How long have you been diving?

[CamG]

Wow this thread has been a good read.
I am with Kathydee first dive in 87' trained in 07' so I am a pup.
With all this experience on SB there should be no ignorant divers out there right?
Well a wise dive buddy with 40+ yrs once said, " sometimes you just can't fix stupid!"
Seriously thanks DCBC it is good to recognize there are more than just beginners here.

CamG

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I bring the bias to the conversation that the time underwater, location, and what was being done is the true measure of experience. “X” number of beach dives in 50' of warm clear water isn’t really comparable that many dives in the North Atlantic 10+ miles offshore.

Several of us on this board have had saturation dives that lasted more than 30 days with 4-8 hour lockouts/day, plus days of decompression… a single sat dive is “seal to seal” (when the hatch seal is made at the start of pressurizing until the seal “breaks” when the chamber pressure equals the surface).

... in other words, you were doing underwater construction work. How much did this help you improve your scuba diving skills?

The same number of hours teaching an OW class is not equal to making videos of whales on rebreathers.

... making videos of whales on rebreathers doesn't teach you as much about situational awareness as teaching an OW class (aka "herding cats")

A big part of a diver’s skill is the time spent in preparation. A wreck diver doing research is adding to their skills even though they don’t leave the library or museum.

... so is an open water instructor doing research into providing more context to their class than is provided in the agency instructional materials ... and in terms of actual diving, it's usually more applicable.

Signing up for a liveaboard is not the same as organizing an expedition to a small island in the Bearing Sea.

No it's not, but how much you need to know about scuba diving depends on where you're going, and how much control you have over the itinerary. How many people have you met who have organized expeditions to a small island in the Bering Sea? And were they going there for the purpose of recreational diving?

Any measure has its flaws but the number of years has implications beyond a diver’s skills.

We're talking about recreational diving ... not building oil rigs or exploring remote islands. Anything can be taken to extremes ... people do it routinely to "win" arguments on the internet. Your examples simply don't fit the context of the discussion. And almost nothing about the "specialized" knowledge you're referring to would in any way pertain to what a recreational diver needs to know.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

---------- Post added February 17th, 2014 at 06:35 AM ----------

I don't really see the point in the poll...

It's a typical "drop your drawers and pull out the ruler" thread ... there's another one just like it going on in the Advanced forum.

There's a handful of people on ScubaBoard who believe that if you weren't trained in the North Atlantic before 1980, you don't know what you're doing ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[The Chairman]

My first dive was in Lake Underhill, Orlando Fl in the summer of 1969. I had bought my mask and fins from Hal Watts. My Scuba tank came off of a helicopter and we had to fit a J-Valve to it. That tank was tied with ropes to my back and my depth gauge was a piece of red ribbon. I had been instructed by a Master Chief, but he wasn't present on our first dive. There was no certification involved. After watching a Scuba class doing push-ups in full gear for making some mistake, I decided that certification was not for me. I made a number of dives through college and a bit after but scare after scare made me hang up my fins. Just before the turn of the century, my best friend Moose got me back into diving. I found that I could not wear my old fins with booties, that BCDs were pretty cool, depth gauges were far more accurate than a red ribbon and that I simply loved having a pressure gauge instead of a j-valve. I became an instructor back in 2002 or so with NAUI, but I currently teach through NASE, SDI and TDI.

ScubaBoard is an incredibly diverse community. It should be noted that the people who post are in the minority on the site. Currently, we have 418 members signed on with 2,555 guests reading their comments. That's over 5 to 1 right there. Since many of us sign in on a daily or hourly basis the ratio is even bigger by the end of the month. When I was in Curacao earlier this month, we were surprised that when we Googled "Best Crocery Store on Curacao" that ScubaBoard was second in the search. It's magic.

It's a typical "drop your drawers and pull out the ruler" thread

Bob, this one feels a bit different. I think it's important for readers to be able to put our comments and advice into some perspective and that includes how long we have been diving and how we learned to dive. Sure, there's a lot of nostalgia that makes the training "way back when" seem better than it was. I remember the big sales pitch from hal about my Rocket Fins: "You can kick the crap out of the reef and not hurt the fin!" He was right and we sure did! I like the changes I have seen in training since 2002. Neutral buoyancy and trim are no longer considered unattainable by the average diver with just a few dives. Online academics have given me more time with my students teaching them skills and I find they are better equipped since I first started teaching. Sure, the instructors who can't or don't want to evolve with the newer techniques bitch long and loud about "dumbing down", and that's OK. I'm sure dinosaurs thought mammals were a dumb idea at the time.

 

[Searcaigh]

I was 31 years old when I first put on a wetsuit and then a hot water suit and changed my career albeit temporarily for a couple of years, 6 years later in 1991 I did a PADI OW course in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia because I was finding it difficult to rent tanks without a PADI card. It was only at that point I actually took a more serious interest in diving as a hobby and started logging recreational dives.

To date 1,222 logged rec dives and 1,236 hrs 35 mins

0 dives in 2002, 2003 and 2007 primarily due to work plus I injured my shoulder in 2007 and only managed 2 dives in 2008

 

[Adventure-Ocean]

I was fortunate to get to dive over 40 years in the Marianas Islands. I made money diving as a marine tech at the University of Guam for 20 years. Adventure-Ocean

 

[MichigandiverJon]

Been certified for 9 years. Dove on a "hookah" system for years as a little kid at our lake. Then had my first scuba experience on vintage AFM VOIT regs and a horse shoe back inflate BC that I do not remember the brand of. But currently only get 5 to 10 dives a year. Hoping to change that for the better.

 

[Tom Winters]

Ah geez... the pool that I first tried scuba gear in has been filled in for probably 40 years now - at my uncle's house in CT. I tried the gear in June of 1961. JFK was still alive. The Bay of Pigs hadn't happened. Hawaii here I wound up for 22 years courtesy of the USbyGod Navy had only been a state for 2 years.

I ultimately wound up with the gear because no one else wanted it after it after it sat unused for forever. The reg is a 1955 US Divers Broxton, and tank has a 1955 DOB on it. The backpack consisted of a thick leather belt that just held the tank against your back - you had to walk to the water hunched over holding the bottom of the cylinder. I just have the tank and the reg - the belt... well, it's lost to history or eaten by one of my relatives.

 

[thorshammer]

Summer of 92'. Almost 24 years.


Sent from my iPhone using Crap-A-Talk

 

[Sam Miller III]

Was diving before there was PADI/NAUI/SSI/TDI/NACD/NSS-CDS/IANTD or any other 'Alphabet Soup' agency !!!!!!! ;-P

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Since you are a Floridian.....

What about FSDA -Florida State Diving Association? Did you forget good old Pappy Flood? FSDA was active many years prior to NAUI which was established about ten years before PADI

SDM

 

[mello-yellow]

First dive ever -- November 1998, resort course.

OW certified in spring 2000. Close to 300 dives, which is actually not a lot given the number of years.