Counting a Dive or Not - Cage Diving

[BFRedrocks]

I know there will be a lot of different opinions, and I know ultimately it is up to me what I count as a dive and what I don't, but I was curious what other folks would do. I'm going to do some cage diving with sharks in the future with the cage set at about 30 feet and surface-supplied air for breathing. So, I will be submerged at 30 feet for over 30 minutes, but not carrying a tank on my back and not "finning," so would you count these as "dives" or not?

 

[RJP]

I vote "yes" -- unless you're in a cage at a local quarry or some benign reef.

 

[TMHeimer]

Yes. Most that I've seen commenting on what "counts" say 15 feet for 20 minutes, so this counts based on that. I don't count cage dives because I have no interest in doing them so none to count.

 

[diversteve]

Do they require the divers to be certified to participate? If not it's a tourist attraction and I don't log those.

 

[BFRedrocks]

Yes. Most that I've seen commenting on what "counts" say 15 feet for 20 minutes, so this counts based on that. I don't count cage dives because I have no interest in doing them so none to count.

So the fact that it's surface-supplied air wouldn't have any bearing on counting it because it's more based on time/depth?

---------- Post added September 28th, 2015 at 12:49 PM ----------

Do they require the divers to be certified to participate? If not it's a tourist attraction and I don't log those.

There are surface cages that anyone can use, and submerged (to 30 ft) cages that you must be scuba-certified to use. It's only the submerged ones I'm talking about.

 

[Subcooled]

You log them separately as "Cage 1", "Cage 2", ... "Cage n" in you diving diary complete with pictures and descriptive text.

When someone asks you how many dives you have done, then you can reply with "X times in pool, Y times in open water, Z times as shark bait, ..." the list goes on.

 

[Chavodel8en]

You would have to equalize ears and adjust bouyancy (unless you want to spend the dive plastered to the roof of the cage), so I would count it. No finning true, but I suppose if I submerged to 30' and there were enough fish to look at that I simply hovered for 30 minutes w/out moving, I would count it. You're doing essentially the same thing, except the fish might want to eat you.

edit: i think i may be mistaken re adjusting bouyancy. Come to think about it, do cage divers simply remain "heavy" throughout their dive, without ever adjusting buoyancy? Do they even have a BCD to adjust?

And I missed that this was surface supplied, which means that air supply monitoring is also not an issue

I think I would still "count" it as a dive, but alot of the elements of a dive (air supply monitoring, bouyancy, trim, swimming) are missing.

I guess I would count in terms of numbers, but I would not count it in terms of amassing "learning" experience.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Count it as a "dive" for what purpose? What is the context of the issue?

I dunno. It's not on SCUBA--it's surface-supplied--so it's clearly not a "scuba dive." You are not descending, ascending, or otherwise moving under your own control, so it's more like you are being dived than being a diver, though I suppose commercial divers being raised and lowered on platforms aren't reluctant to call themselves divers. If a comatose person is lowered into the water, did the person "do a dive"? If a person rides in a submarine, did the person "do a dive"? Ultimately, think what label one chooses to attach to it depends on the context--for what purpose is the person attaching the label.

The depth and time aren't as significant to me as these other factors.

 

[Russoft]

dive logging seems a bit arbitrary to me in the first place. I'd log it and add what the activity was in the comments. If someone is trying to judge your experience, they can examine your log book if they really feel like it. Or they can go diving with you and determine your experience from your skill level.

I just did three dives a couple weekends back, two were for an hour while one was for 15 minutes. The short dive may seem the lesser dive in terms of experience gained, except I had an equipment malfunction to deal with underwater.

In your case, either choice is reasonable in my opinion. Might not technically be scuba, but I'd wager it's more challenging than swimming around a shallow, sheltered reef with perfect visibility and no current and calm water.

 

[tridacna]

I've done about 24 cage dives with GW sharks - similar MO to these. Never felt that I was diving on any. You're overweighted-hardly floating-breathing on a SNUBA set up. No planning, no worries about NDLs. Also never been asked for a card on any. My vote is NOT a dive (for logging purposes).