How do so many folks have so many dives

[Rich Keller]

How do some folks have so many dives without access all of the times?

I do have access all the time as long as there is no ice. Been diving for 44 years but most of my dives came during the 10 years I worked as a commercial diver. I am not interested in how many dives someone has or how many certifications they have but rather if they are good in the water. Also I think the number of dives is less important then the type of dive and how long you were down. Doing shallow water bridge reconstruction I would only log 2 dives a day but they were each about 4 hours long. One week on that job I would spend more hours underwater then a lot of divers do in a year.

 

[PacificXplorer]

I share the idea of time under water being a more significant statistic that the number of times I have descended below 5 meters on compressed air or another breathing gas. Also, I do not count dives in a swimming pool as dives or as time underwater. Some divers do. I will count a 25 minutes navigation training dive with an AOW class as a dive, but if I descend to retrieve a weight belt, or tighten a platform, I will combine two or three such events as a "support dive" and note the total bottom time. By my count I am just under 1000 dives. By the way others count I would be close to 2000. I do know this, I have as of this moment just over 700 hours under water on scuba, at least 20 feet deep or deeper ( max142), exclusive of pool time which is probably equal or greater in duration, and that is what I use to determine my experience level. But it's not worth a big debate. Let's just go diving!
DIvemasterDennis

I'm in agreement with this. When there are tourists doing 2-3 dives in the same amount of time that I'm doing a deco stop, then it's easy for the numbers to get skewed.

 

[beaverdivers]

I'm in agreement with this. When there are tourists doing 2-3 dives in the same amount of time that I'm doing a deco stop, then it's easy for the numbers to get skewed.

When I was doing a lot of dives (200+) on my rebreather, my average bottom times were much longer. FWIW, I believe number of hours is more relevant than number of dives.

 

[jake11]

The best thing I have gotten out of this thread is to scan the C - cards , Dan cards etc. and keep a file on the I-pad!~ Thanks for the tip gypsyjim and NWGrateful Diver! :0)

 

[FinnMom]

Dropbox is a cloud storage service that offers a fair bit of space for free. It's a great place to keep stuff like those C-card scans. With cloud storage you have access even if the iPad or other device should be lost or stolen.

 

[Oldbear]

Dropbox is a cloud storage service that offers a fair bit of space for free. It's a great place to keep stuff like those C-card scans. With cloud storage you have access even if the iPad or other device should be lost or stolen. Add a scan of your passport and travel insurance cards too.

Just do not store your 100th Dive pictures, Diving in the Buff, the "Cloud" does not have a good reputation lately for keeping nude photos private

 

[PacificXplorer]

Dropbox is a cloud storage service that offers a fair bit of space for free. It's a great place to keep stuff like those C-card scans. With cloud storage you have access even if the iPad or other device should be lost or stolen. Add a scan of your passport and travel insurance cards too.

I wouldn't keep a scan of your passport in Dropbox. And I'm saying that as someone who works a lot with internet security.

 

[Subcooled]

My CMAS instructor told me that neither the amount of dives nor the time under water are good measures of experience. Experience is only gained when one pushes his/her boundaries a bit, tries something new, learns something. So should we not increment the dive count only when we learned something new? That would lead to some quite low numbers for some

 

[FinnMom]

I wouldn't keep a scan of your passport in Dropbox. And I'm saying that as someone who works a lot with internet security.

OK, I changed my original post so nobody sees just that and not the "rethink".

If I want need to keep the passport scan somewhere I can access it online, is a folder in my online mail program a better place?

 

[PacificXplorer]

If I want need to keep the passport scan somewhere I can access it online, is a folder in my online mail program a better place?

Is it a free service email account (gmail, yahoo, etc.)? If so, I wouldn't keep it there. These providers make money off of the content you upload by data mining it - which is why they are "free." If you have a service provider (email, cloud, etc.) that has a secure server with encryption and guarantees protection of your data, then that would be much better. These services usually cost money, though.