Approaching 50 dives

[nolatom]

I, with about 270 dives spread over 20 years, lack the amount of experience of many who've posted above. Most of those dives were in the first few years, followed by enough occasional dives to not get too rusty.

I did Advanced Open water at about 25 dives, then Rescue at about 50-60 dives, that was the suggested progression from my instructor and others in my OW class back then. AOW mostly taught me about navigation, compass, landmarks, measuring distance per how many fin kicks.

About midway between those two courses, my limiting factor was no longer air remaining, but nitrogen ticks on the computer. That transition might be what you're looking for in determining how you're doing.

Rescue I found useful even if I never find anyone to rescue, and it made me a better buddy and more observant of other divers. And at about 80 dives I finally did a share-air ascent in "real life" with a diver who signalled low-air, and contrary to all the stories I'd heard, he did *not* try to rip the reg out of my mouth, he showed me his gauge while he still had 400 psi left and was calm and cooperative in taking my alternate and ascending to 15 feet together. The lesson there was, don't wait til you're so low on air you have to give the cut-throat signal and are desperate--instead, signal for sharing while you still have a workable amount of air left, it's much less stressful for both of you than the dreaded OOA.

If as you said you still feel like you're a beginner sometimes, that might be the voice of wisdom. Better too gradual than too quick.

Best wishes

 

[Subcooled]

Would love to hear what benchmarks I should be looking at for performance, goals, and what not now that I'm nearing 50 dives.

#1 Just enjoy diving without buoyancy issues.
#2 Another thing would be slightly increased situational awareness - you can now focus on your surroundings, too.

All my dives have been pond or otherwise shallow.

Hence, you have focused on buoyancy control skills in the most demanding environment (in the shallows).
Great!
It gets easier at depth.

Wondering if there would be any insight folks might offer regarding regarding my SAC

Yeah. We love SAC. Breathing is great. My SAC (in metric units; and many pedant people actually call this RMV) is 18-21 litres per minute. My all time low is 13, a very relaxed dive with minimal equipment (that's -1/3), and when doing physical labour under water it can be 40 (that's 2x). Your air consumption does depend on (your body and) your activity level. Do you just float in there, or do you move around? Slow? Fast? Twice the speed, four times the air consumption (there's a base rate too, but cutting corners here).

The lesson:
The numbers are not relevant. You need optimize your weights (+- a few pounds), swim in a horizontal position to minimize drag (head down, feet up!), learn to fin actually (swimming?), and relax and enjoy your time.

- Swimming is a surprisingly useful skill in diving, indeed!

I should note that I started diving Dry this year

Diving dry is great!
It separates sweat from sea water
- but it also adds warmth and a secondary buoyancy control device.

It also takes a lot of practise to master the buoyancy of the suit + bcd.
The rewards are great, though.

 

[Subcooled]

It's hard to plan landmark dives. I was recently down in Florida and planned to do dive 2,250 on the Castor in Boynton Beach. Unfortunately, a couple of dives were cancelled the day before so that plan was dashed. I made the landmark the next day.

It was my 125th dive on the Castor.

I feel your pain. I finally wanted to do that naturist dive (solo, I hope you understand!), that some people plan as their dive #100. I wanted it to be my #450 as the water got warm enough, but things changed, so it was something like 452

 

[Subcooled]

SEND PADI MONEY IN CELEBRATION OF THE MILESTONE. BE A MASTER DIBER.

It is not a bad idea to get certified. Just make sure the instructor actually loves what she is doing. Better classes then.
Actual skill comes with diving, though.

And, remember, an experienced ( = experienced something unpleasant and learned from that) diver (we call'em amateurs because they love what they do) can teach you a lot more than an unmotivated instructor in a hurry.

 

[snowman40]

I liked Trace's response, but my 50th dive (that's it over there in my photo) was in Scapa Flow - I felt that was a pretty cool milestone.

Dive 100 was at Catalina Island in California, which seemed pretty cool to someone who usually dives off the south coast of the UK, but dive 250 was in Wraysbury, so really it's just a number!

M

 

[SlugLife]

Would love to hear what benchmarks I should be looking at for performance, goals, and what not now that I'm nearing 50 dives.

Whatever benchmarks or improvements you see, should ideally depend on you and the kind of diving you want to do. Number of dives is perhaps an achievement early on, but long term something many divers start to ignore.

