What constitutes a dive?

[Rochester_Smitty]

I am new to diving and have been reading about the certification process as well as advanced certifications. I have a couple of questions.

What constitutes a dive? Is a day of diving considered a dive or is there another benchmark?

Are types of diving (lake, quarry, etc) regarded higher or lower for experience than others?

Thanks!!

 

[miked]

Interesting questions.

I've heard "at least 15 feet for at least 15 minutes" or "10 for 10", or "either 10 ft OR 10 minutes" as the minimumthat qualifies as being a "dive", but I don't 100% agree.
Other sayings that I've heard-but I agree with even less than the above: "another tank, another dive", "the number of safety stops = the number of dives".

The experience gained from virtually any type "dive" can be helpful, if properly used. IMO some type diving, for example cold water, dark water, deep water, fast moving water, etc., can provide experience/challenges that may not occur in warm, clear, shallow, minimal current dives. Obviously anything "tec" or "deco" could add to the experience given by, or required for, a "dive".

Another factor that might differentiate experience gained would be the need for navigation, and how easy it would be to become lost when back at the surface (e.g. a small pond vs. an ocean.)

As with so many things in diving, especially here on SB, YMMV.

Good luck with your future dives!

 

[Colliam7]

What constitutes a dive? Is a day of diving considered a dive or is there another benchmark?

One definition, offered by one agency, would be: '. . . divers spend the majority of time at 15 feet or greater, and breathe at least 50 cubic feet of compressed gas or remain submerged for at least 20 minutes.'

Are types of diving (lake, quarry, etc) regarded higher or lower for experience than others?

I don't think the perceived value of a dive, as far as experience goes, is so much a matter of 'higher' or 'lower', as it is having diversity of experience in diving - e.g. fresh water and salt water, good visibility and poor visibility, cold water and warm water. Certainly, if there are perceptions, there is probably not universal agreement on their validity.

There are plenty of 'discussions' on SB about the subject. Dedicated CA divers may perceive diving off the west coast in colder water, in kelp forests to be a 'higher' level of diving, while northeast wreck divers might consider diving off the NE coast in cold, dark water with substantial current to be a 'higher' level. Still others might consider diving in a fresh water quarry with 2ft of visibility and 45 degree water temperatures to be 'higher'. The bottom line is that every dive that you make, to the limits of your training and experience, can be considered as 'higher' for the individual diver.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

This should be explained clearly in your OW class. Once that is over you pretty much determine what is a dive. I have seen people helping out in courses that said if the computer reset it's a dive no matter what the duration of it. As they were logging 4 dives of 3 minutes each during a rescue class. I don't dive with people like that if at all possible.

The only thing I don't count is pool dives as official dives. I used to keep a separate log for those just for training purposes to remember issues students had and how we dealt with them.

There are times when doing training dives such as during an underwater nav course I will have the student surface to take or verify a heading with a landmark. Then go back down and resume the swim. That's still one dive not two. If I'm going to set the float or check conditions I don't log it as a separate dive unless it truly is one. Such as setting the float before students get there and using the time to work on a skill or check something out and I'm down for 20 minutes.

The 15 for 15 is not a bad rule and will work for many people. But it's what you want to call a dive that matters and what info you want to log. Remember that your log can come in handy years from now should you change gear, return to a site that you have not been to for a long time, or need to know what weight you need in cold water with steel LP95 and dry suit after you've been just diving warm water on vacation for the last two years. It'll give you a starting point.

Note that falling in a puddle, baths (even with your mask and a pony tank and reg), and running or walking in really heavy rainstorms are not dives. No matter what the guy trying to sell you your DM course tells you to get enough logged dives in to start it and pay your $500 or whatever it is to him/her.

 

[KeithG]

What constitutes a dive? Is a day of diving considered a dive or is there another benchmark?

Every time you don your gear and jump in the water is a dive. So a "day" of diving often involves multiple dives (up to 5 on a live aboard).

Some dives can be very short - you decide to abort the dive in the first few minutes because your dive buddy is experiencing ear pain. Some can become very long - you stop a shallow Bonaire dive after 90 minutes because you are getting hungry.

I am ignoring pool sessions where you are simply checking out some new gear. No fish to see, not a dive.

In general there are no scuba police, so you are free to make up your own rules about it being a "real" dive.

BUT: during training, your instructor does act as the scuba police and they sign off on each of your dives. So they get to decide if it was a real dive.

 

[Peter Guy]

To the OP -- A "dive" is what YOU want it to be, that is all. HOWEVER, and maybe this is your real question, What does "X" agency call a "dive?" That depends on the individual agency.

For example, PADI has some classes where you must show "Y" number of "dives" before you can do "Z" thus PADI will set the rules as to what constitutes a dive. (The 20 minutes with an avg depth greater than 15 feet is part of that definition.)

OTOH, for me, now that I have a few dives under my belt and don't need to use some agency's definition, I use the general rule that a dive is any time I descend, swim around and come up for my FINAL ascent. So, if I'm working with students, I may make several descents/swim arounds/ascents but that will be only 1 dive. In general, if I have a surface interval (on the boat or on the shore) that will define a dive (but not always).

My shortest dive was about 90 seconds -- and so many things went wrong within those 90 seconds that I logged it. As it happened, the whole "dive experience" that day was about 6 hours, with about 90 seconds under water! This was a totally star crossed day and deserved a special place in my diving history.

So, a dive FOR YOU is what you want it to be.

 

[2905luvsbubbles]

As has been said, the certification agencies set specifics for a dive, typically a depth below 15 feet and 15 to 20 minutes of time. As all have said, a dive is what you declare it. Each descent and ascent can teach you things, however, typically being under water for a couple of minutes would not count as a dive, unless there was a valid reason to call it a dive. The real issue becomes who is looking at your log book. If you have to show your log book to go on a dive boat, they probably aren't going to count a 5 minute dive, yet if in that dive the water temp was 36 and your reg free flowed, you gained some valuable experience and I would definitely call it a dive. I log my dives more so I can remember the different configurations and weighting. And yet when I am working with students I may have a whole lot of ups and downs. I really like the definition Peter Guy used of completing a final ascent.

 

[tracydr]

If I learned something important, I will log the dive. Otherwise, I generally go with the 15/15 and Peter's final ascent rule.
No padding of logbooks just to get the total number of dives up,though. Although, I went past those numbers long before I ever decided that I wanted to pursue something like DM,anyway,

 

[icechip]

I have been helping a fellow diver do mooring + search/recovery work in our local bay. So I sort of combine the term "dive" with the "Job" that we are doing. Some times the depth is less than 15 feet and the recovery of the dropped item or the mooring chain cleaning or replacement is relatively quick (some times not). But the "job" (and hence the "dive") is concluded. So I like the final ascent rule mentioned above.

 

[Dive Bug Bit Me]

I take the view that if I am breathing off a regulator under water I am diving.

Some have been short, some have been long.
Some have been deep, some have been shallow.

When I stop breathing off the regulator, then the dive ended.

Sometimes for log book purposes, I combine multiple shorter dives into one entry. Just seems like a waste of space otherwise.

For log book purposes, I don't bother with pool dives.