What constitutes a dive?

[knfmn]

I'm very new, but I was taught 20 minutes/20 feet. Having said that, I wouldn't log pool dives (Except Nemo, of course ), but would log OW dives, even if they are shallower than 20 feet. I went diving in the harbor in Salem, MA yesterday and we barely hit 20 feet, but it was a good dive and instructional.

Kristopher

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I'm very new, but I was taught 20 minutes/20 feet. Having said that, I wouldn't log pool dives (Except Nemo, of course ), but would log OW dives, even if they are shallower than 20 feet. I went diving in the harbor in Salem, MA yesterday and we barely hit 20 feet, but it was a good dive and instructional.

Kristopher

I used to live in Salem (about a block from the college) ... that was before I learned to dive. Someday I gotta get back out there and go exploring the Cape Ann to Marblehead coastline ... I got a feeling it's a lot like Puget Sound ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[fire_diver]

Anytime you gear up, go under and breath compressed gas it's a dive. If you come back to the surface in good order it's a good dive.

What you record in your logbook is for your own benefit and nobody elses. If you want to call laying face down in the bathtub a dive, that's up to you. I don't even wear my computer (which is my defacto dive logger) when in the pool.

I may spend half an hour or more at 10-15 feet practicing skills and bouyancy (because this is the hardest area to maitain depth in). I typically record these dives to make notes of weight changes, problems, or success I had on the dive.

 

[Cave Diver]

The Florida caves is warm water diving, to my concern ... I can stay in two hours easy in my thinnest undergarment. Then again, I'm built like a harbor seal.

Water temp here is 44 degrees F right now ... and with the rains bringing the snowmelt down out of the mountains, it's even colder above about 20 feet.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

We've done a few dives in those kinda temps and averaged about 45 minutes. But those are the types of temps we typically experience and have to travel to find them. If I'm going to do that, I prefer to head for the other end of the scale.

 

[RTee]

Do not recall reading specific numbers but I have heard some folks mentioning certain minimum depth, duration and environment. I am quite certain that if you want to sign up for courses requiring minimum number of dives, instructors will frown if as part of your bare minimums you are counting pool dives when they expect open water experience.

Having said that, if you have not dove for a while and do a refresher prior going on a diving trip, in all likelihood, especially if conducted in the northern US or Canada during the winter months, it will be conducted in a pool. I think it is then prudent to capture it somewhere so you do have a proof of some sort. Same same if DO wants a proof of a dive within the last six months...it may very well be a pool dive recorded somewhere. I cannot think of a better place than a logbook to record it.

Duration...if we were to adhere to a minimum of 1 hour, most logbooks would be very thin. First trip to Cozumel, dives were restricted to 45 mins by operator...350.00 later and no entries...lol. Tethered ice diving...you can only do so many things at the end of a 100 ft cable and in cold water. Most beginners and those who are not too frugal when it comes to air consumption might never be able to log a single dive unless they remain well within 30 ft and or dive with large capacity single tanks or doubles.

 

[Cave Diver]

Duration...if we were to adhere to a minimum of 1 hour, most logbooks would be very thin. First trip to Cozumel, dives were restricted to 45 mins by operator...350.00 later and no entries...lol.

Just to re-iterate, that is the standard that we use for "loggable dives." I'm not suggesting anyone else needs to use that standard. We believe that time in the water is much more important than number of dives, and I'd guess I've easily got 3x the number of hours underwater than I do number of dives.

Of course I've also seen someone preparing to take a DM course who would do 5 or 6 twenty minute dives a day just so they could up their dive count for the class. Not my thing.

 

[h90]

Well I made the Rescue Diver and asked the PADI instructor if I should count a few minute dives as dives:
Yes: that are dives and should be logged as dives.

A couple of month later I was at an island with very simple shallow dives and strangely they wanted to see my log book.
The instructor (PADI) there almost killed me that I log so short dives (like I am lying about my experience) (the dives there were 15 meter (45 feet) max, warm water, no currency etc etc).
Well they were silent when they saw my deeper 47 meter deco dives in cold water with the stamps of the dive shop (not PADI).

My recommendation: Don't care what any muppet is telling: Log what is important to you like:
a) I dive 5 times down to 15 meter to see if the boat is on the right spot: I would not log it.
b) I dive down to 5 meter and see a pink dolphin/rescue the captains glasses/find out that I am underweighted even I took the same amount of weight like always: I would log it.

But your ideas might be total different than mine....the logbook is for you not for the anyone else. A friend (Instructor) stopped logs at 6000 dives. He told me he dive every day on the same spots....pointless to log that...

 

[jar546]

I commend Cave Diver's group for raising the bar so high. It works for them and I don't believe that any of us are in a rush to race to see who has the most dives.

As I had stated in other threads in the past, the number of dives to me can almost be meaningless if there is nothing learned or no real experience and a very short dive. I believe that it is what you accomplish that makes a dive important enough to log. I think that time under water is more important than number of dives. Talk to CCR guys about this.

If there is a specific standard from the different organizations, I would like to know as I am simply curious to see how the different training organizations define a dive as loggable.

 

[The Chairman]

Count what you want to count. Don't count what you don't want to count. Me? I count memories, not dives.

However, this reminds me of a trip to Hudson Grotto a number of years ago. The grotto goes to 140 feet if you can find the rabbit hole, but most of it is around 120 ish. There are two (three?) platforms with one at 20 ft. It's a coolish DARK water dive until you get to 80 feet where you hit about a ten foot layer of sulfer water and below that it's crystal clear salt water and its WARM. It's a neat dive site with a lot of nooks, crannies, fossils and junk to look at.

So, we came up from our dive to see a couple of sets of gear in the water. After lunch, we noticed that the gear had moved. After our second dive we met the two intrepid owners of the gear as they were about to descend. How were their dives, I asked... they were boring as they were being spent on the 20 platform, 20 minutes at a time. WHY??? It seems that they were "working" on their Dive Master and had to accrue a certain number of dives. I still smile and shake my head when I think about it.

 

[Cave Diver]

Of course I've also seen someone preparing to take a DM course who would do 5 or 6 twenty minute dives a day just so they could up their dive count for the class. Not my thing.

How were their dives, I asked... they were boring as they were being spent on the 20 platform, 20 minutes at a time. WHY??? It seems that they were "working" on their Dive Master and had to accrue a certain number of dives. I still smile and shake my head when I think about it.

I'm sensing a theme here...