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

[The Chairman]

Sorry for nitpicking, but the point was just on fauna: coral is fauna, not flora.

It won't be coral long without zooxanthellae, now would it? I see it as being both.

Back to the topic, so why all the angst about how others dive or what they wear? I've been criticized for being "too trim" by a few. As much as I enjoy looking at fish, coral, fossils or whatever, I get a lot of satisfaction out of my trim and depth control. I can swim an inch off the bottom, look under ledges and still not disturb a thing. It's not a smug thing, though I've been accused of simply showing off. My guess is that they can't do it, so it's a bit of jealousy. Meh. I can assure you that I'm not diving for anyone but me.

I've also been criticized for my tie-dyed shirts. It's not to stand out in a sea of black, but rather an attempt to blend in with the happy fish. Jewfish turn jet black just before they feed, so small fish often run away from divers dressed in all black. Can you blame them? None of them seem to be afraid of colorful parrotfish, so I dress appropriately. I go slow, steady and get to find all sorts of critters that the fast divers in black seem to miss. Most importantly, I have fun.

As for Cold Water Barbarians making better divers, well I don't buy that. We had a lady die in the Keys because she didn't make the proper adjustments. She was out of the Great Lakes where she wore a drysuit and an AL tank. She changed her drysuit for a bikini, the shop used steel tanks but she kept the same weight. The shop tried to get her to shed some weight but she was a Cold Water Barbarian and thus was a better diver than they were, so she knew best. I don't know why she didn't strip her weights but I guess she panicked... and died. So sad. Oh? It can't happen to you? I bet she thought the very same thing. Different environments have different requirements. The locals just might know something you don't.

 

[Marie13]

As for Cold Water Barbarians making better divers, well I don't buy that. We had a lady die in the Keys because she didn't make the proper adjustments. She was out of the Great Lakes where she wore a drysuit and an AL tank. She changed her drysuit for a bikini, the shop used steel tanks but she kept the same weight. The shop tried to get her to shed some weight but she was a Cold Water Barbarian and thus was a better diver than they were, so she knew best. I don't know why she didn't strip her weights but I guess she panicked... and died. So sad. Oh? It can't happen to you? I bet she thought the very same thing. Different environments have different requirements. The locals just might know something you don't.

You can be a Cold Water Barbarian without being stupid. The chick that died? Seems like she had the stupid in abundance. No one in their right mind dives aluminums with a drysuit in cold water. Takes too damn much lead. Some here consider me stupid, but I’m not THAT stupid to realize you need to change your weight when you change exposure protection.

 

[formernuke]

Different environments have different requirements. The locals just might know something you don't.

I think this is the best line of the thread. I would say different environments have different requirements and risk.

I'm slightly nervous about a trip to blue heron Bridge in June. I'm a New England drysuit diver year around. I haven't worn a 3mm in the ocean since 2010 and I know it will be different.

 

[Heat Miser]

I think we should judge by cumulative total depth. A diver that has dived over a mile should be considered an accomplished diver. 10 miles should be required for DM type jobs and 100 miles for instructor.

Umm .... I think that 852 dives to 62 feet to be a Dive Master .... and the progression continues I guess you want 1000 miles for an Instructor Instructor ... 85,161 dives to 62 feet, buy a compressor and boat thats for sure.

 

[kelemvor]

How would you make this work? Somebody who wants to 0 -> Hero could go do a bunch of 150 foot bounce dives for 2 seconds at a time. If they survive, they'll get there a lot faster than somebody who actually spends an hour long dive that peaks (valleys?) at 100 feet and then comes back up slowly. Maybe a sampling time? Every 30 seconds, take a data point, add up the depths?

Also, 100 miles? That's 528,000 feet! If you averaged 100 feet per dive, you'd need 5,280 dives just to become an instructor. You could do it if you made 4 dives per day, every single day for just over three and a half years.

There is a lot more to diving than going deep.

I was thinking just cumulative total.. if the deepest I made it to on my last dive was 50' then I get to tack on 50' to my total for doing that dive. Maybe 50 miles for instructor. It SHOULD be difficult to become an instructor, after all.

