How many dives does it take for one to be competent?

How many dives does it take to be competent?

  • 100+

    Votes: 76 61.8%
  • 200+

    Votes: 26 21.1%
  • 300+

    Votes: 8 6.5%
  • 400+

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 500+

    Votes: 13 10.6%

  • Total voters
    123

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On average, how many dives does it take for someone to be comfortably self-sufficient?

(by that I mean, you can sufficiently navigate new sites, go wreck divings without being nervous, go night diving without getting lost, etc)

As people dive and gain both additional training and experience, their definition of competence changes. After many hundreds of dives and advanced instruction, they will look at their own past and decide they were incompetent when they only had about 400 dives and were teaching scuba classes.

But if we look at the definition presented in the opening post, I firmly believe that people who do a variety of dives and take the typical advanced classes early on will achieve that definition in far fewer than 100 dives. I believe I was well past that definition with about 30 dives.
 
Without reading all of the comments, for me, it was after my cavern class. Probably a couple of years and several 100 dives. I was at my best after getting Dive Master. Everyone is different and if I haven't been in the water in a while, it takes a few trips underwater to gain my my confidence, without being too complacent.
 
On average, how many dives does it take for someone to be comfortably self-sufficient?

(by that I mean, you can sufficiently navigate new sites, go wreck divings without being nervous, go night diving without getting lost, etc)

So, I will go against the grain. I interpret self-sufficient as meaning able to plan and execute the dive independently. At the extreme, self-sufficient could imply diving solo. I believe that many, many divers never reach this point. Regardless of the number of dives, many divers never progress beyond following the guide on their dive trip or liveaboard. The number of dives is not relevant.

I still make mistakes rather commonly. Diving in Boynton Beach, I recently saw a Great Hammerhead that swam right in front of me. I was entranced and did not pay attention to my flag in the slack current, which got irretrievably fouled on my tank post. I had to do a doff and don to free myself up. You learn something on every dive. I guess if I had a buddy, this would have been nothing..
 
It all depends upon whether the diver wants to become competent. If the diver does, then s/he will pay attention to what the good divers around are doing, will seek out further training and mentorship and will seek out diverse dive experiences.
 
I've met people with thousands of dives where I wish I wasn't on the same boat. I had one OW/AOW student who went on to earn GUE T1 certification after 2 years of his original OW course and 230 dives.

There are people at the extreme ends. As I have a limited number of buddies with whom I dive and I often dive solo, I have absolutely no idea as to the average when people become "competent" (in quotes as it will mean different things to different people).
 
How would one avoid being *that* diver no-one wants to dive with? :D

Making an effort to improve, recognizing where you may need improvement, and being open to learning is part of not becoming "that diver", IMO. There are always more experienced people around. Some will roll their eyes and/or be generally unhelpful. Some will just go about their own diving (which is perfectly fine). Others will kindly offer suggestions that may help you improve. Sometimes it's the smallest of suggestions that can help another person greatly improve. Also, watching other divers that appear very competent can be extremely helpful. We were cavern diving this last week and watching how our guide did his frog kick was immensely helpful. I mimicked him and substantially improved in those tight spaces. My frog kick was also much better by the end of the week. Even our guide mentioned that he noticed great improvement over those dives. In April we did a LOB in Belize and over those dives (and watching some amazing divers) I was able to finally truly hover in place (which likely helped my cavern diving). I'm really excited to schedule our August dive trip, not only to dive, but to keep improving. I'll also be interested to see if this last week's diving has improved my buoyancy at the aquarium. My husband and I volunteer there in the tanks and I always feel unwieldy. It's completely different in that we're on hookah there and no bc....just wetsuits, fins, and weight belts....but having been in tight spaces last week may help in the tanks.
 
I feel like I'm competent now with 350 dives. But if you asked me at 50 dives I would have said the same.
 
Number of dives is only part of the equation. For example, you may have 250 dives, but if they were all conducted at the local quarry you will be ill-prepared for an ocean drift dive. So it’s important to experience a diverse and wide variety of diving in different environments and conditions whether it be boat, shore, night, freshwater, saltwater, low visibility, cold water, warm water, anchor line, wreck and overhead diving to name a few. Continuation of training is also crucial starting with AOW, Nitrox, Solo Diver, Rescue, etc. with an instructor that is diligent and thorough. So there is a long nonanswer. :)
I think it's only important to be well experienced in the places and situations where you dive. If you only dive in one type of situation your whole life, you can be totally competent and comfortable doing so. I would want that type of OW instructor to teach me in the area where the course is, not the one with 200 dives spread all over the world.
 
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