AOW/Rescue Diver Not Respected

[scubadada]

Quantity vs quality.

Typical NC wreck dives are rough oceans, surges, 70 ft vis, and moderate to strong currents around the 120 foot depth.

I'd match one of my boys whose only done 100 dives against your boy whose done 1000 dives in that pretty clear calm Arizona quarry any day of the week, and give you 4 to 1 odds on your money.

Went on a charter in Florida. Cap'n comes out and says, "We gonna hafta call the dive. Weather service is reporting 3-foot seas."
"LOL. Three foot seas?? In North Carolina three foot seas is a calm day."
Cap'n says, "Oh, y'all are the group from North Carolina?" He goes back in and comes back out about 15 minutes later and announces to everyone, "Sorry. The charter has been canceled due to the weather. But I'll take the group from North Carolina."

How many dives you've logged doesn't mean much by itself. It's just a number. Once had a snobby dive shop ask me how many dives I had logged (before they would let me go on their charter). "156" I said. "OK" the lady at the counter says. "We just require you to have 50 logged dives is why I ask."

"Those 156 were in the swimming pool in my back yard." She didn't think it was as funny as I did.

All this my diving is tougher than your diving is a bunch of BS. Of course local dive experience is very valuable, but not necessarily generalizable. Water temp, visibility, current, type of diving, all play a role. I learned to dive, a long time ago, in Southern California. The conditions, including many interesting beach entries, make many conditions seem pretty easy. I recently took a reasonably experienced man and wife from North Carolina on a very brisk drift dive in Boynton Beach, not only did they not have a clue, they blew it badly. They did much better on the second dive and thanked me many times