How do so many folks have so many dives

[RJP]

One point raised early in this thread-(9 months ago) Has me scratching my head.
One poster says they log each daily trip as a dive rather than the individual dive.
I genuinely don't understand that point. I always though every dry-wet- dry cycle counted as a dive. allowing you get to the required depth and are under long enough.

Goes to the point that "It's your logbook... do what you want with it."

Beyond keeping a running total, I stopped logging dives in any meaningful way about 500 dives ago. So anyone logging "dive days" is still being more diligent that I've been over the past 5 years or so.

 

[Octopusprime]

If you really want to rack up some dives do a live abord. You could get 50+ dives in 10 days. Wake up, dive, breakfast, dive, snack, dive, lunch, dive, dinner, night dive, drinks, sleep, .... Repeat ...

I'm a bit perplexed at looking at some folks profiles and seeing the amount of dives listed. I wholly understand dive instructors.....they are in the water doing pool sessions, guiding students week in and out. What I dont understand is folks in the midwest who have 2000 dives.


Granted, im closing in on 5 years of diving. Surely a lot of folks eclipse me by many fathoms, year wise. Ill admit in relative terms, I am a new diver.

However, I have access to diving 365 days a year. For the most part, I have dove (minimally) every single weekend for the last four years.

Question posed. How do some folks have so many dives without access all of the times? Diving in January in Des Moines is not a reality.

 

[RJP]

If you really want to rack up some dives do a live abord. You could get 50+ dives in 10 days. Wake up, dive, breakfast, dive, snack, dive, lunch, dive, dinner, night dive, drinks, sleep, .... Repeat ...

Most 10-day liveaboard trips (at least the ones I've been on) offer 8.5 days of diving... and often feature 4-dives per day.

Still plenty of diving... but I've yet to get 50+ dives in on a liveaboard trip.

 

[Frosty]

Goes to the point that "It's your logbook... do what you want with it."

Beyond keeping a running total, I stopped logging dives in any meaningful way about 500 dives ago. So anyone logging "dive days" is still being more diligent that I've been over the past 5 years or so.

LMAO--yep um er guilty of that too. Then got the DM pack and ooops. need those logged dives.
The DS was pretty clear. NO you can't use OUR records (day sheets) to prove your dives so its been a scramble to find log books going back the past few years.

 

[RJP]

LMAO--yep um er guilty of that too. Then got the DM pack and ooops. need those logged dives.
The DS was pretty clear. NO you can't use OUR records (day sheets) to prove your dives so its been a scramble to find log books going back the past few years.

The shop I did my DM and IDC was pretty familiar with my diving activity, so there was never a need to support my "claim" as to having enough dives.

 

[Octopusprime]

Most 10-day liveaboard trips (at least the ones I've been on) offer 8.5 days of diving... and often feature 4-dives per day.

Still plenty of diving... but I've yet to get 50+ dives in on a liveaboard trip.

I just had a friend come back from Thailand was there 5 days 0 days of diving there were 7 dives a day possible. Many were shallow but they only recommended up to 5 a day. he said he skipped the early dive most days and still got in 5 on most days. He wished he had his nitrox for the trip.

I will never have this chance since my wife does not dive so I have to find non diver friendly destinations.

 

[blatter]

Hi boulderjohn - yes have read the book "Raising the Dead" but think the link I on my last post gives a useful summary of what Dave Shaw's actual experience level was: not many dives and not particulalry challenging conditions. Diving to extreme depths has risks that actually don't relate much to experience and with the mistakes Dave Shaw made he likely would have died on that dive whatever his experience level. But I don't think he can be used to demonstrate that you are can be a "skilled and capable diver" (whatever that is) after 336 dives - his death showed tht his skill level did not match his ambition.

