How often do you dive? How often is "realistic"

[Lorenzoid]

There's no shame in being a twice-a-year or even once-a-year "vacation diver," and there are a whole lot of vacation divers in the world--for all I know they constitute the majority of all who have ever been certified. You can't just dismiss vacation diving with a wave of the hand. Vacation divers sometimes get a bad rap, but there are conscientious vacation divers and reckless vacation divers. I have great respect for the conscientious vacation diver who keeps his gear serviced, does a refresher course or gets some equivalent mentoring if he goes more than a year or so without diving, makes a conscious effort to stay within the limits of his experience and doesn't let himself be bullied by dive operators or others, intersperses his vacation diving with courses for "continuing education," keeps abreast of diving-related issues by reading drivel like Scubaboard, etc. Someone who dives like that is a good diver in my opinion.

Most of my diving involves flying somewhere, though I drive to FL a few times a year for a long weekend getaway. The OP, living in Portland, should easily be able to get up to Puget Sound now and then. I'm envious.

 

[Ninelinegoby]

I'm a vacation diver, but still manage to get 100 plus a year. 3 weeks in Bonaire, couple days in Catalina, now back to Bonaire for 2 weeks. I try to take what time I can. Living in New York and haven't gotten in to the local diving, but that's only a matter of time.

 

[DiverDownD3]

Been certified for less than a year. I'm on pace to hit somewhere around 40 dives on my "anniversary". I live on the NC Crystal Coast (Morehead City/Atlantic Beach/Beaufort area), unfortunately shore diving isn't really all that fun here when you compare it to the awesome wreck diving we have. I have a boat that I can use to get to the inshore wrecks, but it's a smaller boat so I have to pick my days right and here lately the wind has been whipping.

I have an 11 month old, so it's tough to dive as much as I'd like to. Would like to dive at least once a week, actually dive once every 2-3 weeks.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Ages and Stages. Job, family, other commitments and availability of dive sites within reach all determine number of dives.

When I first moved here we dived heaps. Then I got a job and that effected how often I could dive. Then of course there is the weather and availability of local dive buddies since I don't dive solo.

In the winter warm bed wins over cold ocean more often. It is a good hour drive to the nearest site and conditions determin a lot here. After being pretty keen to dive as much as I could locally... well I kinda figure if conditions are awful why bother to dive a site I can dive when things are better.

People talk about Vacation diver like that is something negative Aren't we just divers in the end? How much diving is enough? I would say it depends on the person.

IN the early years if I missed diving for a month or more I felt a bit rusty getting in the water. After over 700 bottom hours I can get in the water after a few months of no diving and it still just clicks. Perhaps I am a Vacation diver now since most of my diving has been concentrated on some vacations in various location. Mainly local weather conditions and a few issues with aging body are what has slowed my diving down.

My advice would be.. don't worry about numbers.. worry about honing skills and enjoying the sport as safely as possible.

 

[nolatom]

New Orleans isn't real close to any great diving, but then again it isn't all that far away, drive three hours east to Pensacola, or six hours west to the Texas coast and the liveaboards out at the Flower Gardens/Stetson sanctuary. And on occasional Florida east coast vacations around Stuart, there's Jupiter and West Palm nearby.

So over the years I've dived say between ten and twenty-odd dives each year, and I try not to go over six months "dry" so as to stay current.

Maybe I'm like the the addict who can get by with just an occasional "fix"?? Some folks OD on diving, chase the thrills around the world on airplanes, then are bored with "regular" local diving.

Or is that just an excuse for my never having dived outside the States?? Ha ha, could be...

 

[maj2]

Before starting a family, I did 50+ dives per year. Mostly local, but some while on vacation as well. That dropped to 5-10 per year when we had our daughter. As she got older, the numbers were able to creep up a bit, but never got back to pre-family levels.

Now that my daughter is diving herself, (she just got her Jr Rescue certification), I expect that diving frequency will continue to increase.

My daughter strongly prefers warm vacation diving, but understands that she has to do some cold water diving at home to keep her skills up. We are tending to more/more frequent warm destinations though (Bahamas shortly after she got her O/W, Grenada, Bonaire, with planned trips to Los Cabos and Cozumel within the next year). She claims she will do more cold water diving if she can get a drysuit, but that won't be happening until she stops growing!

I am loving having my new dive buddy and looking forward to more frequent diving again!

 

[kr2y5]

In PNW, you can dive every day if you can afford the time and are willing to give up on other stuff. Even if you don't dive solo, there are plenty of people diving. For me, the main limiting factors at the moment, in the order of importance, are:

1) On weekdays, it's either diving or biking / hitting the gym, and I'm at the age when the latter is non-negotiable,

2) Time stuck in peak-hour traffic on weekdays for after-work dives, and all the time it takes to get fills and clean equipment afterwards.

When not too busy, I typically do 2-3/week, when busy sometimes skip several weeks, on average it is probably 1-2/week overall. I prefer to do a single 1.5-hour dive if I can, rather than two repetitive dives on the same day.

 

[Dizzi Lizzi]

Well money is a factor, and shore diving while cheaper is more iffy for me, im 56 and hate getting knocked around by waves especially when exiting tired. So we try to dive at least 1x month boat dive or shore dive catalina (easy entry). 2hr drive to boats/beach. Cost for me and hubby is: boat about $250, catalina is 150 for ferry/park. It adds up.
But then the real world kicks in, and this month and that month are blown for this and that. So I would say we got about 20 dives in the first year, and about the same for this year projected--except that we will go on the Scubaboard surge (JOIN US) so 3 dives a day x 6 days!!! Yahoo. double time!!! The biggest problem I see is that without repetitive diving we seem to kinda stay at the same level, progressing little by little when its 6-8 weeks since last dive. I don't care about the number of dives, but the skill level.
I wish I had access to a pool that deeper than 6 feet so I could practice more....
I'm sure I will love warm water diving, and after Cayman Brac I think we will need to schedule a dive vacation every year...Coz looks good!!!

 

[Reku]

I would say I'm committed to diving and I don't intend on stopping. I dive whenever and wherever I can.

Number of dives is irrelevant. It's what you get out of them that counts.

That said I dive 10-14 times a week on average. 25% of my dives are spent practicing a number of skills.

Nowadays 90% of the time I dive alone.

I've never been diving on a reef or outside the US/Canada. It's on my to dive list. I have a strange feeling I'm going to get dragged off to dive Antarctica someday.

Realistic number of dives depends on how close the diving is to you. For me the place I practice skills is about 45' from my back door. Granted the current is insane and the shipping lane traffic is high - but I make do. If only I had a private island... or a portable spring I could just throw down on the ground and dive it.

I have a buddy who is the polar opposite of me in terms of diving, all she does is vacation warm water diving all around the world. I enjoy hearing the stories of adventure. While the diving I do is adventurous it is not the same and the differences between our diving is is apparent - which I find very intriguing.

If your diving has a purpose then you will end up doing tons of dives without even noticing it.

 

[Trailboss123]

I also live in Portland, OR and I have made it a point of getting up to the Hood Canal, WA 1 weekend a month. Sometimes, I will just go up for a day and get 2-3 dives in. I can leave my house in the morning and be up to Hoodsport in 2 hours and 15 minutes. I get my dives in and can be back home before dinner. I'd agree with others, the more diving you do, the better. Practice makes perfect and particularly so when it comes to cold water diving. All the best!