From a non-individualized-advice perspective, 50 dives might be a good time for an Advanced Open Water course(s). Each agency does AOW a little different, but some combination of night/limited-visibility, deep, "perfect" buoyancy, and navigation is fairly common. Rescue Diver might also be a good course to consider. You don't have to take those classes, but if you feel you'd benefit from them, go for it.

Whether through a class, or even just more practice, I would suggest:

• Working on buoyancy. This includes...
  • Being able to ascend and decent using breath-volume
  • Having your weights dialed in, such that you're neutral at 500psi remaining, 15ft deep, empty BCD.
• Emergency Readiness - Perhaps having redundancies. Knowing where your octo is. Cutting device for entanglements.
• Skills Practice - Reviewing and practicing skills, including air-share, and reg-switching.
• Finning Techniques - Frog Kick, Reverse Kick, etc
• Air consumption
• Equipment - Ensuring your condition is in good shape, and fit for purpose. I'm not suggesting spending a bunch of money, but perhaps going over each component piece-by-piece to see if there's anything that needs addressing.

I should note that I started diving Dry this year and my SAC has actually gone down a few points even with using gas in my suit.

SAC is influenced by many factors, including how warm you are. If you're feeling cold, that will generally result in a worse SAC rate.

 

[mac66]

Dang, 50 dives!? I thought 10 dives was a milestone, now looking at 20.

I dived 3 days in a row on my last cruise. Hadn't dived since last March. Was a bit anxious the first day. By the second dive on day 1 I felt I knew what I was doing. It was easypeasy and buoyancy was good. Kind of feel I got the hang of it. Completely enjoyed myself. Last dive was #18 well 22 if you count the 4 open water certification dives.

I started diving 3 years ago at age 65. Wish I'd started 40 years ago.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Dang, I thought 10 dives was a milestone, now looking at 20.

I dived 3 days in a row on my last cruise. Hadn't dived since last March. Was a bit anxious the first day. By the second dive on day 1 I felt I knew what I was doing. It was easypeasy and buoyancy was good. Kind of feel I got the hang of it. Completely enjoyed myself. Last dive was #18 well 22 if you count the 4 open water certification dives.

I started diving 3 years ago at age 65. Wish I'd started 40 years ago.

Your certification dives in the open water certainly count.

There's always more goals, more things to learn. How far you go is up to you, most important thing is to have fun and be safe. After that, it really is up to you.

 

[SlugLife]

And at about 80 dives I finally did a share-air ascent in "real life" with a diver who signalled low-air, and contrary to all the stories I'd heard, he did *not* try to rip the reg out of my mouth, he showed me his gauge while he still had 400 psi left and was calm and cooperative in taking my alternate and ascending to 15 feet together. The lesson there was, don't wait til you're so low on air you have to give the cut-throat signal and are desperate--instead, signal for sharing while you still have a workable amount of air left, it's much less stressful for both of you than the dreaded OOA.

Yep, that's how it's ideally supposed to go, unless someone is completely out of air and needs air NOW.

Dang, 50 dives!? I thought 10 dives was a milestone, now looking at 20.

I dived 3 days in a row on my last cruise. Hadn't dived since last March. Was a bit anxious the first day. By the second dive on day 1 I felt I knew what I was doing. It was easypeasy and buoyancy was good. Kind of feel I got the hang of it. Completely enjoyed myself. Last dive was #18 well 22 if you count the 4 open water certification dives.

I started diving 3 years ago at age 65. Wish I'd started 40 years ago.

I did a try-dive over 15 years before I got around to actually getting my cert. I would also hang out on my friend's boat for YEARS, while he and other people went diving, and be jealous. It's now a few years later, and probably a couple hundred dives (I don't log dives), and I've gotten into sidemount, DIY gear, and a few other things.

Anyway, every dive you come back from safely from is an opportunity to go diving again.

 

[mac66]

Your certification dives in the open water certainly count.

There's always more goals, more things to learn. How far you go is up to you, most important thing is to have fun and be safe. After that, it really is up to you.

Thanks, I'm pretty happy staying with basic OW certification. I only dive on cruises a couple times a year in warm water. Basic guided dives are fine with me. Don't need to go deep or fancy. Its recreation for me not a lifestyle. But I can see the attraction of going all in. If I was younger I probably would become much more involved. In the mean time I'm having fun.