How many dives before you cease to be a beginner ? [Poll]

[northernone]

I'm certainly still a beginner.

 

[Scuba-74]

You cease to be a beginner when you can comfortably execute a dive in somewhat favorable conditions without being supervised by a dive professional. It has nothing to do with the number of dives in my opinion.

 

[happy-diver]

I know there are exceptions to every rule, but I know one diver who, at 1100 dives and even a rescue certification still had zero buoyancy control and needed her buddy to look at her spg and tell her when to go up and he also inflated/deflated her BC for her. I saw her racing down an anchor line once like a lawn dart with her buddy ten seconds behind her with eyes the size of saucers. He deflated her BC and then lost his grip on her. She made a huge silt cloud when she crashed into the bottom.

So what happened here

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I was on the line making a deco stop. She flew past me and then he raced after her. She hit the sand at 90 feet, then continued her dive as if nothing was wrong.

 

[TMHeimer]

I would say when you can hold your position in a column of water without constantly going up and down trying to maintain buoyancy youve passed beginner status

Interesting. I recall in one class I witnessed a student hover as perfectly as possible in the pool-- on his first attempt. Like a statue. Like those you see doing aquarium shows. Of course he was not yet certified. Was he past being a beginner?
I suppose it's possible the remaining air in his tank was at an exact point that rendered him as close to perfectly weighted as possible at the time of the Hover.

 

[johndiver999]

It is hard to define "beginner". Someone who is moving past beginner has a certain level of skills and confidence and on 95% of their dives they may not experience anything new. That might be a start for a definition of what it takes to no longer be a beginner.

There is a huge variety in the types of diving and techniques and environments and procedures and gear,
When people talk about diving and give advice, these opinions and recommendations are very heavily influenced by where they have done their diving, what the objectives of the dives were and also who they were diving with. Often their perspective is quite narrow, even though they may not recognize it.

A person really can be somewhat of an "expert" quarry diver after maybe 50 dives, but put them on a one hour boat ride and tell them to get dressed on an extremely cramped and pitching platform - and suddenly they are very much a "beginner diver" again. So the designation and any associated dive count has very limited utility until you have somewhat narrowed down the type of diving being discussed.

 

[Mike1967]

So what happened here

Why the hell would anybody need to deflate somebody else's BCD?
Especially if the diver wearing that BCD has done 1100 dives, I think there's a bit more to this story.

Wtf? She couldn't inflate it either, or even read a SPG? But she's done the rescue cert? Even if we forget the ******** that she's apparently logged 1100 dives, she wouldn't even get through the rescue course is she's that useless.

 

[dberry]

OK, let's cut out the false modesty and distinguish between "beginner" and "always learning new things". I am not particularly experienced compared to most of the folks in this thread, but I'm not sure "beginner" is quite right. I think what most folks answering this poll really mean is they are always open to learning things. That's an important trait in SCUBA divers, and in life in general.

Humility is another healthy trait, as expressed so eloquently by Harry Callahan: "A man's got to know his limitations". (Women, too).

 

[Mike1967]

in the pool

Would you define the pool as a column of water?

 

[jlcnuke]

You can also be good at certain types of diving and a beginner at others.

Despite my relative n00bishness in diving based on my dive count, I think I'm past being a "beginner" rec diver. After dive 1 of my PPB class the instructor told me they didn't have much they could teach me (poor instructor or I'm good at buoyancy control, you pick) so we worked on "nit-pick" and informative stuff outside of class req's after that.

Dry suit, on the other hand, I'll freely admit that being in one will up my SAC rate, I'm about 3% of the way towards being proficient in it, but I'm certified. I can do it, but I need much more practice before I'll consider it a skill I'm "good" at. Qualified and minimally competent currently, but I still have a long way before I'm comfortable with it.

Put me in the Bahamas diving walls and reefs, and my form is (imo) close to that of people who've been diving for much, much, much longer than I have. Cozumel drift dives were a blast, yet I still need to practice deploying my dsmb A LOT more before I could even think about calling myself proficient at it.

I do my safety stops by looking at my depth, not holding a line/rope 99% of the time. I hover within a foot of the depth I'm looking to be at ~95% of the time. My air consumption is on par with my dive instructors (the male ones at least). I qualify for PADI MSD rating, though I haven't filled out the paperwork and paid for it at this point (not sure I'm willing to pay money just to say I have a card that says I have cards and 50 dives...).

Would I call myself a "beginner" diver at this point? Honestly, I wouldn't. I recognize that there is TONS of information and experience that I don't have in this sport. I also recognize that when I go on dive trips I can almost always help another diver become better due to the information and experience I've already gleaned. I don't feel like I'm a liability to my buddy, but an asset. That, imo, is what separates a "beginner" diver from just a person who is "a diver".. getting to the point where you can be a helpful, productive diver in a typical recreational buddy team. Sure, I've still got a LONG way to go before I'll be a "good" or "advanced" diver, but classes, training, and experience should help me get there someday.

I don't think dive count really is much of an indicator though, as many have suggested here.