How do experienced divers define "What is Advanced Diving?"

[Jim Lapenta]

I do make tech dives but chose to answer regarding the advanced question. As it appears did Bob and Lynne who both do caves which are considered tech dives. I was not discussing my tech dives. I will do that in the tech forum. That I list my tech certs and Bob and Lynne do not disqualifies me even though I restricted my answers to the topic seems kinda over the top.
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[Adobo]

OK, here are the cliff notes ...The one that most applies to you, according to your limited "profile", is ...When did you think you were an advanced diver?I have no problem with you also answering the other question ...When do you "now" think you were advanced?

Hmm... this presumes that I think that I am an advanced diver. I went to go post into the Basic Forum since I do not consider myself as advanced but in the equivalent thread in that forum, I saw this:

OK you basic scuba divers; looking into your future, what do you think would earn you the title "advanced diver?"

So, please answer the question in the proper forum; the question is slightly different in each different forum; this question is for those who have not got there yet (100+ dives

).

Since I have >100dives and I participate in what some call "technical" dives, I guess I am just S.O.L.

 

[Doc]

How do experienced divers define "What is Advanced Diving?"

.....OK you advanced scuba divers; looking into your past, when did you think you had earned the title "advanced diver?"...... when do you now think you were "advanced?"

The dictionary tells us: Advanced Diver ≠ Advanced Diving

Two totally different definitions and concepts... lumped together? Not by me.

Three totally different questions.

Words are all we have on the message board, they are indeed important.
This is a thread that is arguing three different topics, all refernced in the op.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I do make tech dives but chose to answer regarding the advanced question. As it appears did Bob and Lynne who both do caves which are considered tech dives. I was not discussing my tech dives. I will do that in the tech forum. That I list my tech certs and Bob and Lynne do not disqualifies me even though I restricted my answers to the topic seems kinda over the top.
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Actually I haven't attempted to answer the question ... because I don't think the question is relevent to how I think about diving.

My participation here was strictly to help provide freewillie with some criteria by which he could determine whether or not he considers himself an advanced diver. Since he got chased out of the Basic forum, I'm thinking he probably felt that was the appropriate place to post, initially ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Doc]

Actually I haven't attempted to answer the question ... because I don't think the question is relevent to how I think about diving. ....Since he got chased out of the Basic forum, I'm thinking he probably felt that was the appropriate place to post, initially ...

You'll know it's acceptable if your post gets "liked". (not as good as licked, but there you go)

 

[freewillie]

Just the concept of someone "chasing" you out of a forum is disturbing.

As someone who teaches at a recreational level, I would not consider someone at your experience level to be an "advanced" diver. I would consider you to be a basic diver who has taken more than just the entry level class ... but with insufficient diving experience to do advanced dives.

Would you consider yourself ready yet to do Farnsworth Bank on a less than perfect conditions day?

If someone with less than 50 dives isn't a "Basic" diver ... who is?

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Maybe "chased" was a poor choice of words.

Halemano has posted the same question in three different forums. The Basic Scuba section the divers are answering from a perspective of not having made advanced dives. Here you are answering from a perspective having made advance dives and asked when did you feel like you were advanced?

As Bob points out, I'm essentially an OW diver who just completed a few courses in Peak Performance Buoyancy, Underwater Navigation, Wreck diving, Deep Diving, and Night Dive. Does that make me an advanced diver? Not sure, but I do have AOW status.

As for my diving experience most of my dives are in cold water from the shore. Full 7 mm wetsuit, hood, gloves, booties, lots of weight. I have been in very challenging conditions including 5-6 foot waves, strong surge, and very poor viz. Not the most fun for a dive, but at least now I have the experience of these conditions. (Experience now tells me thumb the dive and come back when conditions are more enjoyable.) I've been inadvertantly separated from the dive group and had to find my way back without a guide. Fortunately I took a compass reading and knew the heading to get back to shore.

