Advice on acquiring 50 deep dives

[SuzuBell]

Hello,

I completed PADI Open Water and NAUI Advanced Open Water courses over the past few years. All together, I only have about 9 dives (all from these two courses). In the next few years, I am hoping to obtain three objectives:

- Rescue Diver (either through PADI or NAUI)
- Dive Master certifications (either through PADI or NAUI)
- About 50 deep dives (around 60 feet)

Obtaining the first two objectives seems pretty straight-forward to me. The last objective is something I need to prove to eventually participate in a research diving activity. However, I am trying to find ways to efficiently obtain 50 deep dives. I work full-time (9-5 weekdays, but do have a few months off in the summer) and only see diving as a hobby.

If I do some sort of internship or worked part time as a dive master, I feel awkward about asking an instructor to help me log as many deep dives as possible (especially if it would not benefit their practice). At the same time, I am hoping to obtain the 50 deep dives within the next year or two and worry that without mostly focusing on deep dives, it could take me a decade to complete that objective (especially if I can only perform one deep dive each day)!

If I am hoping to focus mostly on obtaining deep dive experience, does anyone know of any efficient methods or opportunities to do so in a shorter amount of time (say over a summer or two)? Could I tailor my dive master training to simultaneously work on this third objective; i.e. do certain dive master courses offer opportunities to up my deep dive count?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, and sorry if this might be a strange/quirky post...

 

[flyboy08]

I dont consider 60 ft to be a "deep" dive? Most all dives in CZM will go to 60 ft...You can do 4 dives a day (get Nitrox certified) and in 12 days, there you have it!

 

[northernone]

Hi. In lots of the world 60ft is a shallow dive, you should have no problem getting plenty of diving in that range without effort.

As for prioritizing diving in a schedule. Getting a few new dive friends and start doing dive weekends. Quite easy to do 4 dives in a weekend with most cold water locations. Down in a warm water location 50 dives to 60ft or deeper can be done easily in a month or less.

I'd be curious about the particular goal of getting dives below 60ft, is there something you'd like to experience?

Regards,
Cameron

 

[rongoodman]

You can easily do 25 dives in a week on a liveaboard trip, and they will almost all be "deep" by your standards. It's a nice way to spend a week on the water too. I don't see any point in worrying about DM training at this point in your diving career--you will need a significant amount of experience before you're able to take care of anyone else in the water beyond yourself and it will take time to acquire it. Take Rescue whenever you can, most of it will be shallow or at the surface. Nitrox too.

 

[oly5050user]

Your profile shows less than 25 dives..you state to have only 9 dives , in 3 years. Need minimum of 40 dives to start a divemaster course and 60 to exit ..why divemaster? If not working as a pro , it can be considered expensive way to go. Also have yearly dm dues and insurance to pay..do you own full set of gear? If not do get a full set and go diving. A place like Bonaire can get you 30+ dives in a week.

 

[Damselfish]

It's true for the purposes of at least PADI training that a "deep" dive is over 60 ft on paper. However, most people would say if you did a dive to 61 feet to fulfill, say, the deep dive for AOW, it's a bit lame. In reality, most people don't consider 60ft dives to be deep - and if you're diving anyplace where the bottom is below 60 ft, especially if there's anything to see there, you'll be logging "deep" dives all the time. Most reasonably serious vacation divers can hit than in a few weeks.

If, as you say, you only consider diving as a hobby, why the interest in Divemaster? It does seem a bit soon to be thinking about that when you just have a few class dives and no independent diving experience. Rescue is great, but I don't know that Divemaster makes sense for most people if you don't want to become one - many shops push it as the next step, but that's often more in their interest than yours. Not sure what you mean by an instructor "helping" you log deep dives, but if you need an instructor to do that you're not ready to be taking a DM class anyway.

 

[drrich2]

The last objective is something I need to prove to eventually participate in a research diving activity.

It might be handy to know what sort of research, and why specifically they want that much deep diving experience.

As others indicated, some live-aboards (not all) or intensive shore diving in Bonaire could give you 25+ dives/week. Assuming your ear drums & other health functions hold up to it. Cozumel has a good rep. as a budget destination with good, often deep diving, although I'm told 4 dives/day there can be a bit hectic. The feasibility of 4 boat dives/day was discussed (UNCFNP’s thread Posts # 18, 19, 22, 29, 32, 33, 36, 44, 50, 53); in summary depending on where you stay and who you dive with it can be done).

Cocoview Resort in Roatan can wrack up a big dive count, if you heavily dive their onsite shore diving to supplement your boat diving. I'm not sure what depths they average.

Richard.

 

[scubadada]

I agree with @oly5050user, go spend a week, 10 days, 2 weeks in Bonaire, you could easily do most of your "deep" dives and get a good amount of experience.

 

[Marie13]

I don't know where you are in the Midwest, but there are two quarries in the region with deep sides that go to around 120-130ft - Gilboa in NW Ohio and Mermet Springs in far southern IL.

I'd cross DM off your list. As far as I can tell, it's really only useful if you want to go pro. I've had several people urging me to think about it eventually. My answer is not just no, but "H**l, no!" If you don't want to teach or help with classes, it really has no value, IMO. Plus, you have to pay fees of at least several hundred dollars a year to maintain "active" status, and there are liability issues (this last is a major concern of mine).

You say you only consider diving as a hobby and work a 9-5 job. So do I, although diving is my passion. I started 2017 with around 13 dives (certified in early October 2016) and ended it with 104 dives. I was out at the local quarry at least every Saturday or Sunday (and often both days) just about every weekend from early April to late October, with a number of Great Lakes wreck dives the latter half of the season. Went down to Mermet Springs for a weekend in November. Did my Advanced (which consisted of 4 separate specialties) by late July, and Rescue in late September. I don't have a significant other interested in diving, but I have a few different dive buddies.

I don't know where you did your OW/AOW. If they were local to you, contact your instructors or shop and ask them to match you up with dive buddies, or see if there is a diving club or local Meet-Up group. There may be a regional FB group you can make contacts with. If you're honest about your lack of experience, you may very well find there are people willing to dive with you.

First of all, if you've not been in the water for a while, you need a refresher. Then simply go out and dive! The quarries are good for this.

You can easily do more than one deep dive ("deep" by your definition of 60ft or deeper) a day. I've done charters where I did two dives below 60ft in one morning. My person definition of deep starts around 75ft

 

[tursiops]

I suggest you get 40 dives under your belt at home, and Rescue Diver. Do all kinds of dives, as many different kinds as possible. In particular, do things that need navigation, and do some night dives. Divemaster requires you show experience in deep, night, and navigation. You can do this in one season. Then go to Buddy Dive in Bonaire and do their one-week Divemaster course, Dive instructor package - Buddy Dive Resort Bonaire. Spend a second week just diving. You can hit 140-150 feet right in front of the resort, as a shore dive, so doing 60-100 is very easy, doing 130 for a deep course is easy.