 

[formernuke]

I was thinking just cumulative total.. if the deepest I made it to on my last dive was 50' then I get to tack on 50' to my total for doing that dive. Maybe 50 miles for instructor. It SHOULD be difficult to become an instructor, after all.

So if I jump in and go to 100, spend 5 minutes and then out I get a higher total than going to 50 swimming around looking at critters do a drill or two and spend 1 hr total in the water.

 

[kmarks]

I was thinking just cumulative total.. if the deepest I made it to on my last dive was 50' then I get to tack on 50' to my total for doing that dive. Maybe 50 miles for instructor. It SHOULD be difficult to become an instructor, after all.

Difficult, sure, but your plan would make it basically impossible for about 95% of us. Dive instruction doesn't pay well enough to dedicate that kind of time to it. That's more time and effort than a college degree and you would realistically only be able to do that in very few areas of the world.

And like formernuke says and I mentioned earlier, you'd be rewarding dangerous behavior (like bounce dives) and not actual learning and skill development. And in order to average 100 feet per dive, 4 times per day, for 3.6 years, they would have to be some very, very short dives - like getting to 1 minute maximum on air.

An instructor should be able to teach the skills necessary to make a good, autonomous diver. Classroom instruction, personal connection with the students, adaptive training techniques, skills demonstrations, professionalism, and breadth of experience are way more important to development of a good instructor than how deep you have ever gone. One of the worst instructors I ever worked with was a tech diver who regularly did 400+ foot dives. All he cared about was how deep the dive was. He was (undeservedly) arrogant, unprofessional, and rude.

 

[Hoag]

I dive for fun. Whether it's in a cave system, doing a technical dive, or just an easy dive, I'm out to enjoy myself. I don't do big dives with an instabuddy, so if we're in overhead, we already know each other. But if we're doing an easy dive, I don't care about your experiences or skills as much as I care about your attitude. It's even more important than if you wear your mask on your forehead or not. Without equivocation, your attitude is key to me enjoying myself on our dive.

I'm not kidding. You can tell me all the places you've been, about the classes where your instructor thought you were born diving, how deep, or long, or this, or that... but that don't impress me much. You can dive gold plated gear, dive what I dive or have a reg signed by Jackie Cou Stow... that don't impress me much, either.

Maybe you think you have the best SAC on the boat, can find the coolest creature or have the biggest camera rig? Meh. Are you here to impress me or to have fun? Are you trying to have the coolest gear, or are you here to have fun? Do you get your giggles laughing at the strokes? That don't impress me much either. If we're paired together, I'll probably just ask if we can be SOBs instead. I'm already pretty independent, and I must admit that I can have more fun diving by myself than with a prima diver.

But, and I don't care about the size of your butt, if you're here to have a blast and be a partner in the dive, then awesome. Let's splash. Who knows, you might be my next favorite dive buddy. Sass me all you want, because you know I'll be sassing you right back. Life is almost as short as our dves will be, so let's cut all the Tom Foolery and have some fun. We may never dive this way again.

I have a very active "inner 5 year old" side to my personality that almost always ensures I have fun.

 

[Hoag]

The other thing that I think might need to be mentioned is the frequency of diving. I consider myself to be a relatively good vacation diver with just over 400 dives most of which have been in tropical waters.

Given the world's situation, I have not been on a dive trip in over two years. I don't have a drysuit or even a 7mil wetsuit & have no interest in diving in cold water so until it becomes practical to travel internationally to/from Canada, I am sitting on the sidelines.

I fully expect that the first day or two of the next dive trip that I do will be spent knocking the rust off. I also expect that by the end of the trip, things will be pretty much back to where I expect them to be. If somebody sees me during those first few days and makes their assessment/assumptions based on that, then it might not be an accurate representation of my ability.

I wonder how many others are sitting on the sidelines waiting for the world to change.

 

[Dody]

One important factor is: when was your last dive? Because I am not sure that a rec diver with no dive in the last 9 months will be as good as he/ she used to be before.