20,000 logged dives

[Dan Gibson]

When in doubt, do the math. That usually exposes false statements very quickly. It's kind of fun to watch someone have to revise their figures.

Bruce,

Well put, lad. Thanks for injecting a note of common sense!

Rob Davie

 

[liberato]

Or ask to see the 20,000 page log book. Actually, I think there are some folks on some islands I have been on who grew up with the dive industry and have been leading dive tours for twenty or thirty years that probably have that amount but they have long since stopped counting and such figures are estimates only. They probably wouldn't be those boasting, anyway.

 

[Tom Smedley]

I think the keyword here is "Logged Dives" - While Victor is a heck of a nice guy and a very experienced diver he does not have 20,000 logged dives. A few years back the staff tried to submit him for the SSI Platinum Pro 5000 rating and they did not succeed because there was no record of his diving experience.

This is also true of the Mosquito Indian lobster divers and the pearl divers in the Pacific. The salvage divers that we saw in the Philippines using a gas mask and gym shoes with plywood nailed to them made daily dives for hours at a time cutting pieces of metal from the wrecks with hacksaws. I never saw one of them log a dive.

However, Victor - along with Murphy in Bonaire - remain two dive guides that I would follow to the ends of the Earth.

Victor, the head dive master we used in St Lucia, was supposed to go into the Guiness Book for most dives/hours underwater. It was well over 20,000. He worked the gold dredges for many years, so I tend to believe him. He said many of his friends working the dredges died or were badly damaged by bends. There were few safety concerns given to them. Many DM's working on liveaboards can log up a huge number of dives, since they can add setting moorings etc.

 

[Hydrophobic]

So, at what point do you stop logging dives and start logging Surface Intervals? (Sorry, old joke.)

 

[Allison Finch]

I've been diving for over 30 years. No one logged dives in those days and I only started logging in the mid eighties. I couldn't tell you how many actual dives I have and I wouldn't bother to try.

 

[Mako Mark]

Maybe they log thier baths and showers.

I have been diving for 150 years and have done over a gazillion dives


(well at least it feels like it sometimes, its actually 15 years full time in the industry)


But believe me after your first couple of thousand dives, you dont even want to take a bath or shower.

I love diving and dive most days, most often only in a training pool nowadays, but it is still breathing underwater, I have found that the love for diving does not go away, but the love of a cold, wet ***** quickly fades..

Most people exaggerate their log book numbers, its human nature, just look at fishermen..

 

[BabyDuck]

When in doubt, do the math. That usually exposes false statements very quickly. It's kind of fun to watch someone have to revise their figures.

this works for those magazine telemarketers, too. you know, 'for only 25 cents a day you can get these magazines'... you start doing the math on how much that will cost you in a year, and they will hang up.

 

[Kestrell]

It is possible though.


If you started diving at 18 and averaged 4 dives a week, doing 2 dives each time for a total of 8 individual logged dives each week that works out to be 416 dives per year. At this rate you would be 66-67 years old when you hit 20,000 dive. It is alot, but certainly do-able.

 

[carlislere]

I sat down with a friend of mine who has lived and worked as a dive guide in the Cayman Islands for 20 years and estimated she has over 10,000 dives. And that is a conservative figure IMO from the way I estimated.

 

[Tom Smedley]

Absoutely most of us old bags of flatulence can relate to that. No problem!

I've been diving for over 30 years. No one logged dives in those days and I only started logging in the mid eighties. I couldn't tell you how many actual dives I have and I wouldn't bother to try.