When should I stop referring to myself as a beginner

[mcohen1021]

When should I stop referring to myself as a beginner? 50 dives? 100 dives?

Once you grow gills

 

[flyboy08]

You no longer are a beginner, what I see is someone wanting to continue their educational process and that's a wonderful thing...always be willing to learn more or something new keeps us young and excited.....

 

[Diver2018]

I like to gauge my experience level based on each dive plan I create. I may have done the exact dive 10 times, but if I am with divers that I have never dove with I factor that in. New equipment that's another factor. New environment again I could be a beginner. New weather or water conditions again, I might be a "beginner". New skills being learned and so on. There are many, many variables in diving. Hopefully I always think of myself as a "learner". I realize it does not directly answer the question, but always keep in mind things are constantly changing as we dive.

 

[northernone]

For me I never refer to myself as a beginner, I find those designations unhelpful since I've never seen a clear working definition. I'm a learner and if someone is interested I'll demonstrate what competencies I've learned.

I'm about to go to lunch with a life long diver. Commercial, recreational, salvage, scientific, archilogical etc... Diving with him, seeing his ease and comfort underwater, makes the career instructor with +5,000 dives beside him looks like a beginner.

Life long learner,
Cameron

 

[Sam Miller III]

In a true sense we are all beginners...
I began my "diving career" as a youth many years ago as a goggler and have progressed from there.

I religiously visit the SCUBA Board every morning - some times the posts are humorous, other times tragic but all educational - We - the members and frequent participants- range from veteran divers, some with all sorts of titles underneath their names to those who were just introduced to the underwater world .

In a truest sense we are all learning--- we are all beginners...

So consider your self anything your heart dictates

SDM

 

[scbaNE2179]

Why not just consider yourself a "diver" and leave it as that? Unless specifically asked for proof of skill level for liability purposes, why is having to label yourself as "x" skilled diver important?

 

[Lorenzoid]

"Beginner" or "seasoned" or whatever--it's all relative. When I am around divers who have far more experience and skill than I do, I am clearly the beginner from their perspective.

 

[Dogbowl]

Thanks for all the comments - most insightful.

There is a practical reason why I’ve asked this. Whenever I initiate correspondence with a dive op who don’t know me, or when I post here and want to put what I say into the proper context, I often will say that I’m a beginner. I think that sets the right context for my opinions in SB and the dive ops will know not to expect too much of me in terms of skills (as an aside, I have a lot of diving knowledge which I got here, but not skills because I literally haven’t dived enough). But after say, 50 dives, if I still think I’m not “good enough”, can I still legitimately call myself a beginner or will people start thinking I’m full of BS?

 

[scbaNE2179]

At the end of the day, it's all about the dive and having a good time. Unless you're highly full of yourself, nobody really cares what level diver you are. My philosophy is to stay humble and enjoy your sport.

 

[scbaNE2179]

Thanks for all the comments - most insightful.

There is a practical reason why I’ve asked this. Whenever I initiate correspondence with a dive op who don’t know me, or when I post here and want to put what I say into the proper context, I often will say that I’m a beginner. I think that sets the right context for my opinions in SB and the dive ops will know not to expect too much of me in terms of skills (as an aside, I have a lot of diving knowledge which I got here, but not skills because I literally haven’t dived enough). But after say, 50 dives, if I still think I’m not “good enough”, can I still legitimately call myself a beginner or will people start thinking I’m full of BS?

In your instance if there's a safety pre-req then this makes sense. Otherwise it's I think it's unnecessary info to divulge to people. When I'm on livaboard trips, I always get asked how many dives I have as part of the preliminary paperwork process. I tell them WTF knows as I've stopped logging dives 4 years ago. I just give them a random range.