Judging a diver's experience: logging number of dives and hours of dive time

[Wookie]

At 6000 dives and 4800 hours I quit logging. I download my Shearwater now and again.

 

[HKGuns]

Up to a point, I don't think the number of dives or bottom time has much to do with anything. Obviously, someone with 2K + dives under their belt is in a different category.

I think it has more to do with the attitude you take into the water. Potato heads, will generally be potato heads.

I "try" to dive with people who will make me better through observation and practice. I set my bar where theirs is and try to teach myself to be better. (It isn't hard finding people better than you when you're new and you suck.)

I also make every attempt not to do stupid stuff, that would infringe upon their enjoyment of the dive. I feel horrible being an air hog and being the first to run out of air, something I've worked hard to correct by practicing some tips from this forum.

I've gotten better, but still have a ways to go and will only improve over time, as with everything in life.

 

[scubadada]

My main dive log is a spreadsheet I developed. Every single dive I've ever done is logged there. I have some on older paper log books, some on Shearwater Cloud, but ALL of my dives are logged on my spreadsheet. On it I track dive number, dive duration, max depth, average depth, SAC/RMV, temperature, equipment, buddy (or solo), and location/site/operator. I calculate my per dive average dive time both overall and per year. I also track my min, max, and average SAC/RMV.

In terms of judging experience, I find the number of logged dives, diversity of conditions, and average dive time all helpful. One of my past instructors put a big emphasis on average dive time. He used that to gauge your progressing experience as much or more so than logged dives. He wanted to see his advanced students and certainly those he took on for technical training to show a progression of lengthening dive times as they gained experience and competence.

You as are compulsive as I am. I have 180 dives between 100 and 109 feet, 626 entirely solo dives, 1,132 drift dives...and I have 2,005 total dives, 1995.25 hours, 59.4 min per dive. I have my RMV for the last 1535 dives

Dive time per dive is going to be very dependent on configuration. I dive single back mount, this would be very different for back or sidemount doubles, rebreather...many other factors. One of my fellow moderators is doing interesting dives in Cozumel as we post, @RayfromTX may want to comment.

This thread has gotten out to a good start

 

[BRT]

It's common to see divers with no fresh water experience, even no pool dives during courses, as courses were taken in confined waters.
It's not common to see divers with no sea water experience, though still possible.
But a dive instructor with no sea water experience ?

How about an instructor with no cold water experience? Or for that matter no warm water experience?

 

[Jay Adams]

I have close to if not over 200 dives, 12 of them are salt water you can see 100 feet in, 6 to 8 are in the northeast atlantic. 25 feet is a great day there. although I do not have a lot of salt water experience I have a **** ton of low to zero visibilty experience.

 

[Diving Dubai]

Being an instructor and guide, I have to regularly judge people's competence before they splash

The greater your certification, or log book entries the easier it is for you to disappoint me.

Cold water, low vis divers are not immune from being inept muppets either. The greater the emphasis from divers on their experience and skills the more wary I am. Sometime I'm pleasantly surprised, alas that's all too infrequent

I find that the pre course/dive chat together with watching how someone sets up their gear and the general way they convey themselves and behave with other divers gives a pretty good indicator of what I'm going to encounter underwater.

 

[rhwestfall]

Setting up gear.... LOL ( @ajtoady )

So, I met a guy here on SB who invited the wife and me to come dive with him, quite out of the blue. We meet up, load the boat, and head out. I had been diving a bunch the two weeks before this, but in deep cold water and using my front zip dry suit (my wet suit is a 1 piece back zip). The wife had a brand new wetsuit that was now a back zip and for years before she had a front zip. Well, wouldn't you guess, we both suit up in our 1 piece wet suits and realize we have our suits on backwards! I'm sure the host was thinking who the heck did I invite, and what the heck have I gotten myself into? Needless to say, a quick redress, a couple chuckles, and our diving friendship began. Now close to 10 years.... Yeah, do watch how folks set up their gear....

 

[Lostdiver71]

I stopped logging dives in 1992, a few months after starting to work full time on local dive boats, the only dives I logged through the 90's were when I had students as required by the different agencies that I taught for and during my own continuing education classes. Unfortunately all of my previous paper dive logs and much of my records were lost due to the boxes of paperwork being accidentally put into a bug infested storage area that was destroyed in a hurricane in 2005. Also I did download dives from my different computers over the years but those were lost due to a hard drive failure. I recently started keeping track again and am using several different types of online storage to make sure that they are not lost again. I know that I have somewhat more than 2000 dives at this point but have regrets that I don't know the exact number. I have seen some great divers that were natural in the water after very few dives and I have seen terrible divers that have years of diving and hundreds of dives logged! A lot depends on their initial training and if they continue to learn or just keep doing it the same way because that is how they were taught! If you want to rack up miles diving try spending 4 years working on dive boats in the Jupiter/West Palm Beach area full time, there were many days that I did 4+ dives per day and many weeks where I dove 6-7 days per week, how I never got bent is something of a miracle!

 

[boulderjohn]

Not officially asked. More explicitly told; as per your original pair that you were 'told' to dive with.

The DM who put me with beginners did so because I stupidly let him think I was a beginner. He did not know I was a professional.

Here are some other things to consider:

• If a dive operation puts you with a beginning diver with the idea that you will protect that diver, then they are in essence employing you.
• If a beginning diver is paired with you as a professional with the understanding that you are there because of that professional expertise, then the beginning diver has a right to assume you will provide care and protection, and if you fail to do so, you will be liable.
• If you are acting as an employee, then you are an agent of that company. That wording is important, because if you screw up in your assumed duty of care to the beginning diver, then the shop is also liable for your failure. That means the shop is making you an agent with the ability to screw them over big time without any real understanding of your ability or commitment to the job.
• If you are assuming the liability for caring for a beginning diver, then you have a right to compensation, and you need to be covered by a liability waiver.

I did have something like that happen once, but I actually volunteered. I was hanging around the shop on a long surface interval before a very popular dive, and a scheduled DM called in sick at the last minute. Under their insurance, they needed one more professional in the water for the number of customers they had. I happened to have my liability insurance card with me, and they essentially made me an employee for that dive. All I had to do was be the first and last in the water--other than that, it was exactly what it would have been for me as a customer. I was happy to do it, and I got a discount on the dive.

 

[TMHeimer]

Diver's experience should be assessed by the number of dives, the hours underwater, the sites dived, the different scenarios seen, the certification level, and so on.
I met a dive instructor some years ago that had only dived in fresh water in a quarry complex (several quarries in cascade). He had no sea water experience. How could he get that instructor cert ?

He got it of course because he took the Instructor Course and all it's pre-requisites in fresh water, maybe all in that one quarry complex.
If I were getting OW certified in that quarry complex I would rather have that instructor than one with 100 dives all over the world. But that's just me.