from a guy with a few hundred dives on him ie he should know better. Never even came up with the BWRAF checks as he had checked the pockets of the BCD not even thinking about checking the weight belt was there.
I have to agree with @sheeper though - never stop learning though (and that doesn't mean courses). Every dive should be an opportunity to think "I could have trimmed better" or "Was I a good buddy on that dive?" or " I need to practise nav more" or "Can I streamline my gear more?" and so on. Always strive to be the best diver you can.
We all screw up occasionally but learn from them.
Example of one guy on my last trip - 5th dive so everyones' gear was pretty well sorted by then. He had no integrated weights (having lost the pockets prior to the trip so had weights in the BCD pockets). Long stride of the boat, surface swim over to the reef and start the dive - only to watch a 2kg weight nearly taking out another diver. Tries to descend but can't so heads back to boat, gets another 2kg weight and swims back to the reef (with a new buddy - they had agreed to split after the first issue), tries to descend again and no way is that happening. Goes back to the boat to have a good look at his gear and figure out what the hell was going on only to see his weight belt sitting in his box with 6kg on it. No wonder he couldn't descend! This is all from a guy with a few hundred dives on him ie he should know better. Never even came up with the BWRAF checks as he had checked the pockets of the BCD not even thinking about checking the weight belt was there.
Only you (and I mean this in the general sense, not specifically the op) will know when it happens and it won’t be by dive count. You well feel comfortable gearing up. You will be able to recognize gear issues early and even be able to fix small problems. You will have dove in a variety of conditions and have encountered and successfully dealt minor issues underwater. You can plan and manage your own dive but reconginize when a dive is beyond your experience and willing to ask for advice.
As for still learning, I hope that is true in all aspects of my life but I wouldn’t personally use that to define a beginner.
As for still learning, I hope that is true in all aspects of my life but I wouldn’t personally use that to define a beginner.
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When I think of myself it depends on who I am talking about. Compared to some of my buddies I am the experienced one. In comparison to some of the others, like one with thousands of dives in many conditions and also an instructor trainer in two agencies and also a tech instructor I consider myself a beginner and always will. Being a beginner to me is not a statement about self reliance or any of that. It is a statement about where you fall on a scale and the scale varies with who it is being used on.
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