Experience level question

[wesandkim]

Hi everyone!

My husband and I recently started diving and have noticed were treated differently each time we sign up for a boat dive. We have both only completed 15 dives and still see ourselves as newbies. Some dive shops treat us as if we are considered experienced, our question is ...... Is there really a point a diver can say they are no longer a newbie without 5000 dives?


Wes and Kim

 

[HowDidIGetIntoThis?]

Newbie is a relative term and I'd expect to still run into situations after 5,000 dives in which I'd call myself a newbie.

The diver master at your favourite resort undoubtedly qualifies as experienced (we hope!) at that resort and diving in a range of conditions that he's worked with many times. Whether he'd claim to be an experienced diver under 2' of ice at Lake Minnewanka is questionable. Some of the skills are the same but many are not.

You'll find that you can answer the question best for yourself just by doing lots of diving. Keep a good, detailed, log book. It is intriguing to look back a year or two later to discover how much you've changed.

As you dive more you'll start to recognize which divers in your group are more experienced, and be able to describe the differences even if you can't yet emulate them.

I've admitted in an earlier post to not expecting to ever consider myself experienced simply because I don't get out often enough and, when I do, tend to go looking for new experiences. The comfort level is improving, and certainly some skills are developing, but classifying myself as an advanced newbie doesn't cause me any embarrassment.

In your case, if you've done 15 dives at the same or similar site, and the conditions are not challenging, then you may be labelled experienced if teamed with a group of newly certified divers in the sense that the D.M. is going to be watching the others more closely.

Happy diving.
HDIGIT

 

[ektess1]

There are 2 things that classify you as a newby. One is your opion of yourself. The other is what you really are. If you are comfortable with what and where you are diving, then you are probably not a newby. That being said if you are not realistic with your own abilities then you are a newby likely to learn a hard lesson.
I have found that being older and more mature causes dive shops/boats to think that I am more able than I think myself to be. How you present youself determines how others precieve you.
If y0u can get suited up without asking for help or fumbling with you gear, and if you believe that you have it all together, most dive ops will think you are more experienced that you think you are.

 

[Tigerman]

Lets put it this way..
Ive seen divers with a fair ammount of dives than was disasters waiting to happen. The guide actually said when we where on our way back to the hotel (they joined the boat from another location) that he could tell the minute they came walking down the street that they where gonna be poor divers and I dont doubt for a second that he could.
This was bad to the extent that I considered dragging one of them up from 100+ feet and halfway to the surface, but the guide beat me to it. No boyancy control and the Santa Rosa wall is not a very good combination, you can end up DEEP there..

I think they said they had approx. 70 dives each those two and none of them mastered basic skills..

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

Hi everyone!

My husband and I recently started diving and have noticed were treated differently each time we sign up for a boat dive. We have both only completed 15 dives and still see ourselves as newbies. Some dive shops treat us as if we are considered experienced, our question is ...... Is there really a point a diver can say they are no longer a newbie without 5000 dives?


Wes and Kim

Aloha from the Big Island Wes & Kim!

I started diving in 1976. I'll ALWAYS consider myself a newbie. There is so much left to learn, and not enough time to learn it all There will always be someone more experienced than I am that I can learn something from .... and I think that's GREAT!

Keep diving, keep learning, Have fun!!

 

[Walter]

Most divers drop out before they reach 25 dives, so you're fairly experienced at 15. It's sad, but true. As far as real experience, 100 dives is a good start, at that point you can actualy consider yourself experienced. From 500 - 1000 dives is where folks think they are damned good and usually are. They start cutting corners and can get in a real jam as a result. If they live past a seriously life threatening incident cause by cutting corners, they change their ways and stop cutting corners. These folks really have their act together. In any new environment, everyone is a newbie.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

My OW instructor said a good rule of thumb is to give yourself 50 dives to start feeling comfortable with all your OW gear and skills. After that, you will have enough experience to make a good decisions.

We're all different in terms of how quickly we learn and get comfortable in the water ... for myself, I found it to be a good rule of thumb.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[seaducer]

I think when you can recognize and defuse most of the common issues in the type of diving or environment you frequent most often. I would also add when you are in control of yourself and are no longer bashing into things or having to vent and add gas because of over corrections. How long that takes is up to the individual. Some people are naturals and others really have to struggle at it. Most are somewhere in between. This applies to each new environment or set of conditions.
I would say you are experienced when you start to fully grasp the concepts behind what you are doing. Most new divers, and unfortunatly many not so new divers are doing things a certain way because that is how they are taught. They don't have the ability to adapt their gear or improvise on the spot because they don't understand the whys and what fors, only one of the ways. These are not divers so much as robots. Education through diverse training,(meaning more than one instructor) reading, and debating in places like this is a good innoculation against robot diver disorder.

Last but not least is knowing enough to know that you don't really know that much. As Walter alluded to in post #6, at some point a diver may become way over confident in their skill and ability. Over confidence ussually is a gateway drug to complacancy, and it often starts with a know it all attitude. As in other areas of life, know it alls don't have enough general knowledge to realise just how much information is out there. Even in something as relatively small as diving, the amount of information is overwhelming.

 

[TSandM]

To me, I was a "newby" until I could place myself precisely where I wanted to be in the water, and STAY THERE. Up until then, I didn't feel as though I had complete control of the dive. (Now, in heavy current or surge, you simply can't do that, but I'm talking about normal water.) That doesn't sound like a big deal, but most new divers can't simply stop in the water without losing their equilibrium, and have to swim constantly. Being able to stop and hover in a horizontal position was the beginning of being able to keep in constant touch with my buddies, executing coordinated descents and ascents and solid safety stops, being able to stay off the bottom and away from the reef while looking at small things or taking pictures . . . For me, that's the core skill of diving, from which everything else comes.

Really having that solid took me about 250 dives. I'm quite sure there are other people who achieve it far faster.

 

[Rick Inman]

I was a nOOB until I got enough dives to get dialed in...And then I added a drysuit and was a nOOb again for a while....And then I took rescue - nOOb again. Then DIRF (that put me back to nOOb for quite a while). Then went to doubles...added stages...deco...trimix...scooter...wreck....

I just can't manage to stay experienced!