The most dives...

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I do appreciate the original question, but there should be a distinction between working dives and recreational dives because they are very different, from a judging competence standard anyway.
Interesting point regarding the distinction between logging recreational and commercial dives. I haven't kept a log of recreational dives for years, but I am required by law to keep an official log of my commercial dives, which must be counter signed by the duty Supervisor.
 
If someone wants to log a 20 minute, 30' warm water dive, more power to them. This is not a competition..

It's not, but many see the numbers as a talisman to experience or skill. And it is not. I've have witnessed personally lots of divers with 1000's of dives under their weight belts that are horrifyingly dangerous. And I have seen those with 5 dives that were rock solid.
 
The most I've done in a year was 80. Some over 3 months in winter in FL, but mostly here at home. Another reason it is difficult to get huge numbers per year may be that it means diving the same sites more times than you'd like. I know the underwater world does change over time, but too many times at the same place to me is boring-- and I've got about 12 shore sites that are easily accessible.

Exactly the reason I love cave diving so much. I have over 500 dives in Little River, probably 4 times that many in Ginnie Springs, and there are still LOTS of things I've never seen in either of those caves.
 
It's not, but many see the numbers as a talisman to experience or skill. And it is not. I've have witnessed personally lots of divers with 1000's of dives under their weight belts that are horrifyingly dangerous. And I have seen those with 5 dives that were rock solid.

There are not many metrics that you can quantify in diving. Judging how good a diver is is pretty subjective.

You can measure SAC, you can measure bottom time and you can measure total number of dives. Some people count cards.

We need or at least want some metric that we can use as a proxy for experience and capability, for better or worse we use dive count. That other than looking at my highest cert card is the only metric any dive operation has ever asked is dive count. Since it is so common in the dive industry, why not use it? The agencies themselves use dive count as a prerequisite for some higher training courses.
 
I would think that a pure recreational diver would have hard pressed to dive 100 times a year over the long haul.
It's certainty possible if you live near the coast in SoCal, especially if you can afford $150-200 for a weekend 3-tank day boat a couple times a month, and most especially if you can also squeeze in a LOB vacation. (Though I know a guy who managed to get in over 200 dives his first year, and they were all beach dives. He would go before or after work several times per week.) I managed 76 dives during the first year I was certified, despite getting off to a slow start due to lack of buddies and fear of the cold winter water. My second year isn't over and I've already done over 100 dives, despite missing almost 2 months due to COVID lockdowns. Barring serious health issues--or having to move to inland or to someplace with real winters--I can probably manage at least 100 dives per year for the foreseeable future.
 
Most people who do not actually log their dives over estimate the number of dives they have done, usually by quite a large percentage. This can be worked out when you divide the number of claimed dives by the years they have been diving and then by how many per week they would have had to do. For example, a person claiming 12,000 dives in 24 years means they dived an average of 500 dives a year or almost 10 a week. When you take out bad weather, holidays, time off etc, unless the person is a professional diver working in a location where they dive most days of the week, then the numbers will not be anywhere near that amount.

I knew someone who claimed they did 200 dives a year at a particular Australian location every year for 10 years. It was impossible as he lived 200 km from the location, worked in an occupation that meant he did not get weekends off for half the year and could have only got a dive on weekends. Take out the fact that 40% of the time you cannot dive that location due to weather, then his claim was BS.

The majority of people I regularly dive with do log their dives. We have many with over 2,000 dives and dozens over 1,000. Personally, I did dive 4,301 yesterday, all logged and all accessible for people to see on the internet. None of my dives have been as a professional either.
 
Most people who do not actually log their dives over estimate the number of dives they have done, usually by quite a large percentage. This can be worked out when you divide the number of claimed dives by the years they have been diving and then by how many per week they would have had to do. For example, a person claiming 12,000 dives in 24 years means they dived an average of 500 dives a year or almost 10 a week. When you take out bad weather, holidays, time off etc, unless the person is a professional diver working in a location where they dive most days of the week, then the numbers will not be anywhere near that amount.

I knew someone who claimed they did 200 dives a year at a particular Australian location every year for 10 years. It was impossible as he lived 200 km from the location, worked in an occupation that meant he did not get weekends off for half the year and could have only got a dive on weekends. Take out the fact that 40% of the time you cannot dive that location due to weather, then his claim was BS.

The majority of people I regularly dive with do log their dives. We have many with over 2,000 dives and dozens over 1,000. Personally, I did dive 4,301 yesterday, all logged and all accessible for people to see on the internet. None of my dives have been as a professional either.
Agree completely. That's why I (and the OP) seek the record holder of LOGGED dives.
I'm sure that the majority who claim to have done over 10K dives over pretty much a lifetime, or at least decades, are truthful. But, you'd have to take the little time after each dive to log it.
I've kept almost all of the programs of the concerts I've played/conducted since the early '70s, as well as suitcases full of tapes & discs of most of them. Otherwise the music from them disappears into thin air.
 
@clownfishsydney - 4301

I think that makes you the logged dive leader so far. Can anyone top that?
 
....
We need or at least want some metric that we can use as a proxy for experience and capability....

Why? It is easy enough to sit back and observe people prior to a dive. You will learn everything you need to know right then and there.

But if you really need a "metric", if their BMI is 30+, they should be approached with caution, regardless of the number of patches on their jackets or dives in their tattered log book.
 

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