FWIW I have logged over 3500 actual dives in open ocean - and have done many more that have not been logged - and have dived from the Antarctic to the tropics but mostly dive in exposed open ocean temperate waters. It seems to me that broad range of experience is at least as valuable as just number of dives. Looking at Dave Shaw's experience it seems to me that it was relatively limited and restricted to quite benign conditions compared to many of the people I dive with.

 

[RJP]

I will never have this chance since my wife does not dive so I have to find non diver friendly destinations.

My wife doesn't dive either, and I've been on ten liveaboard trips.

Seems like you need a more "diver-friendly" wife.



But seriously, you oughta look into Curacao. My non-diving wife and non-diving kids love it. We've been there three times; most recent trip the kids chose Curacao over Disney World for Spring Break.

Same diving as Bonaire, but beautiful beaches... most of which have a dive op on site. We'd go to one after breakfast and as we're setting up our lounge chairs and such I'd tell the dive op "I'm sitting right over there and could use a buddy for a shore dive."

Wouldn't take long for a lone diver or a buddy pair to stop by and ask me if I want to join them. I'd gear up and tell my wife "I'm gonna do a quick dive with these folks, be back in 45min or so. Want me to grab a couple of pina coladas on the way back?" We stay at the Marriott which has a dive op on-site with a decent house reef. Depending on which dives they're doing their boat even comes back to the hotel for the surface interval so you don't have to be gone from 9-12:30 for two boat dives like you would in Hawaii or Cayman Islands. One of my kids' favorite things is the night dive at the Marriott. They have a beach bar that sits on a point. We'll place our dinner order there, and I'll gear up and do a night dive; the wife and kids play "follow daddy's dive light" as I do a nice, easy 30min dive. By the time I end my dive and exit the water, dinner is being brought to the table. Easy enough to get 2-3 dives a day in without my wife and kids feeling like they've been dragged along on a dive trip.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Hi boulderjohn - yes have read the book "Raising the Dead" but think the link I on my last post gives a useful summary of what Dave Shaw's actual experience level was: not many dives and not particulalry challenging conditions. Diving to extreme depths has risks that actually don't relate much to experience and with the mistakes Dave Shaw made he likely would have died on that dive whatever his experience level. But I don't think he can be used to demonstrate that you are can be a "skilled and capable diver" (whatever that is) after 336 dives - his death showed tht his skill level did not match his ambition.

FWIW I have logged over 3500 actual dives in open ocean - and have done many more that have not been logged - and have dived from the Antarctic to the tropics but mostly dive in exposed open ocean temperate waters. It seems to me that broad range of experience is at least as valuable as just number of dives. Looking at Dave Shaw's experience it seems to me that it was relatively limited and restricted to quite benign conditions compared to many of the people I dive with.

Having a very diverse background and lots of experience diving all different kinds of environments is beneficial, but it is not really essential. If you are NEVER going to dive in cold water, not knowing how to use a dry suit is really not an issue. If you are ONLY going to dive on deep ship wrecks in the Great Lakes, then knowing which fish will sting you or exactly what "fire coral" looks like in Cozumel is really not that important.

Having a lot of experience in the environment where you will be diving is very useful and if you have done a few hundred dives in one type of environment, you should be pretty good at it.

A long time ago I signed up for a NJ wreck dive and the forecast was marginal and then they cancelled after we loaded unto the boat. I was pissed and grumbled, since the conditions were EXACTLY as forecast.

The dick DM started giving me crap (since I lived in Florida and I was a stranger) and made some comment questioning my level of experience in diving the "North Atlantic". I get sick of the adage "if you can dive here, you can dive anywhere".

I think he was kinda embarrassed when I explained to him that I had a lot of experience diving the "North Atlantic", but this site was actually in the "Mid Atlantic" .. and I had a lot of experience diving there too. Bunch of Pussy NJ Wreck Divers..

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

"How do so many folks have so many logged dives"?
That's easy, just go to your personal settings and choose whichever number bracket you want.
you could go from 0-24 to 5000 + in seconds.