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

[DogDiver]

Dive logs do have their purpose for dive operators. Personally I log and review all my dives with my Perdix AI. But this is for reference in cave diving. For every hour logged in a cave there is 3-4 hours of preparation and planning done. A review of the dive profile on my iPhone is very helpful to cave diving friends to assess in our pre dive discussion.

with that said. I can learn more about a divers abilities by watching them gear up on the recreational dive boats. And Ricks law of inverse verbage comes to mind.
The more they talk.
The less they know.

 

[Pressurehead]

I did have something like that happen once, but I actually volunteered. I was hanging around the shop on a long surface interval before a very popular dive, and a scheduled DM called in sick at the last minute. Under their insurance, they needed one more professional in the water for the number of customers they had. I happened to have my liability insurance card with me, and they essentially made me an employee for that dive. All I had to do was be the first and last in the water--other than that, it was exactly what it would have been for me as a customer. I was happy to do it, and I got a discount on the dive.

Had something similar happen on local dive charter, but I made sure my paid dive trip was now in credit for another trip and the EAN fills were free, having ran a diver charter in the past I would expect nothing less, look after the people that go out of their way for you.
Karma.

 

[100days-a-year]

I've found number of dives and time can mean 0 if it's all easy, shallow, or training dives. Some people are great divers immediately and some never even get good.
Had a real live PADI instructor on my little boat lose no less than three pieces of gear by the time he got to the bottom and then swim in front of a cocked speargun in 105'. Great guy, just no experience other than being babysat on charters or teaching other in pools and springs.

My personal criteria are pretty tough as I was often either hiring guys or recommending yhem to other Captains. Don't want to send and idiot or worse yet have someone get hurt diving beyond their abilities.
Dive logs never enter the picture at all.

 

[The Chairman]

I dive for fun. Whether it's in a cave system, doing a technical dive, or just an easy dive, I'm out to enjoy myself. I don't do big dives with an instabuddy, so if we're in overhead, we already know each other. But if we're doing an easy dive, I don't care about your experiences or skills as much as I care about your attitude. It's even more important than if you wear your mask on your forehead or not. Without equivocation, your attitude is key to me enjoying myself on our dive.

I'm not kidding. You can tell me all the places you've been, about the classes where your instructor thought you were born diving, how deep, or long, or this, or that... but that don't impress me much. You can dive gold plated gear, dive what I dive or have a reg signed by Jackie Cou Stow... that don't impress me much, either.

Maybe you think you have the best SAC on the boat, can find the coolest creature or have the biggest camera rig? Meh. Are you here to impress me or to have fun? Are you trying to have the coolest gear, or are you here to have fun? Do you get your giggles laughing at the strokes? That don't impress me much either. If we're paired together, I'll probably just ask if we can be SOBs instead. I'm already pretty independent, and I must admit that I can have more fun diving by myself than with a prima diver.

But, and I don't care about the size of your butt, if you're here to have a blast and be a partner in the dive, then awesome. Let's splash. Who knows, you might be my next favorite dive buddy. Sass me all you want, because you know I'll be sassing you right back. Life is almost as short as our dves will be, so let's cut all the Tom Foolery and have some fun. We may never dive this way again.

 

[Esprise Me]

I showed my log to the dive shop when I enrolled in the solo course to prove I had the requisite 100+ dives. I probably won't ever have to show it again. But I like keeping it. It helps me learn the names of the critters if I write them down once I figure out what they are. My handwritten logs are full of entries like "saw a weird [size/shape/color/other descriptors] thing, ID needed," and then sideways notes in the margins added later with the name. I also like to note my mistakes or failures, whether it's forgetting to hook up my inflator hose or getting knocked down in the surf, but also my successes. For beach dives, I note tide and surf in relation to how I did on entry and exit. I keep track of my SAC rate and any factors I think might have affected it, things I liked or disliked about the boat I was diving on, seasickness, whether I was navigating and how I did with that, even how easy or difficult it was to find parking. I note the time we planned to meet as well as the time the dive started, to get a sense of how long it really takes to get out there. I have a total dive count but also sub-counts for beach dives, drysuit dives, night dives, and dives deeper than 60 feet. I'm thinking I should start tracking solo dives as well.

Keeping these notes helps me remember what I learn, but it also gives me a sense of my progress. For the first 100 or so dives, I felt like I was improving significantly with every dive. After that, the progress started to get a little murkier. Sometimes I failed at something I'd succeeded at before and felt bad about it. But writing it down helped make it feel less like a failure than a lesson. I have a buddy who's very intensely pursuing GUE Tech 1; he did something like 400 dives in his first two years. He likes to say that he's trying to make all the mistakes now, while he's doing rec dives, so they won't kill him before he learns from them. I like that perspective.

 

[Centrals]

You don't judge the book by its cover!
Cannot hide your ability/inability under water.

 

[Pressurehead]

Oh, but you do see the divers showing off underwater, one guy last year ' with all the smick gear' ,told me all the tech courses he has done, dived caves, wrecks and exotic places etc etc, he was good, in perfect trim the whole dive looking smug, don't know how much he saw on that dive going up and down a wall and drifting, if I wanted to stay horizontal I would have stayed in bed, probably thought ' who is this goose diver ?', Me, I am having fun looking at stuff, slow a steady, old enough to be his grandfather and using a regulator older than him.
I did do good trim at 5m not hold the line like him though, ah, ego, youth is wasted on the young.
Just because you are going through the water looking like a ballet dancer having fun, does not mean you can't do the 'horizontal kicking like a frog' stuff also.
Have fun, life is too short.
Edit: Usual typos and spelling.

 

[Ayisha]

Great Lakes: Unsalted and Shark Free

We might have minimal marine life, but the awesome wrecks more than make up for it, IMO.

The cute sturgeon make up for it too.

 

[hedonist222]

I wouldn't say number of dives or hours is a good indicator of experience.
I wouldn't even say average SAC or de rigueur when setting up gear are good indicators.

This is because I know a few divers who do about fifty dives a year. Some are even Rescue Divers or MSDs.
But these fifty dives are in very easy, calm, reasonably shallow areas.

With fifty dives a year, you're probably very apt at setting up your gear and diving in the same calm sites over and over - you'll naturally have a low SAC rate.

Its hard to determine.

 

[Marie13]

The cute sturgeon make up for it too.

Haven’t come across a sturgeon, but I’ve seen burbot a number of times.