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

[Darnold9999]

First trip to the tropics good vis almost bit me in the a**. Free diving in a fresh water cavern in crystal clear water. On one dive I extended the dive to the bottom of the cavern. No big deal as the surface was quite visible so not that deep - an easy ascent. Not so much, it was quite a bit deeper than I thought it was, coming from scuba diving here in the PNW. Turns out I should have started back to the surface a bit sooner. Something I realized early on in the ascent. The final 30 feet or so was "interesting".

Any new environment can make you a beginner really fast.

 

[Jcp2]

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.

Is it better for the lobster for the diver to poke at it to see what it does, and then move on, or for the diver to put it in his bag to eat at a later date? Is it better for the fish to be manipulated by a stick to watch or react, or be pierced by a spear for dinner that night? How about picking up a starfish to watch it crawl over your hand or crushing an urchin to have with a glass of grappa?

 

[Wibble]

Tips: what are these in the context of diving, who gets them, where is this necessary and what sort of money are we talking about? (A genuine question)

This seems quite "foreign", certainly to a European where tipping isn’t required nor expected.

 

[TMHeimer]

Tips: what are these in the context of diving, who gets them, where is this necessary and what sort of money are we talking about? (A genuine question)

This seems quite "foreign", certainly to a European where tipping isn’t required nor expected.

It's foreign to you, and you have the right idea.

 

[VikingDives]

As I am sure is true for just about any instructor, I have never considered logging the pool sessions, but I did a heck of a lot of them during each year for a while, and my skills grew significantly as a result. My buoyancy was especially improved. As I worked with student groups, my back kicking and helicopter turning improved as I maneuvered around them.

As for logging the OW certification dives, I once saw someone in a thread say he did not log them. I think that is a mistake. I like the fact that I have a contemporary record of what happened on an instructional dive in the unlikely case that a student might later claim some sort of a problem occurred.

I've not found a student yet who hasn't taught me something. My "best" dives were those as a divemaster when the instructor was horrible. Those students in moments of panic and uncontrolled (as/des)cents taught me a more than I've imparted on my DMs and rescue diver students. For that I have no doubt.

I have a rule of life that I will often pass on to those willing to listen. It is, "Everyone has something to teach you, but it may not be the lesson you're hoping to receive." I'm very grateful to all the poor quality instructors that I learned from because they taught me what not to do. I'm grateful to the students who took classes from those instructors because those students taught me how to be a good instructor. I'm grateful to the students that I teach now, and for my instructional assistants because they still give me tricks and techniques that I'd never have thought of myself, that help the next class of students.

As a DM, I learned much more in the pool than I ever did in OW. That was more because of the inexperience of the students, and the time I had with them. I also tried not to waste my time in OW... I taught myself to back kick there and used the down time to really master neutral buoyancy. It was also the most fun I had in my professional carrier. Low responsibility, high impact and lots of time for working on my abilities.

 

[100days-a-year]

Tips: what are these in the context of diving, who gets them, where is this necessary and what sort of money are we talking about? (A genuine question)

This seems quite "foreign", certainly to a European where tipping isn’t required nor expected.

This would probably be an excellent separate topic, probably been done but never a bad idea to share information on local custom concerning tips.

 

[Manatee Diver]

For technical divers hours is a more accurate measure than dives, at least if you want to get some kind of comparable metric to recreational diving.

I recently signed up for a dive that requires a person to have at least 50 dives in the past year. Unless I do multiple trips I struggle to do 50 dives a year despite diving most weekends as I typically just do one dive a day. Now I do get 70+ diving hours a year because the dives are do are typically close to 2 hours long.

 

[ginti]

For technical divers hours is a more accurate measure than dives, at least if you want to get some kind of comparable metric to recreational diving.

I recently signed up for a dive that requires a person to have at least 50 dives in the past year. Unless I do multiple trips I struggle to do 50 dives a year despite diving most weekends as I typically just do one dive a day. Now I do get 70+ diving hours a year because the dives are do are typically close to 2 hours long.

Not sure about it. One of the most complicated things about technical diving is the ascent (depending on where and how a person dives, obviously). The experience of a person that spends a massive amount of time underwater, but who does only a few ascents (e.g. you stay for more than one hour and a half at 25/30m depth), is very different from the one who actually has the same amount of hours but dives deeper (e.g. average 50m) and often ascent in the blue, with strong currents.

I believe that all these metrics (number of dives, hours of diving, and depths) are useful. And, as I have already said, not sufficient

 

[Manatee Diver]

Not sure about it. One of the most complicated things about technical diving is the ascent (depending on where and how a person dives, obviously). The experience of a person that spends a massive amount of time underwater, but who does only a few ascents (e.g. you stay for more than one hour and a half at 25/30m depth), is very different from the one who actually has the same amount of hours but dives deeper (e.g. average 50m) and often ascent in the blue, with strong currents.

I believe that all these metrics (number of dives, hours of diving, and depths) are useful. And, as I have already said, not sufficient

Obviously conditions are a factor, but as a cave diver the deco part is typically easy, typically pretty short for most (or almost never for Mexico cave divers). Of course there are question you can ask to get a totality of the experience of the cave diver, like how complicated were the dives, the conditions, etc.

 

[ginti]

Obviously conditions are a factor, but as a cave diver the deco part is typically easy, typically pretty short for most (or almost never for Mexico cave divers). Of course there are question you can ask to get a totality of the experience of the cave diver, like how complicated were the dives, the conditions, etc.

Well, then your assumptions are valid for "cave" diving, but technical diving is something wider