How many dives does it take for one to be competent?

[ATJ]

But do you still rely upon his/her advice and help to plan a dive or decide if conditions are suitable for your experience level or can you make those decisions yourself? I suspect you are quite capable to do so yourself.

I am capable of making the decisions myself because of the excellent training he gave me. If I still had to rely on him to make decisions, he would have been a poor instructor.

 

[captain]

For some no amount of dives will make them competent, fact of life.

 

[Bearded Diver]

I think it depends on the Instructor who teaches. I have been a free diver for most of my life, started free diving aroun 1011 y/o. The fact that my instructor really took the time to make sure the class, of only 4 students completely understood the question/instruction showed me he really cared about teaching. That being said, I think I began to excel when I hit about 30 dives because I discovered the highly addictive hobby of fossil diving. So I was getting experience/ use of my "new" gear and paying more attention to how to slow my breathing so I almost get 1 30 mins at 25/30 ft. The key to me is to always be diving, with a high frequency so you are comfortable in the water as others have stated, and you get more familiar with your kit. at over 125 logged dives, I would say is nothing when somone who sold me my legend reg was 26 years old and had over 3,000 dives, lucky lol. I look forward to one day being CCR Certified and my close attention to detail will certainly help. Having a good and safe dive buddy/ dive group always helps you become a better diver. Happy diving!

 

[60plus]

Recently I got kicked in the face at about 30 meters, reg knocked out of my mouth, mask knocked into my eyes and full of water. Warm water (no gloves or hood) good visibility so could still see. Sorted no problem, relaxed and comfortable. Had the same happened on a drysuit dive (additional buoyancy issue possibly) at night and with murky water (2m visibility) gloves and hood it would have been much more difficult to sort. Firstly in a drysuit its much harder to get your arm round, feel for and locate your reg. Secondly getting a mask back in place in gloves without a bit of hood being trapped underneath it is very difficult, and without being able to see you could be ascending or descending out of control. In 5mm gloves even sorting your octopus from dangling torches and console can be difficult in the dark.
Acquiring competence to deal with problems on some types of dive is very different to being competent to deal with the same problems in other dive situation.

 

[Regulatrix]

More than I have!

 

[CT-Rich]

I haven’t read the entire thread, but in case no one mentioned the obvious, the answer is 42.

 

[arew+4]

My LDS says another $3-4k should get me over the hump.

 

[Bob DBF]

I would think one wouldn't be given a c-card if they weren't competent, since that was the reason for them in the first place.

As far as being a good diver, that would take time, ability, study and practice, the number of dives may be a factor, but not as much as some think.

 

[RobPNW]

Depends on the type of diving?

 

[Alexa Bliss]

On the face of it, it's pretty simple. Once you have done Open Water, Advanced Open Water, Rescue Diver, 5 Specialty Courses and a minimum of 50 logged dives, you can apply to be a Master Scuba Diver and, on payment of the requisite fee, will receive a new card and iron-on patch declaring your new status.