Congrats are indeed in order. I feel stupid for not logging mine now..... thanks brah!
G
G
3,000 Dives on Maui! Woo Hooo!!!
- Thread starter Shaka Doug
- Start date
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Hey congrats on reaching that milestone! I am way behind you... still have to do my first dive in Hawaii, but it is coming! No plans to catch up with you though!
PePaw
Guest
Congratulations Doug.
Wish I had the time to do a shore dive with you in June.
You know...just to help you out with your count !
Wish I had the time to do a shore dive with you in June.
You know...just to help you out with your count !
SBP Studios
Contributor
Congrats!
When we were there we did Dive the crater but were'nt too impressed at all. Not much going on unfortunately.
There was talk the next day that someone spotted a Great White there the same day we were there :11:
Whether that is true or not ive got no idea.
When we were there we did Dive the crater but were'nt too impressed at all. Not much going on unfortunately.
There was talk the next day that someone spotted a Great White there the same day we were there :11:
Whether that is true or not ive got no idea.
Congratulations Doug!!!
It's been a blessing having you on Scubaboard representing Maui - The board is better off having you here regularly -
Aloha, Tim
It's been a blessing having you on Scubaboard representing Maui - The board is better off having you here regularly -
Aloha, Tim
I agree with Gabe, I'm ashamed I haven't logged all of my dives. I had to sit back and think about your post. To fathom doing 300 dives a year for the past 10 years is a lot of diving. I used to average 80 a year and thought I was diving a lot.
Congratulations on your accomplishment.
Chris
Congratulations on your accomplishment.
Chris
Congratulations Doug on your 3000 dives!
Now when you get to 4,256 like Pete Rose Oh wait! Thats Baseball!
Again, good job!
Dave
Now when you get to 4,256 like Pete Rose Oh wait! Thats Baseball!
Again, good job!
Dave
Hey Doug,
Just for conversation/comparison ... How many total logged dives do you have now including before Maui?
Just for conversation/comparison ... How many total logged dives do you have now including before Maui?
OP
Shaka Doug
Contributor
Thank You everyone! It's been a really good ride these last ten years. I've seen quite a few changes in the local reef environments, not all have been bad. There's still some miles left on these fins of mine too.
To answer your question Tim, I have several thousand more. It's one thing to claim you've been on the dives, it's another thing to actually have proof. One of the reasons I decided to log ALL of my Maui dives is because I didn't log ALL of my other dives. Thanks to my log, I can tell if I'm having a good year, average year, etc. Since I've been on Maui I've been averaging between 311 and 340 dives each year. These statistics are pretty cool to me.
I spent ten years (1985 to 1995) teaching SCUBA and Captaining dive boats in the US Virgin Islands before I got here. I logged a lot of the dives but certainly not all of them. Mostly just my Cert Classes.
At my very first dive job working for Virgin Islands Dive School I would make 3 to 6 beach dives a day!!! Sometimes I wouldn't even get out of the water, they would just send a new group out to me. They were mostly Intro Divers in groups of 8 and they always had issues with ears, bouyancy, weighting, mask clearing, etc. It was pretty stressful. I would use the same 80 to make two dives. That was a crazy place to work but it was my first diving job so I really didn't know any better.
I quit those guys after a few months and went to work for Jerry Henderson at "Aquanautics". That's where I got my captains license and started doing boat dives. This was much more of a relaxed setting and we kind of had a much easier "island style" pace. I did that for a year and a half and made around three hundred dives. We were making two trips a day off the boat, doing a two tanker each trip. It was really cool. I got to explore a lot of "virgin reef" at that job. We worked out of a big hotel (The VI Hotel I think it was called) and did plenty of Intros and pool lessons too.
I did keep an official log for a little over a year when I worked for Sea Adventures at Frenchmans Reef Resort and I logged over 700 dives in just one year! That was a busy dive shop, I was making four a day from the boat, three times a week, plus two to four a week off the beach, plus the occassional night dive. I worked a rotating 6 day shift then had two days off. Guess what we did on our days off? Dove for lobsters or bottles in the harbor!! Things were different back then. We captained and DM'ed at the same time. There was no crew, just me and my guests. I would load the six pack boat for a two tanker in the morning, get back around noon, switch things out and go out at 1:00 for another two tanker with another 6 people. That job lasted right up until Hurricane Hugo (9/16/89), then the shop was destroyed. It was a terrible mess.
After Hurricane Hugo I worked at Coki Beach Dive Club and I mainly did shore dives. We had a daily dive log at work but the only personal log I kept was again for my Cert Classes/students. I really regret that. I always figured I would have access to that log if I ever needed it (never thought I'd quit that job, it was awesome). I was making two to three dives (sometimes four) a day plus lots of night dives and I worked that beach for five years straight. The thing about it was, the dive was pretty much the same every time. We had three main variations, go west, go east or go around the point. We fed the fish in the shallow water then went out to the reef to about 30 to 60 feet, depending on who we were taking out. Logging would have been pretty repetitive so like I said, I just kept the shop log instead of writing things down in my own book too. After work we were more interested in heading out to have a few beers and meet some ladies than to do more paperwork. All in all I did close to 4,000 dives in the US Virgin Islands but could only show you a little over a 15 hundred in actual log books.
Then I have my 100 + logged dives I did in Southern California (mostly the Laguna and Newport Beach area) when I was going through my NAUI instructor classes at NAUI College in 1985. I still have that book.
