shakespear
Contributor
Is it "X amount of dives per year"?
Does the type of certification matter?
Does the type of certification matter?
How you "keep up" your certification?
- Thread starter shakespear
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
mossym
Contributor
if you do five dives a year, and are still a safe and competent diver, thats enough in my book..if you do two hundred and are a safe and competent diver thats enough as well..but more dives generally helps..experience counts for a lot in this sport.it's very condition dependant as well
Once certified, always certified, regardless of agency (at least for now).shakespear:
That's not true with skills. If you have a dry period, you need to somehow refresh those skills. How long a dry period is up for debate.
mossym
Contributor
rick's right, i took a more skills approach, from an official point of view you're always certified
mossym:
Hopfully thats something that gets changes in the future. I've been on dive boats a few times and heard "I haven't dove in x years". Diving isn't like riding a bike, I feel if you haven't used your skills you need to be recertified.
But of course thats just my two cents.
You are certified for life. But that does not mean it is a good idea. Many dive boats will ask when your last dive was and if it has been while (six months, a year, two?) they may ask you to do a check out dive or a refresher course. If you have been out of the water a while (six months - year?) then a refresher is a good idea. You do forget stuff and stuff does change. 4 years ago the ideal ascent rate was 60 feet a minute, then it changed to 30 feet a minute.
Of course many of you know where I stand on this one... lifetime certification without a requirement for a minimum number of dives a year or a skills refresher is one of the reasons we have accidents and deaths.
m3830431
Contributor
Just keep diving and you will be fine. 
Only GUE has a minimum number of dives (25) per 3 years.
It's not just diving, you also need to practice your skills. Do you take off your mask and just swim around for 5 minutes practicing no mask breathing? Do you practice swimming with just one fin? Do you practice regulator recovery?
Similar threads
