Advice on acquiring 50 deep dives

[Marie13]

The OP is female, by the way.
I suggested going somewhere else because a DM that has only dived in the local quarry is not going to be very well trained and certainly not prepared to be a functioning DM. The zero-to-hero, barely-meet-the-minimum-standards mentality leads to poor divers, poor professionals, and dangerous dives.

The same could be said of someone who has only dived in one tropical location. The zero-to-hero, regardless of location, is a bad idea. The OP has the option of the Great Lakes if close enough. That at least gets you some boat diving experience.

 

[Steve_C]

Agree.....Assuming the minus is unsalted and the plus is shark free. Of course, there is the plus of unsalted regarding equipment rinsing.

Actually it was the other way. Fresh requires less rinsing of equipment and sand tigers (and some others) are big attractions in NC.

 

[NorCalDM]

The OP is female, by the way.
I suggested going somewhere else because a DM that has only dived in the local quarry is not going to be very well trained and certainly not prepared to be a functioning DM. The zero-to-hero, barely-meet-the-minimum-standards mentality leads to poor divers, poor professionals, and dangerous dives.

I totally agree with this I don’t like the zero to hero but earlier in the thread you suggested going to Bonaire and doing the one week Divemaster course? I looked up the Buddy Dive Course and they state the prerequisite for number of dives is 20 PADI still says 40 and 60 to finish so 40 dives in a week pluse all the course work? Don’t know how you could do it unless they are just signing people off. Sorry these type of courses really annoy me.

 

[tbone1004]

in addition to what was said above, NAUI's definition of DiveMaster is a LOT more involved than PADI's. In PADI, Divemaster is the first tier in their professional certs, below Assistant Instructor. In NAUI, it is the last step before Instructor so it is a lot more involved because you have to go through all of the asst. instructor material as well.

 

[MargaritaMike]

When I first read the original post I thought, "You gotta be kidding me!". Based on what she stated in the post the Divemaster and Rescue diver are pre-requisites for a research job. The 50 deep dives says (in addition to the responsibility training from Rescue and DM) they want someone who has experience and is comfortable underwater while doing their research. Sending someone to Bonaire for a week, or to Cozumel or a Live aboard for that matter, IMO seems irresponsible. While they will get the diving experience, I don't think they will get the exposure to the total dive experience necessary to be a good DM. The OP may be the best NATURAL diver ever born, but with 9 dives in "the last several years" and "only sees diving as a hobby", I don't think she has the passion for diving it will take to complete the concentrated training necessary to take a short path to Divemaster. I've been wrong before. Maybe, I'm am this time, too.

Cheers and Happy New Year - M²

 

[DevonDiver]

The cheapest, most consistent, way to dive is just to have a committed buddy in your local area, your own kit... and the motivation to go and do it by yourself; whenever and however the opportunity arises.

When the weather is inclement, go to a pool with your buddy and practice your skills. Get your buoyancy, trim and propulsion right, then practice other skills so that they don't degrade your buoyancy and trim propulsion. You'll never grow out of making improvements from practicing.

Having that mindset and motivation will do FAR more to develop your diving competency than any internship or junky fast-track DM program ever could.

 

[KevinNM]

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.

It’s a wall. It goes well below recreational depth, so you can go as deep as you feel safe doing.

But yeah, some idea what the end objective is would help to suggest what will get you there. What does accomplishing this allow you to get involved with and what kind of diving does that involve?

 

[SuzuBell]

Thank you for such helpful answers. It has given me a lot to think about!

I think certification-wise, I will definitely continue with Nitrox and Rescue Diver. I agree with the need to obtain diving experience in diverse conditions no matter what the end goal. As such, I might consider participating in the Buddy Dive in Bonaire or Liveaboard for intense and short-term increase diving count in warm and high visibility conditions. And at the same time, finding local diving buddies for more consistent practice in diving, hopefully with night diving, navigation, cold and low visibility, and quarry experience.

I am undecided about ultimately obtaining DiveMaster. As was pointed out, DiveMaster requires more then $400 each year for insurance and fees. If I did pursue such a certification, I would want to get much more diving experience beforehand so I am confident and comfortable, especially if I do teach others.

I am obtaining a degree in genetics and have studied marine life genetics. It is a lot of lab work (indoors and physically inactive), and I recently realized I would enjoy life more if I could supplement my basic science research with something physically active that I enjoy (scuba-diving). As such, I was considering a longterm goal of possibly serving as a DiveMaster over weekends. This would allow me to continue enjoying the outdoors physical activity of diving while teaching others and possibly diving free. At the same time, I know researchers also use diving as part of their projects and thought it would be great to develop skills to possibly participate in research diving projects (related to marine life). I read on a site about research diving that DiveMaster level is beneficial (but not required), so that was another reason I am considering eventually obtaining DiveMaster level.

