- Messages
- 19,586
- Reaction score
- 18,412
- Location
- Philadelphia and Boynton Beach
- # of dives
- 1000 - 2499
So for this poll to work we would need to define some skills and markers of proficiency and then cross reference them against no of dives needed per year to keep that level of proficiency.
The problem is (as already pointed out) that my idea of skills needed might be different than the skills of an OW diver, and even within my own range the skills depend on the dives I want to do (rec diving vs technical diving).
For me personally I would borrow the skill set of GUE Fundamentals as my baseline, since it's been the baseline for my diving for 10+ years. This means:
- Buoyancy: Hover without movement in mid water without sinking or rising.
- Trim: Without moving can keep my trim in a more or less horizontal position
- Finning: Able to use all appropriate propulsion and positioning finning techniques (frog, flutter, helicopter, backkick)
- Taskloading: Able to deploy an SMB from midwater without any effort and without losing buoyancy or trim.
- S-drill and Valve drill: able to perform these basic drills (S-drill proficiency in the souplesse and speed of the drill for V-drill check being able to still reach valves... mainly left post (shoulder operation... starts to get stiffer without use)).
For tech diving I would add other stuff...
The above I'm quite sure I will be able to do with a 1 year no dive hiatus, because it has become ingrained and as long as I don't change my gear, the platform will still be there. Only valve drill (left post) might need a bit of stretching (depending also on undergear).
Of course the skill set for an OW diver might be different, although in an ideal world it should be the same
Of course, the OP is @diverintheflesh. I would imagine criteria are somewhat differert