Milestone Dive Traditions

[DennisC]

I recently dove with someone who was diving his 49th dive and we were talking about funny things people do/ are told to do when the reach different milestones (50, 100 dives, etc). So lets hear them!

the first one I heard was dive naked at 100 dives and I have also heard of people having to chug a beer through a snorkel but i cant remember the reason

 

[Doc]

... and I have also heard of people having to chug a beer through a snorkel but i cant remember the reason

And a "reason" is "required", why?

 

[Mustard Dave]

The most common one I hear is doing your 100th dive in the buff.  As mine was in North Wales during April, I passed on that one.

 

[Yoyoguy]

And a "reason" is "required", why?

Doc...I think it's all in good fun! Yes some people might not take diving serious enough (unsafe) but ultimately diving is for the FUN of it or else why bother? So I can see what the OP is saying. Milestones, especially 100 dives, is pretty cool. Why NOT celebrate it with some silly tradition? Just my two cents.

 

[Mustard Dave]

Doc...I think it's all in good fun! Yes some people might not take diving serious enough (unsafe) but ultimately diving is for the FUN of it or else why bother? So I can see what the OP is saying. Milestones, especially 100 dives, is pretty cool. Why NOT celebrate it with some silly tradition? Just my two cents.

I think Doc was making a little joke, i.e. 'who needs any reason whatsoever to chug beer?'!

 

[knotical]

When I first heard about the 100^th dive naked I assumed they were just trying to find someone gullible enough to do it. I still think that.

 

[DennisC]

And a "reason" is "required", why?

Lol no reason is a great reason to drink! It seems like naked is the only thing people do. I don't know anyone who had actually done that I was hoping there would be some funnier traditions

 

[Doc]

I think Doc was making a little joke, i.e. 'who needs any reason whatsoever to chug beer?'!

Bingo. It must be a PADI thing as there's a schnorkel required. Seems to be a DM graduation phenomenon, involving a funnel on the end of that otherwise useless tube.

To celebrate Y2K, we did a midnight dive on the Wreck of the Prince Albert at CocoView in Roatan. There was an assembly line process for commemorative photographs- they ran maybe 20 dive buddy pairs thru while outfitting each with the appropriate party hats and a champagne bottle with glasses.

After the crowd disappated, we popped the cork at 35fsw. This became "problematic" which is a word that means "an automatic problem". We were relieved that our dive computers continued with no Y2K bugs.

As to diving naked, a very agreeable (and spectaculaly fun to look at) GF did this for my Nikonos II camera way back when. Weightlessness makes certain things look different, plus there's that magnified underwater thing. She reported that no fish nibbling effect was observed.

Some other reliable sources tell me that a dive buddy team can do other things underwater to celebrate.... or just 'cuz. Some readers may know "Cliff the Party Pirate" and this should help establish the veracity of the source. It goes back to the 80's, but I think his methodology is still quite sound- it involved over inflating BCs while inside the fuselage of a shallow DC3 wreck which provided an overhead environment.

Youth, wasted on the young.

 

[Remy B.]

My milestone will be to reach 100m depth with OC, then make 10 of them is possible. long way to go and lot of school and dive time to reach that.

 

[g1138]

Ahh yes, the age old chug a beer through a snorkel tradition.
Why you ask? Because someone handed you a beer and you were wearing a snorkel!

Deviating a little, how about End-of-Job Milestones?
Last day of the Dive Shop job break a harmless rule like:
- jumping in the rinse bucket and proclaim you're peeing (though if you're being kind, lie that you're actually peeing)
- Scrubbing the shower-locker-change room floor with shampoo instead of bleach, so it's clean AND smells nice!
- Rearrange your tech's peg board (lightly, mind you)
- Put a BC, mask, & snorkel on the shop dog and proclaim to the owner "Your mutt is a terrible diver! He's panicking all the time!"
- Spend the day as Marshmellow Man in the rental drysuit. Then jump in the rinse bucket and proclaim you're peeing.


Or the real traditional End of Dive Shop Job Tradition: Chug a beer through a snorkel!
Because reasons.