Unrepresentative profile "logged dive" numbers?

[northernone]

I'm curious the reason for those scubaboard members who choose not to display number of dives which correspond with the number of dives they have been on in their user info? Some say 50-100 but have been instructors for a decade (for example).

I didn't log for years, so when I started logging for certification purposes I logged it as dive #1 and counted from there. I now do not maintain a detailed log but my dive computers keeps track of my dive count/profile for me. I trust their numbers and use that added to my paper and other computer totals. As my dives get longer (3-4hrs mainly) the dive count has slowed but I'm still actively diving.

Anyone else?
Cameron

 

[Bert van den Berg]

Hi Cameron,

Logging dives in a log book has it's pros and cons. It's also a bit tedious. Many if us logged dives to a point and then stopped doing so. Me, because I'm lazy and after several thousand dives couldn't be bothered anymore.

It's probably only important to people starting out or those genuinely interested in keeping track for future dives or wanting to achieve some goal.

 

[charlier]

Cam - I am a bit lazy logging dives. That said, I will log a dive(s) at a new site. I mostly include site specific topographic features, entry and exits depending on the tides, current, or lunar cycle, health of corals, diversity of fish, macro (I know that I have limitations with respect to small critters), safety related thoughts on the dive, time of day, water temps... I draw generalized map of the site, with arrows delineating current, possible down currents, entry and exit, etc.

 

[Bob DBF]

I don't have a number because I honestly don't know how many dives I have, and rather than make up a number I brushed it off. I started logging dives three times so far, the first sank, the second, started years later, was lost in a move and the ones I have now are from when I finally bought a dive computer, it may last as long as I dive, but all three started at 1.

I never needed to show a complete log for anything, so the number of dives is only of limited interest. After I had a "lot" of dives the number becomes meaningless, especially when I see a diver much better than I will ever be, with a fraction of the dives. The only dive logs I would actually like to have now are from the "Tech" dives I did back in the '60's.

Besides it doesn't take a huge average number of dives a year over 55 years to add up to a significant number.



Bob

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Number of dives doesn’t always mean much here. How many people come through SB and create some sort of internet persona that is not really a true representation if who they are, their experience level, and number of dives?
I’m confident that most people here do tell the truth, and then there are those that take it very literally (the ones that have been diving forever but just recently started logging dives, so they put 0-24 *logged* dives).

Then there is the fact that not all dives are created equal, but a number is a number.
Someone who only dives bunny slope dives on the nicest days in the tropics can have the same amount of logged dives as someone who does deep dark cold demanding dives that take every fiber of their body and mind to the max.
I know an instructor with over 6000 dives in Hawaii doing OW check out dives with tourists from a boat. Are these the same as someone doing all their dives from shore in a 7mm wetsuit, hiking tanks, going through the surf, fighting surge and current, dealing with heavy gear, all for two dives and being exhausted at the end of the day?

 

[Altamira]

It is the quality of the advice given, and not so much the number of dives someone displays in their profiles, that is important to me when reading posts. It did not take me long to know whose posts merit my attention and whose do not.

 

[scubadiver888]

I actually not sure how many dives I have logged. I had over 100 when I went to get my Divemaster certification. Then I lost my dive logbooks (I didn't have a computer back then). Since then I've had 4 different computers. I sold 3 of them and never bothered to see how many I had on them. I could guess but why bother? Whenever I'm at a dive club or on a dive trip I chat up my fellow divers and see who sounds like they might have a similar SAC rate and dive experience.

 

[Lorenzoid]

To anyone who reads SB regularly, it's readily apparent who here has a lot of dives under their belt and why they might no longer find a "total number of dives" to be meaningful. Instructors, scientists, just plain old-timers. It's increasingly clearer to me why you people might choose not to display a number.

Only recently have I started to grasp the reasons why people who have obviously done many many dives stopped caring about the number at some point. I have been doing a lot more training dives, and I'm ambivalent about counting them in my total, so I err on the side of not counting them. I'm in the water every weekend lately, but what is the point of incrementing a dive count for yet another hour spent at 40 feet doing exactly the same dive I did last weekend? Likewise, the more I extend my limits, the more ambivalent I am about counting the "smaller" dives. So, the running total that I have long kept precise track of has gotten fuzzy and not been increasing very fast. Lately, I have been keeping track not of total number of "dives" but more of number of certain kinds of dives, or dives in certain gear configurations. As I have been learning to dive in a drysuit, I have been keeping track of number of hours diving with the suit, not number of dives. I believe I have seen rebreather divers track hours on their units. Track what's useful. Tracking some grand total number of dives makes sense in the beginning but becomes less and less meaningful. If you choose not to display some number on SB, I get it.

 

[scubadada]

So I have my dives and dive time, I think it means something, not exactly sure what

 

[diversteve]

I just like "I'm a Fish"...