Judging a diver's experience: logging number of dives and hours of dive time

[Blackcrusader]

I'm not totally concerned about how experienced my instabuddies are. Some are instructors with years of experience some are vacation divers who are recently certified. I find over a 2 week dive vacation doing around 40 dives I get people with all levels of experience. Pretty much I just enjoy the diving and many people enjoy the photos or videos I share on them on my dives. I remember diving with a honeymoon couple and guide, they had no camera and were really thankful I was able to take some photos and video's of them. I had a spare small SD card so I gave that to them with their dive vacation memories. They really appreciated that and were able to share those pics to their family and friends. It didn't matter they were recently certified we had fun dives and I still got some nice photos and video's. A couple of the places I dive with will just let me and a guide go and do our own thing with no restrictions to time or depth just stay within NDL.

One of me best dives in the last decade was a 93 min dive just me and the guide. We went to a wreck and 34m depth and then slowly came up on a sloping shelf back to the reef wall which at the bottom was around 15m depth. One of the best dives I can recall. Got some shots of rare sea horses and other critters.

 

[Julius SCHMIDT]

I remember diving with a honeymoon couple and guide, they had no camera and were really thankful I was able to take some photos and video's of them. I had a spare small SD card so I gave that to them with their dive vacation memories. They really appreciated that and were able to share those pics to their family and friends.

Perfect.

 

[Pressurehead]

One of me best dives in the last decade was a 93 min dive just me and the guide. We went to a wreck and 34m depth and then slowly came up on a sloping shelf back to the reef wall which at the bottom was around 15m depth. One of the best dives I can recall. Got some shots of rare sea horses and other critters

Off topic, sorry:
Do you still have that dive on one of your dive computers or on an program like Subsurface? Would like to see that dive profile.

 

[Blackcrusader]

Off topic, sorry:
Do you still have that dive on one of your dive computers or on an program like Subsurface? Would like to see that dive profile.

AL 80 started with 210 bar ended dive with 50 bar.

 

[ginti]

What you call "stupid", I call a combination of ego and a brain fart. But hey, it's your derogative to bash the dead.

Agree 100% - but I would modify it into "bashing on others is never a good idea".

When a person is "stupid"? When she doesn't act in a rational way? Well, it seems to me that humans are emotional creatures, and 99% of what we do is irrational. Sure, people should adapt to correct some biases if they want to survive, but emotional and psychological pressure is always there.

We just do not know why that person acted in that way, that day. Maybe in another situation, she would have proved to be brilliant, but that day specifically something was wrong. Or maybe she was diving because she felt too much pressure from society and wanted to do something cool to show that she was not weak. Or maybe something else. We just do not know, which is why I believe that judging is a shallow approach: our judgement is based on nothing.

However, when judging someone, for sure a person doing two things:
- simplifying the problem, so that she doesn't analyze it deeper and we potentially lose information
- putting others at a "level lower than hers" (why does one feel the need to do it? To feel more important than someone else?)

I believe that this subject is very related to the topic because often we could judge insta-buddies too fast, potentially losing the opportunities for amazing dives. Me, personally, if I do not know someone, I just ensure that the first dive is very easy and that my personal boundaries in terms of safety are never crossed, otherwise, I change buddy.

Do a favour to yourself guys, do not judge other people. If they are really incompatible with you, stay away, but do not judge, it's never useful.

 

[Marie13]

Don’t judge? I’ll remember that that the next time you guys start jumping on some poorly paid local DM who handles a puffer fish to show the tourist divers in the hopes he might get better tips. Or the divers who beat the hell out of the coral with their fins.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Their attitude. How do you know some's a coldwater/low vis diver? Because they'll tell you - straight away.

Yes diving cold requires additional skills to manage a Drysuit than a wetsuit, but it's not rocket science, and it's easy to transition across. What I often see though is cold water/low viz divers, who for the most part dive with small insular groups of people or clubs, have installed in them a belief their skills are better than they actually are. Big fish small pond syndrome

One memorable incident was a British BSAC DL with +300 dives, took an uncontrolled ride to the surface from 25m (80'). His excuse (on the way to the chamber) was that he was underweighted (the fact that if he was so underweight at 25m there's no way he'd had descended in the first place) - Nope he simply added far too much air to his BC, was overweight in the first place (addiction to lead is common with cold water divers at first) and failed to dump air from his BC

Diving in areas of huge tidal movements means they dive at slack water thus are unprepared (and often too unfit) to constantly kick through a gentle current for the dive (or large inland waters that had zero current) . But they have this mindset that because they're cold water divers warm water divign is easy without pitfalls

People used too, indeed reliant on a line to hold onto for their ascent and stops, come unstuck with blue water ascents and stops.

But they have this mindset that because they're cold water divers warm water divign is easy without pitfalls

This is of course not a list to paint broad brushstrokes across all cold water divers, however they are more likely to dismiss warm water diving as easy, failing to appreciate its pitfalls than the other way around

I remember looking up from 100 feet in the Aegean and seeing the surface, something that I am lucky to see from 15 feet locally. It looked like it was "right there", but in reality, I had a ways to go. Hence checking my instruments (gas and depth) probably more often than what I normally do as I was task loaded looking for something.

The difference in viz disrupts the result of what we process of what we see.

We have currents here, but the kicker currents you have to place yourself. Two of the more popular drift dives in my area are Deception Pass (probably most popular as easy to get to from shore) and the Tacoma Narrows bridge (boats usually drop people in when currents are on the slow side, unless they trust everyone on the boat, then it is fun).

When sites like those are not "diveable" (survivable may be a better word), they are avoided. But in many places in the world with amazing viz have currents that are slowest with speeds when the local ones to me no one dives. There are RIPPING currents that can easily overwhelm a complacent diver, regardless of skill/experience.

 

[boulderjohn]

Don’t judge? I’ll remember that that the next time you guys start jumping on some poorly paid local DM who handles a puffer fish to show the tourist divers in the hopes he might get better tips. Or the divers who beat the hell out of the coral with their fins.

I have seen very few dives where DMs manhandled the critters, and from conversations I had with other divers after those experiences, I would say that those DMs lost a heck of a lot of tip money by doing that.

 

[Soloist]

compare that with diving in tropical sea water where the wave height doesn't go over few inches.

I call bull shark! Oh wait, you don’t have any of those in the Great Lakes.

(edit: never mind, I am just now reading this thread)

 

[Doctorfish]

A few years back, I saw a DM on Bonaire grab a file fish right behind it's eyes and hold it up for pictures. Watching how the newbies on the boat reacted over the next few dives, I got the impression they thought that the DMs stupid act gave them free reign to bash, touch, grab and molest everything on the reef. I avoided that boat and DM for the rest of the trip.