Does diving get any better after so many dives?

[wonbok]

Hi!

Allthough I earned my qualification last october, I've dived in Tahiti, the Similans and the Northern Marianas (Saipan, Rota).

Granted each trip rewarded me with pleasant surprises, the fun I had from each dive was on the decrease - perhaps the law of diminishing marginal return?

For example, during a liveaboard in the Similans, I wasn't discovering anything new or improving my skills. It was just the same kind of dive as the one before.

I wonder what keeps youdiving when you log fifty or hundred and have seen pretty much everything underwater.

 

[Scott Riemer]

I guess knowing that every time you go under won't be exactly like the last. There's always something to see.

 

[mania]

the more I dive the more I like it. And every time is different. Even in the same place. simple example - I dove many times Woddhaouse Reef - Tiran - Sinai. I know this place by heart. But - in May I saw white tip sharks, in August in the same place leopard sharks. So the same place every time is different. Every dive is different. And you don't know what will u see.
I think this is why we all are doing this.
Mania

 

[Xman]

Hi!
For example, during a liveaboard in the Similans, I wasn't discovering anything new or improving my skills. It was just the same kind of dive as the one before.

I wonder what keeps youdiving when you log fifty or hundred and have seen pretty much everything underwater.

I can only answer for myself, other opinions may vary.
I have improved my skills, or worked on improving my skills, on every dive I have been on.
You can dive in a similar area, or even exactly the same dive site, and you will likely never see exactly the same thing. Just by focussing your attention on something different, the whole dive will change.
Lastly, I can say with a high level of certainty that no matter how many dives I have done or will do, or how many different locations or dive sites, I will never, ever have seen "pretty much everything underwater".
I hope you find some interest in your diving. Perhaps try some different types of training/diving. Maybe wrecks will do it for you, or night diving, or ..............?

 

[verona]

Hi, Wonbok. What was your motivation for taking up diving? Might be that if you wanted to learn to dive for the achievement of having learned, then you've done that and it no longer holds any interest for you. Which is fair enough.

Hi!

I wonder what keeps youdiving when you log fifty or hundred and have seen pretty much everything underwater.

I've logged that number and guess I have hardly seen much of what is underwater never mind everything. What keeps me going? I love the feeling of being underwater and I love never knowing what I might see and I love seeing all the critters that live there.

 

[Don Burke]

I wonder what keeps youdiving when you log fifty or hundred and have seen pretty much everything underwater.

If you dive with someone who knows his way around marine biology, you will discover a small portion of what you are not seeing on the dives you are already making. I suspect you are seeing only the big things on your dives.

I have over one hundred dives in one particular aquarium alone and I have not seen everything in there.

I learn something about the ocean or about my dive skills on every dive, usually both.

 

[theskull]

Even when you believe you have "seen it all", which you have NOT in the places you have dived, but which I believe I have-at least in a couple of the quarries in which I dive-you can experience great joy just in the fact that you are THERE . . . in a foreign environment, weightless and silent, being a part of that ecosystem for a short time, breathing pure filtered air, and having fun with your dive--hanging upside down, doing barrel rolls and flips, hovering in exactly the spot that you choose, etc.

Be present in the moment and just experience where you are.

Also, get some new equipment and work on some new sills--such as u/w photography!

theskull

 

[Gary D.]

Hi!

Allthough I earned my qualification last october, I've dived in Tahiti, the Similans and the Northern Marianas (Saipan, Rota).

Granted each trip rewarded me with pleasant surprises, the fun I had from each dive was on the decrease - perhaps the law of diminishing marginal return?

For example, during a liveaboard in the Similans, I wasn't discovering anything new or improving my skills. It was just the same kind of dive as the one before.

I wonder what keeps youdiving when you log fifty or hundred and have seen pretty much everything underwater.

Don't even put "Seen it all and Diving" in the same text. It'll never happen.

Gary D.

 

[adshepard]

Someone already stated that maybe you're just looking at the big things and I suspect that may be true.

I have over 200 dives in one small cove and never fail to find something new and different. I have never had a dive in over 760 total dives that was the same as the last.

Slow down and take in both the small and the large stuff. Watch animal behavior. Diving, IMHO, isn't meant to be some fly-by touristy thing where you jump in take a quick look around and get out.

It's always a thrill.

DSDO

Alan

 

[MikeFerrara]

Hi!

Allthough I earned my qualification last october, I've dived in Tahiti, the Similans and the Northern Marianas (Saipan, Rota).

Granted each trip rewarded me with pleasant surprises, the fun I had from each dive was on the decrease - perhaps the law of diminishing marginal return?

For example, during a liveaboard in the Similans, I wasn't discovering anything new or improving my skills. It was just the same kind of dive as the one before.

I wonder what keeps youdiving when you log fifty or hundred and have seen pretty much everything underwater.

Three things.
1, You haven't seen everything either under water or above and you won't live long enough to see everything.

2, If after diving for such a short time you're skills can no longer be improve on then you need to start writing books and teaching.

3, Some people just don't make good tourists. I get boared "sight seeing". I need to do something. I prefer to have a purpose for a dive. For many, diving isn't an ends in itself but a means to an end.

Is there something you would enjoy doing underwater?... photograpgy?... looking for artifacts?... surveying wrecks?...hunting?