How many dives a year?

[fisherdvm]

To keep a certified OW diver competent and safe?

 

[drbill]

Personally, I think it is a combination of the number of dives per year AND how they are distributed, both time-wise and location (site conditions) I feel there is a difference between 15 dives done in one week on a vacation trip and 15 dives scattered throughout the year at various dive sites. Doing 15 dives in a year in the tropics is a lot different from doing 15 dives a year mixed in cold and warm water conditions. I'm just using the number 15 as an example, you could plug in 10 or 100, whatever number you think appropriate.

 

[paradicio]

I don't think any number of dives can make someone a competent diver. It takes proper instruction and then application of that instruction on every dive. If you do 200 dives a year and all you do is reinforce the bad habits you started with, well...you haven't really learned anything.

Just my .02psi

 

[marchand]

I would say that in order for a OW diver to be safe and competent he/she needs to do as many dives as necessary to keep the skills fresh in their mind and then some.

 

[Teamcasa]

Diving competency has more to do with one’s ability and innate skills more than the number of dives.

In addition, I agree completely with Dr.Bill about where the dives are distributed.

I dive once or twice a month, year round. One or two warm water sites a year plus many SoCal & Baja Mexico sites. The diving requirements differ greatly between a nice warm dive in Kona and a cold, deep, dark dive in Baja. But I love’em all!

 

[merxlin]

A poor diver will dive poorly on all their dives until they learn how to dive better. I dove in Hawaii with divers that listed 100's of dives for experience (mostly cold water lake and quarry), yet could not control bouyancy or air consumption, even in warm clear water. Just repeating the same mistakes on all your dives will not make you a better diver.

 

[seaducer]

The more often you dive, the better you get at it. I think newer divers need more practice than experienced divers, but everyone should dive as often as they can. And as others have said, spread them out and make them quality dives...

 

[MichaelBaranows]

No one is ever competent if they don't dive regulerly in the and conditions they are in.

 

[diver 85]

I voted for more than 500, it's less important.....one time for more than one reason when I had about 800 dives, I didn't dive for about 2 years...The 1st dives after that period of time I made were @ Cozumel & the 1st was Devil's Throat(130'/70 minute dive)---felt like I had been in the water the week before......IMO, after a certain amount of training it's sort of like riding a bike....The same thing sort of happened to my wife (with about 400 dives to her credit) except it had been 3 years since being UW for her...She never missed a lick & looked like she had been in the water the day before, lol...Her 1st dive back was Bloody Bay Wall to 100'........

 

[DivingPrincessE]

I agree with Dr. Bill about having to spread the dives out. I think someone who does 50 dives in a two week span may have rustier skills than someone who does 50 dives spread out over a year and in different locations.