About the minimum of 50 "deep" (or for many of you, "not so deep!" ) dives, it is a stretch, but I would love to participate in a research project at the Aquarius Underwater Lab. If a scientist wants to be considered to contribute to a research project there, they are expected to have about 50 dives at around the 60 foot level (the depth of the lab itself); diveMaster is not required. I was hoping to obtain 50 dives at that depth level soon so that I could be listed as eligible candidate earlier and hope that one year I could participate.

I am not sure about logbooks. It seems more like an honor code. I hope to fill out the details for my own learning purposes, but I also wonder how to keep my 50 "deep" dives looking more official? I am assuming instructor stamps or signatures help. As such, I wonder if I might be able to find programs at Bonaire or Liveaboards where a dive buddy (possibly somebody with more authority or experience/certification) could sign or stamp dives for me? Or would that be an unlikely setup in such locations?

Thank you again for your advice.

 

[Blasto]

Now that's a lot more clear! Your initial post resembled zero-to-hero ambition a lot more. 60 feet is not considered deep by most people here, you're not looking at racing to tech (which could be another reason to collect deep dives and a very dangerous thing). It just requires AOW certification with most ops, and such depth is common for vacation diving.

Keeping your dives official is easy, you just log them and stamp the logbook. This is done by any commercial op; outside of an op, your buddy can sign. Dive ops often accept just computer logs, but I'd certainly take some paper logbooks far more seriously, even without signatures and stamps. If nothing else, well-filled books that have been there with you make for much better conversation pieces when describing your dive experience than a computer printout.

Anyone reading your logbook will probably be more interested in the variety of your dives and their challenge level, not in the exact number of dives or how official it is. It indicates experience with various conditions. You can and should write down some info about your every dive in your paper log - sea conditions, visibility, dive objectives, any other observations, suggestions for yourself, a lot of things that don't go into the computer log. It can help keep you a bit more observant, help you recall the dives and reflect on your development. And show that you actually can make observations underwater and record them.

Generally you'll accumulate the needed level of experience over 2-3 diving vacations (after all, if you enjoy diving, what better way to spend them?), progressing from home reefs to more challenging conditions, getting at least one LOB and some open ocean diving in, plus some non-vacation diving. The latter matters because a very important factor is your level of independence.

Vacation divers tend to have everything handed to them, gear ready to go, dive guides telling them where to go, where to look, what to do, till they deploy the SMB and you go up. This will never prepare you for scientific diving. You need to be comfortable planning and doing a dive on your own, without help, without a ready route, just an objective.
That's why they recommend divemaster level (and it's unlikely to matter if you keep renewing your DM status): having been that guide who does most of the work will certainly show that you can dive independently. A lot of what used to be basic diving skills is now taught in Solo and DM courses.

Being a DM isn't the only way to do it. Some self-organized diving will teach you the same. You can get your own equipment (should in either case), find a buddy, find someone with a boat, preferably yourself, do some diving from it.

Whether a DM course is the way to go depends on how much free time you have. Bare-bones 2-week courses are only good for experienced divers already able to lead buddy dives, who just need to get the job part down. For your purposes, the value lies in more involved internship-style courses, which usually takes about 8 weeks, at least 6, and includes a lot more diving with learning by doing. If you can get such a long vacation, it will be two great months, and some programs are very affordable, as little as $1,000. It can be the most cost-effective way to accumulate both dives and experience.

The downside, other than the "lump sum" time investment, is that these dives will all be on just a few sites. So you'll still need some experience outside of the DM training, and particularly outside of tourist-friendly conditions.
The non-DM path would be to still do EFR+Rescue, follow with one of the Solo courses to get independent skills, get other courses if cost isn't an issue - Tec40 or Fundies are useful competence builders for independent rec diving - and just keep on diving.

 

[rongoodman]

I am not sure about logbooks. It seems more like an honor code. I hope to fill out the details for my own learning purposes, but I also wonder how to keep my 50 "deep" dives looking more official? I am assuming instructor stamps or signatures help. As such, I wonder if I might be able to find programs at Bonaire or Liveaboards where a dive buddy (possibly somebody with more authority or experience/certification) could sign or stamp dives for me? Or would that be an unlikely setup in such locations?

Thank you again for your advice.

Any modern dive computer will keep profiles of your dives which you can download and save. The various logging programs will allow you to add locations, dive buddies, equipment used, etc.