Vacation Diver Poll

[Coztick]

I am totally a 1, 2 week trip a year, vacation diver. Only 1 drysuit dive in a cold lake near home. Over 100 in Mexico.
But scuba has become far more of a hobby than just the actual dives.
By the second trip, I was noticing the tourist divers having issues descending, equalizing, contacting the reef, drifting far above the reef out of trim, Instabuddies oblivious underwater.
Thankfully I was buddied once with a conscientious diver that had a spare air.
It lead me to look for a better way for me.
It didn't take long to find SB. Now it's knowledge and not memory that I rely on.
All gear is tested before it's packed and no issues on the setup but I'm probably more of an enthusiast than most vacation divers.
I've still splashed with my gas off, my wing near empty, and my wing disconnected but never all at once. All non-events.

 

[outofofficebrb]

I have a big trip about every 6 months and I do a crap ton of dives so no refresher needed. It feels familiar like I dived yesterday except the surface interval countdown and my twitching from withdrawal says otherwise.

 

[homerdoc]

We are normally a 2 dive vacation family per year - either Bonaire + Florida springs. Or Bonaire + somewhere else warm.

I get a lot more time underwater usually off my lake dock looking for something someone has dropped.

To get ready for trip.

test all the gear, put regs on tanks, make sure they breathe okay, no leakage. Inflate deflate the BCDs. - I usually take a good bit of time quizzing my wife and daughter on different skills and hand signals (keeps me fresh also)

I also change the computer batteries every Christmas break.

JJ

 

[Paul M]

"In Between" I dive locally about 40-50 times per year.
I go on a dive vacation 2 weeks/yr.
Vacation diving, for me, is changing from cold water to warm, dry to wetsuit (or a t-shirt).
It's like running around barefoot in our snowy yard then jumping into the hot tub.

 

[BowKay]

Things have changed a bit recently but for most of my diving life I was diving a week a year on vacation and that was it. I always had the best of intentions to do some kind of pool check out before leaving but never seemed to make the time. My excuse and saving grace ended up being that these trips were led by a family member who is an instructor who I had zero hesitation asking for help from when I needed it.

 

[dmaziuk]

Please excuse my ignorance, but what is a gubmint and how do I become one?

You get yourself a nation-state with an army and a navy and a tax police.

 

[dmaziuk]

Is there "I sometimes dive locally in-between", or does that disqualify me from vacation divers?

 

[TMHeimer]

Is there "I sometimes dive locally in-between", or does that disqualify me from vacation divers?

It disqualifies you. I probably should've worded the poll to include only those who vacation dive once or twice yearly as their total diving. I see on the poll that 75% do nothing extra to prepare for a trip, so I figure many of those do at least some diving locally in between trips. I'ts the idea of just diving once/twice a year that kept me away from diving until we moved to the coast where I could do it regularly.
"Vacation diver" is just a term I picked up reading scubaboard over the years. I don't know if is used anywhere else. I haven't heard it used elsewhere anyway.

 

[drrich2]

Even there we have a big range. Hypothetical example: Bob and his wife cruise twice a year, do 2 dives on one cruise and 4 on another. Tom goes on 2 dedicated dive trips that year, a live-aboard with 25 dives and a Bonaire or Curacao trip with 20 shore dives.

We could say Bob and Tom both dove a couple of times that year, even though Tom did over 7 times the dives.

Polls aren’t perfect and can still be useful. I’m just pointing out the term vacation diver covers a big range.

 

[dmaziuk]

It disqualifies you. I probably should've worded the poll to include only those who vacation dive once or twice yearly as their total diving.

Some years it is. Even if I do dive locally, e.g. this year I only did a clean-up dive in June and our next trip is planned for end of February. With nothing in between. That said, we typically clock 20+ dives/trip. If instead I did 2 tanks locally every weekend when it's not iced over around here, my annual dive count would be about the same.