Are we judging our skills based on simple number of dives? What if 50 dives are all in warm water, no wetsuit, off a boat, and guided by a DM. Does that mean at 51 dives you are now advanced, can navigate independently, enter/exit a shore dive with all the gear/weight without getting tumbled?

Maybe we should be looking at what we learn with each dive, the skills we worked on, and how those skills improved with each challenge.

As to Halemano's question, I'm and "intermediate" diver. My skills are definitely above basic but I need a few more dives to truly say I'm advanced.

 

[freewillie]

Just a clarification on the Basic forum. As per previous post I would not quite call myself an advance diver here.

When searching for dive boats and their dive sites, they will generally rate a dive site as beginner or advanced. The advanced dives are generally deeper, may have poor viz, and are subjected to stronger currents.

After AOW training and 40 logged dives I feel my skills are above "basic." I can descend/ascend without a line, use my compass for navigation, have adequate control of my buoyancy where I can do my safety stop without having to hold onto the achor line or hang line within a 1-2 foot window. If I was reserving a spot in a dive boat, I don't think it's a stretch to label myself an advanced diver. However, given the rules of Halemano's post in the Basic Scuba section it was for beginner divers. If I was going to say I feel comfortable with more advanced dives the correct forum was here in Advance Scuba section.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

I'm going to chime in here, as I just got chased out of the Basic Scuba section.

Just the concept of someone "chasing" you out of a forum is disturbing.

Bob, your frequent "simple word" comprehension problem is now affecting innocent posters

freewillie typed "section" and you immediately changed it to "forum" and got all disturbed.

Not only that but less than 2 hours after freewillie typed "section" you have alread spread your untruth twice!

Since he got chased out of the Basic forum,

Each of the OP's of this posting, each "section" of this posting, has instructions as to where a participant should participate...

...this thread here in Basic Scuba Discussions (is) for divers who don't feel they are advanced divers)

...(emphasis and color added)

So, please answer the question in the proper forum; the question is slightly different in each different forum; this question is for those who have not got there yet (100+ dives ).

After I "liked" freewillie's post, I asked ...

So freewillie, you think your pretty close?

I would say I'm there!

...

Well freewillie, not to be too picky but if you do think you are an advanced diver, you posted in the wrong thread.

Please quit spreading lies Bob!

I "just" pointed out that according to the OP's, freewillie had posted in the wrong thread

Bob evidently turns that into "halemano chased a poor basic diver out of the Basic Scuba Discussions forum," perhaps due to some sub-conscious "demonize halemano fixation."

 

[Thalassamania]

I'm going to do something here that I rarely do, that is explicitly put on by Board Guide hat.

There are a few points that I'd like to make:

Halemano asked that people restrict themselves to responding according to certain criteria. This is done every now and again, and quite often people ignore the criteria, and for that matter the questions, but stay close enough to the theme to not really qualify for being off topic.

There is not a whole lot the we can expect of the Mods in this sort of a circumstance, even if it were a legitimate thing to police, one such thread (not to mention three) would consume a huge amount of what is, in reality, volunteer time.

I don't think that we want to set a precedent that a member should be restricted from providing input on any forum to which they have access...especially if it isn't against TOS. Where the Mods to try to do that here eventually communication will break down as more and more threads start with explicit instructions like 'Former University Diving Safety Officers who live in Hawaii, whose user names begin with the letter T should not comment in the thread. Now that would make me very grumpy.

So try to show Halemano's requests some respect and, hopefully, he will understand that discussions often slip off into alternate and unplanned directions. I think that is one of the beauties of ScubaBoard.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

I completely understand freewillie's predicament; he is right on one of the dividing lines.

When freewillie was "free" to express himself among his peers (in the Basic Scuba Discussion forum) he "smilingly" replied ...

I would say I'm there!

Now, after these threads have had a certain "pressure" placed on them, by many popular advanced diving members of ScubaBoard, among a peer set he is almost a part of, freewillie is now looking back on his typing of this morning ...

kind of a "one day version" of the secondary question regarding ~1000 dives or more.