I guess I would be pretty accurate to say that I've been on over 7,000 dives so far. Having done that, my position is that SCUBA is a Very Safe Sport when you do it properly. I've never been involved in any major accident and only have a few minor injuries to report over the years. Mainly just coral scrapes and stings. I've been bitten by 4 eels, two octopus, one stingray and numerous fish. Most of these incidents could be considered my own fault. None of my customers has ever suffered anything worse than what a sea urchin or fire coral or jelly fish can dish out. Nowadays, I provide full wetsuits / booties and very thorough briefings and we rarely have anything to worry about. Something I learned about diving a very long time ago is this: Doing things right and taking your time just makes diving easier for everyone. Diving is supposed to be FUN. It's much easier to be safe when you're having a good time than when your scared or stressed out.
You should come out on a dive with me sometime Tim! I still have a few secret spots and a couple of tricks up my sleeves left!!!
To answer your question Tim, I have several thousand more. It's one thing to claim you've been on the dives, it's another thing to actually have proof. One of the reasons I decided to log ALL of my Maui dives is because I didn't log ALL of my other dives. Thanks to my log, I can tell if I'm having a good year, average year, etc. Since I've been on Maui I've been averaging between 311 and 340 dives each year. These statistics are pretty cool to me.
I spent ten years (1985 to 1995) teaching SCUBA and Captaining dive boats in the US Virgin Islands before I got here. I logged a lot of the dives but certainly not all of them. Mostly just my Cert Classes.
At my very first dive job working for Virgin Islands Dive School I would make 3 to 6 beach dives a day!!! Sometimes I wouldn't even get out of the water, they would just send a new group out to me. They were mostly Intro Divers in groups of 8 and they always had issues with ears, bouyancy, weighting, mask clearing, etc. It was pretty stressful. I would use the same 80 to make two dives. That was a crazy place to work but it was my first diving job so I really didn't know any better.
I quit those guys after a few months and went to work for Jerry Henderson at "Aquanautics". That's where I got my captains license and started doing boat dives. This was much more of a relaxed setting and we kind of had a much easier "island style" pace. I did that for a year and a half and made around three hundred dives. We were making two trips a day off the boat, doing a two tanker each trip. It was really cool. I got to explore a lot of "virgin reef" at that job. We worked out of a big hotel (The VI Hotel I think it was called) and did plenty of Intros and pool lessons too.
I did keep an official log for a little over a year when I worked for Sea Adventures at Frenchmans Reef Resort and I logged over 700 dives in just one year! That was a busy dive shop, I was making four a day from the boat, three times a week, plus two to four a week off the beach, plus the occassional night dive. I worked a rotating 6 day shift then had two days off. Guess what we did on our days off? Dove for lobsters or bottles in the harbor!! Things were different back then. We captained and DM'ed at the same time. There was no crew, just me and my guests. I would load the six pack boat for a two tanker in the morning, get back around noon, switch things out and go out at 1:00 for another two tanker with another 6 people. That job lasted right up until Hurricane Hugo (9/16/89), then the shop was destroyed. It was a terrible mess.
After Hurricane Hugo I worked at Coki Beach Dive Club and I mainly did shore dives. We had a daily dive log at work but the only personal log I kept was again for my Cert Classes/students. I really regret that. I always figured I would have access to that log if I ever needed it (never thought I'd quit that job, it was awesome). I was making two to three dives (sometimes four) a day plus lots of night dives and I worked that beach for five years straight. The thing about it was, the dive was pretty much the same every time. We had three main variations, go west, go east or go around the point. We fed the fish in the shallow water then went out to the reef to about 30 to 60 feet, depending on who we were taking out. Logging would have been pretty repetitive so like I said, I just kept the shop log instead of writing things down in my own book too. After work we were more interested in heading out to have a few beers and meet some ladies than to do more paperwork. All in all I did close to 4,000 dives in the US Virgin Islands but could only show you a little over a 15 hundred in actual log books.
Then I have my 100 + logged dives I did in Southern California (mostly the Laguna and Newport Beach area) when I was going through my NAUI instructor classes at NAUI College in 1985. I still have that book.
I guess I would be pretty accurate to say that I've been on over 7,000 dives so far. Having done that, my position is that SCUBA is a Very Safe Sport when you do it properly. I've never been involved in any major accident and only have a few minor injuries to report over the years. Mainly just coral scrapes and stings. I've been bitten by 4 eels, two octopus, one stingray and numerous fish. Most of these incidents could be considered my own fault. None of my customers has ever suffered anything worse than what a sea urchin or fire coral or jelly fish can dish out. Nowadays, I provide full wetsuits / booties and very thorough briefings and we rarely have anything to worry about. Something I learned about diving a very long time ago is this: Doing things right and taking your time just makes diving easier for everyone. Diving is supposed to be FUN. It's much easier to be safe when you're having a good time than when your scared or stressed out.
You should come out on a dive with me sometime Tim! I still have a few secret spots and a couple of tricks up my sleeves left!!!
Thanks for the bio Doug - I figured Maui was just a "drop in the bucket" for ya' Sounds like you've had a great career so far. Best wishes on the next 7,000 dives, and may they all be 100ft vis, great critters, wonderful guests and "logged" for the memories
Aloha, Tim
Sounds like you've had a great career so far. Best wishes on the next 7,000 dives, and may they all be 100ft vis, great critters, wonderful guests and "logged" for the memories Aloha, Tim
