Mandatory Dive Time per Dive ?

[SilverNU]

Is there a minimum Dive Time for a dive to be considered...well... a dive?

20 min?
10 min?

any at all?

 

[DevonDiver]

In reality, you can log whatever you want... your log book is your record of your experiences in the water.

However, with PADI, to count a dive towards any minimum dive requirement for training courses, a dive is defined as:

"4. For training purposes, an open water dive is a dive during which a student
diver spends the majority of time at a depth of at least 5 metres/15 feet and:
a. breathes at least 1400 litres or 50 cubic feet of compressed gas.
OR
b. remains submerged for at least 20 minutes."

 

[tstormdiver]

Yes,... the above is true. Why only do those minimums? I personally much prefer quality over quantity. I know of 1 diver, just to get his dive count up, would drop down 15 ft for 20 min., come up for 10 min. & then repeat. Sure,.... he was getting at least 6- 7 dives/ day. But with doing that, he didn't really do anything. Just dropped down did his minimum time & came back up. No training or practice. Pretty useless if you ask me. When I dive, I try to make the most of every dive, whether for fun, practice or training. I will be the first to admit that some of my best & most memorable dives have been in water less than 10 ft deep.

 

[Straegen]

The PADI one is pretty good. I think an entry/exit dives would be required for me to count a single cylinder as multiple dives.

 

[DevonDiver]

If you surfaced, then you should be planning any further descents as separate dives in respect of tables/RDP. Likewise, dive computers will log further descents after a pre-set time on the surface.

If the dive was planned or recorded (dive computer) as a separate dive...then it makes sense to log it as such, regardless of entry/exit from water.

 

[JKPAO]

Dive= Any time you Leave the surface, breathe air or gas under water, and return to the surface!

Now qualifying what is "time"??? ...... some groups will say "it has to be this long" and I recall

somre will require a minimal depth.

See you topside! John

 

[Guba]

The above definition of a dive is accurate and reasonable and should be acceptable for logging dives. The practice of "plunging" just to raise one's dive count is ridiculous, at best.

That said, I fall back on a mantra we've heard many times here on the boards..."It's YOUR log book. Record anything you want. It's primary function is to become a resource to help you learn and plan dives better in the future, not impress someone with your vast store of experiences. As for WHAT to log, that's up to you. For example, one of my logs is a "dive" on which I never got more than three feet under the surface, and the whole episode was over in less than ten minutes. "Not a REAL dive," cry the scuba police? Trust me, I learned more in that short time than in 100 other "normal" dives, and it had life-changing implications for me. The idea that I should not log it or count it as a "dive", to me, is ludicrous. Our logs are records of our diving experiences and they should serve as reminders of what we should do (or not do) as we plan our next dives. My best advice is to downplay hard-and-fast "rules" concerning what makes a dive and simply log what feels comfortable for you.l

 

[natew]

I think the PADI rules are a good start but I also think that there should be an allowance for logging anything significant that happens regardless of dive length or any other factors. For instance if a dive is called five minutes into it because or an equipment failure or some other potentially hazardous condition because that shows more than any other dive that you stayed within your limits, within your training, and responded appropriately and is probably the best practice of your dive training you could get.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Yes,... the above is true. Why only do those minimums? I personally much prefer quality over quantity. I know of 1 diver, just to get his dive count up, would drop down 15 ft for 20 min., come up for 10 min. & then repeat. Sure,.... he was getting at least 6- 7 dives/ day. But with doing that, he didn't really do anything. Just dropped down did his minimum time & came back up. No training or practice. Pretty useless if you ask me. When I dive, I try to make the most of every dive, whether for fun, practice or training. I will be the first to admit that some of my best & most memorable dives have been in water less than 10 ft deep.

I've seen that a couple times. As for why ... these are people who are in a hurry to go from just-certified to DM or Instructor, and need to "get their numbers up".

They've kinda missed the whole point of why those numbers exist in the first place ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I think the PADI rules are a good start but I also think that there should be an allowance for logging anything significant that happens regardless of dive length or any other factors. For instance if a dive is called five minutes into it because or an equipment failure or some other potentially hazardous condition because that shows more than any other dive that you stayed within your limits, within your training, and responded appropriately and is probably the best practice of your dive training you could get.

This is a good point.

Let's keep things in perspective ... the PADI rules define a dive for training purposes. What a diver does outside of the class is really up to the diver. The agency only defines the dive limits in order to give the instructor some guidelines within which to conduct a class.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)