johndiver999
Contributor
So the prevailing wisdom is a 100 or more? How many does it take to be a dive instructor?
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You need an option in your poll for "It Depends". I've seen divers who are very competent at 50 dives and I've seen divers with 200+ dives that I refuse to ever dive with again. Competence is not just skill and experience but it's also mindset. That is hard to teach and some people never learn it.
I think it depends on why you are diving. If you have a goal that is caving, or wreck penetration, or high quality video or photography, then it’ll take a while to get that right. My goal is to go see pretty fishes and one day dive with seals in California, so I hope that’s easier to do well.Thanks, all. It does look like a long road.
I was hoping to get out of this “noob” title soon, having invested time in doing at least 1 or 2 dives/week.but it doesn’t seem progress is fast![]()
It appears there was a miscommunication.I disagree that it takes 1000 cave dives to be competent as a cave diver.
What is the number? There is no number of dives to quantify competency as a diver OR a cave diver.
I also distinguish my fun-dives from training-dives.My advice is to alternate or rotate doing a lot of diving just for fun, doing some additional training (getting mentoring would count), and doing some dives where you focus on practicing skills. Each of these three things helps reinforce the others. Synergy. Or something like that.![]()
How would one avoid being *that* diver no-one wants to dive with?![]()
I also distinguish my fun-dives from training-dives.
By separating out training-dives, there are a lot of benefits. Air lasts much longer. Skills can be practiced over-and-over. My fun-dives are typically on a clock (and I don't want to waste them), whereas my practice-dives I have as much time as I want or need. I can surface frequent and safely, without a safety-stop. It's easier to start over.
- On fun-dives, I at most I might focus on one skill, but otherwise be there to have fun. If the practice goes bad, I'll abandon it and just have fun. If scuba was work, I probably wouldn't do it.
- Training/Practice/Skill dives I'll typically do shore-dives, in a boring location, at 10 to 30ft. I'm a solo diver, and will solo-practice "safe" skills.
Agreed.I'll just add that I believe the fun-dives really do help improve our diving, and form just as important a component as continuing education and practice/training dives. Even when we're not thinking about the skills we learned and/or practiced last weekend, on this weekend's fun-dive our brains will still be processing it in the background. Maybe it's like when you're studying for an exam and you take a real break and go do something else to get your mind off it for a while.