Are you an EXPERIENCED recreational diver?

[MichaelMc]

Experienced is an unfortunate word for this, unless we assume you've been getting better from it.

How calm, clear or even routine is your response in what envelope of events?
- Just breathing underwater
- Losing mask, reg, fins, etc. And managing to recover or it being a non-event.
- Staying at the spot/orientation/depth you want, midwater, low vis, surge. Or while managing a convulsing diver through thick kelp while missing your mask and one fin.
- Taking care of an injured buddy, or organizing a multi-person search and rescue.
- Knowing to back out of environments before they go badly, and doing so.
...

How strong is your response in expanding spheres of concern in diving?

 

[TMHeimer]

You have a good list to start with and some good suggestions followed. You want to be experienced in the type of diving that you will do. For example, if you never (plan to) dive a wall or drift dive, I suppose there is little reason to get training in those.
Certifications aren't useless, but way less important that experience. For example I am Night certified and have done ONE post course night dive-- not experienced. I have done maybe 20 charter trips over the years including dives to 100-130' (30-40m), and am Deep certified. But, a gazillion OW divers are way more experienced with that. Then again, you can't top me when it comes to Nova Scotia shore diving. Get training and experience in the type of diving you'll be doing, then get more if you do other types of diving.

 

[Dody]

You mention you don’t want to dive in cold water, yet you live in the Netherlands. You are restricting yourself to only diving on holiday, it seems.

Or will you dive locally at the height of summer?

My central house is in the Netherlands but I am a consultant and mainly work in development projects in Africa. I currently am in Cape Verde where I can dive everyday. I don’t know where I will be next year. But for sure, during winter time, I won’t be in Europe . I also have a house in Morocco and in Congo.

 

[Dody]

Experienced is an unfortunate word for this, unless we assume you've been getting better from it.

How calm, clear or even routine is your response in what envelope of events?
- Just breathing underwater
- Losing mask, reg, fins, etc. And managing to recover or it not being worth mentioning it occurred.
- Staying at the spot/orientation/depth you want, midwater, low vis, surge. Or while managing a convulsing diver through thick kelp while missing your mask and one fin.
- Taking care of an injured buddy, or organizing a multi-person search and rescue.
- Knowing to back out of environments before they go badly, and doing so.
...

How strong is your response in expanding spheres of concern in diving?

I love your advice. This is exactly what I expected, what I miss.
1- I am pretty calm and composed under stress and pressure with one exception. If I feel I am drowning, I know that I will panic.
2- Losing my mask or my reg is not an issue. I would be as I experienced, very comfortable in those situation. Losing a fin, I don’t know but I guess that this is not really a life threatening situation unless at surface.
3- Orientation is defined something that I need to work on.
4- I hope that React Right and Stress and Rescue will help me with issues with buddy in despair.
5- Back out?I still don’t know. A month ago, I was asking why people was freaking out about being lost after a dive. Then, I’ve read dozen of stories and I got it. I am still very much a newbie.

 

[Angelo Farina]

YES
I consider myself an experienced recreational diver, and absolutely NOT a technical diver.
However, I do not hold ANY specialty card. NONE.
I simply have my original 3-stars CMAS certification obtained in 1976, enabling me to rec diving with CC rebreathers in pure oxygen down to 10m, and with double-tanks filled with air down to 50m, with deco, and with at least one buddy (no solo).
When I became instructor, those limits remained unchanged, and I am fully happy with them. Plenty enough for rec diving.
No one ever refused me the access to caves, wrecks, night dives, boat dives, small inflatable dives, Nitrox fills, etc.
Specialty cards did not exist at my time, and a full rec diver, as I consider myself, holding a 3-star CMAS certification, does not need any of them, whatever PADI is now trying to convince people is mandatory.

 

[Storker]

Much of your list pertains to getting in and out of the water.

What seems to be missing is what you're doing while in the water

And what you're doing out of the water.

Unless you're on a paid gig with minions taking care of all the nitty-gritty topside stuff, there's a lot more to being a qualified diver. For me, most of my diving-related activities take place topside. At least time-wise. Filling my tanks and mixing my gas, piloting the dive boat, behaving properly on the boat, giving a dive site briefing if I'm the dude who has dived there before, being a good buddy (especially to n00bs), schlepping, assembling and and breaking down the gear, doing basic gear maintenance etc., etc., etc. If you can't do that stuff, you're not an experienced diver around here.

 

[Sifossifoco]

Losing a fin, I don’t know but I guess that this is not really a life threatening situation unless at surface.

If you haven't experienced it yet, I would suggest to take one fin off while underwater, and see how much slower you swim and how much more gas you are breathing. Efficient swimming with one fin is difficult and required practice and technique. Losing a fin is rare, but breaking a strap not so much. If it happens you may not be able to reach your planned point of exit. A missing fin at the surface is not critical as long as you have inflated your BC, the current is not strong and you and don't have to swim long distances. If your gear has a lot of drag (rebreathers, doubles, sidemounts), it can get pretty serious.

 

[mcohen1021]

Is it a matter of expertise, an absolute value of dives

Stopping you right there.... I have seen divers that were pretty darn good with only 25 total dives and I have seen divers that have been certified longer than me and they were completely incompetent...

 

[Storker]

Experience is no guarantee of expertise.

 

[TMHeimer]

Experience is no guarantee of expertise.

Agree. My point (in my long-winded post) is that if you are trained for a certain type of diving and do many such dives correctly following your training, it SHOULD guarantee expertise in that type of diving. If that's all you do, training/experience in other types of diving has minimal benefit.