How many dives before you cease to be a beginner ? [Poll]

[Thyamine]

I would agree with the above statements, especially the martial art once since I taught for a few years. You should always consider yourself a beginner, because you can always learn. But in the sense of skills and competency, its when you crest that hill of 'I don't know what I'm doing... I know what I'm doing now... wow, what the hell was I thinking, I didn't know anything'

 

[tursiops]

I've never seen a diver with fewer than 20 dives who wasn't still a beginner. I've never seen a diver with over 500 dives who was still a beginner. The geometric mean of 20 and 500 is 100. I'd say it's not a sure thing at 100, but certainly likely afterwards.....assuming the 100 dives have been in a variety of conditions and with a variety of decent training. 100 crappy dives only having had crappy training and all in a quarry, is not going to produce much of a diver.

 

[Gareth J]

It's not just the number, but how often you dive.

A 100 dives over 5 years does not a good diver make.

 

[Damselfish]

You can also be good at certain types of diving and a beginner at others.

 

[MrBigfins]

I picked other because I feel there is too much variation. One person pushing, and challenging themselves while diving regularly may develop faster than someone else who has more dives, but they always dive the same conditions and space the diving out significantly more. I would say its aptitude for learning, mind set, maturity, and regularity of diving have more to do with not being a "beginner " than dive count.

 

[ystrout]

It depends on what you're doing. Recreational scuba diving is just going underwater and breathing through a tube. It's super easy and relaxing as long as you:
1. Don't run out of air
2. Don't hold your breath
3. Follow your computer/dive charts

It took me 10 - 20 dives to not be nervous and be in control, fully understand how my gear operates and be comfortable with it, communicate with my buddy efficiently, and control my air consumption by being relaxed and not flaring my limbs.

A lot of you on this website are doing crazy wrecks and caves. I'm guessing it takes tons of dives and practice to be able to consistently do that safely. I personally don't have any interest in that since what I love about diving is swimming and interacting with fish (my favorite animal). I don't need to go super deep or go into caves for that. So for my level of diving, it took 10 to 20 dives to not be a noob but it would require a lot more practice and comfort to do deep dives that aren't drift dives or in super clear, calm water.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I've never seen a diver with fewer than 20 dives who wasn't still a beginner. I've never seen a diver with over 500 dives who was still a beginner.

I know there are exceptions to every rule, but I know one diver who, at 1100 dives and even a rescue certification still had zero buoyancy control and needed her buddy to look at her spg and tell her when to go up and he also inflated/deflated her BC for her. I saw her racing down an anchor line once like a lawn dart with her buddy ten seconds behind her with eyes the size of saucers. He deflated her BC and then lost his grip on her. She made a huge silt cloud when she crashed into the bottom.

 

[divinh]

I was surprised to find out that people taking the PADI Dive Master course only need 40 logged dives to start and 60 when complete...

 

[divinh]

I know there are exceptions to every rule, but I know one diver who, at 1100 dives and even a rescue certification still had zero buoyancy control and needed her buddy to look at her spg and tell her when to go up and he also inflated/deflated her BC for her. I saw her racing down an anchor line once like a lawn dart with her buddy ten seconds behind her with eyes the size of saucers. He deflated her BC and then lost his grip on her. She made a huge silt cloud when she crashed into the bottom.

Does she have some physical limitation that prevents her from doing these tasks herself?

 

[KathyV]

It depends, my husband became a more skillful diver much quicker and more easily than me but he was always a strong swimmer. After several dive vacations, including a liveaboard, I still struggled with drift dives and buoyancy control whenever there was much current in the water. I'm better now but current still isn't my favorite thing. Only you will be able to decide when you feel comfortable and competent and even then, there will be challenges and things that could present difficulties, and new things to learn.