What makes you an experienced diver?

[USVet96]

Yes and no. I agreed with what Thal said earlier. It's easy to miss-assess your capabilities for as long as nothing goes wrong. Nothing goes wrong in 99.9% of dives. Thus, it's incredibly easy to over-estimate how good you are.

Getting to the surface safely - regardless of any unplanned issues - is the mark of an experienced diver.

Nothing should be "out of a divers' control" - if they are properly trained, practised and have the experience to deal with it.

The mark of a good diver is how they deal with the unforeseen, rather than their performance on a 'perfect' dive.

As a military guy - I am sure you can appreciate the difference between performance on a staged training exercise and performance under fire. The first does not guarantee the later. Who'd you rate as more experienced, the guy with 10 years of peacetime soldiering in barracks at home, or the guy with a couple of active tours under his belt? The same applies to diving.

Devon - Were saying the SAME thing, I just didn't spell it ALL out. What I stated was that you should be able to get to the surface safely EVERY time. The part I mentioned about the "unless something happens beyond your control" what meant to convey that you should NEVER have something happen underwater that could have been prevented. You should not have an equipment failure because you should check your gear at ALL times to ensure that it is "clean, dry, and serviceable" at a moments notice. If something does happen underwater even when this is performed diligently, then I consider that out of your control. The statement was made with the presumption that even if THIS happens than you STILL should be able to get the surface safely. I was implying that the equipment failure, or something else entirely, may happen that has zero to do with the diver or their abilities. And when things like this DO happen, which inevitably they WILL lol, you need to be able to get to the surface, even with all this going on.

We were definitely saying the same thing but I prefaced the statement with understood commonalities of an experienced diver - mainly being able to get safely to the surface withntheir buddy at ALL times (DESPITE, or in accordance with rather) irregardless of unforeseen or unplanned emergency equipment failures or Murphy's Law playing games with you

How's that Sir

 

[USVet96]

As a military guy - I am sure you can appreciate the difference between performance on a staged training exercise and performance under fire. The first does not guarantee the later. Who'd you rate as more experienced, the guy with 10 years of peacetime soldiering in barracks at home, or the guy with a couple of active tours under his belt? The same applies to diving.

And I AGREE 100% with this !!

There is NO SUBSTITUTE for the real thing - in either scenario. I have not had any real world diving emergencies (thank god lol) but I do have several real world tours during war time. And I can tell you 1st hand there is nothing like it, and nothing to prepare you for it.

That being said, we did about as much scheming and preparation FOR war that any man can. And when the call came to deploy, we were as ready as we could hve ever been. But that preparation wasn't accomplished over night, and it wasn't accomplished without thousands of hours training and drilling. We were so in tune with our gear, our responsibilities, and our team (buddies) that we KNEW we would be able to handle and manage. We didn't think and act during conflict, we responded with controlled actions driven by muscle memory and training. We did what we were trained and taught to do. We didn't think, we just did. Our bodies just did what our minds told them to do, and our minds did what our training told them to do, and our training by that time was second nature so we trusted in it, trusted in each other, and trusted in our gear.

Got a little off topic there sorry. Sometimes I get a little too fired up !!

 

[TMHeimer]

If a diver considers him/herself experienced there could be a tendency to slacken off a bit on safety, or not be as concerned when diving a new site/conditions. Statistics often don't mean much, but I have read that the biggest % of accidents occur with newbies and those with much experience--including instructors. Devon Diver points out that you can go a long while without anything serious happening. I have had a couple of nervous moments with cramps and currents, but nothing real serious yet (knock wood). In DM class our instructor asked if we now would think differently about diving/dive planning now that we know all the theory. I thought "No. I took it all dead seriously when learning about stuff like DCS, table planning, OOA, etc. in OW class". I try to always look at any dive, familiar or not, as serious business-- as if it were my first time after OW class. I hope I don't vary from that. I often look at the ocean from our house and think I've been on the bottom out there, and I'm still alive. My mother told us as kids to never (well almost never, I guess) fear the ocean (lake, etc.), but always respect it.

 

[HowardE]

¹ex·pe·ri·ence

noun \ik-ˈspir-ē-ən(t)s\

Definition of EXPERIENCE

1
a : direct observation of or participation in events as a basis of knowledgeb : the fact or state of having been affected by or gained knowledge through direct observation or participation

2
a : practical knowledge, skill, or practice derived from direct observation of or participation in events or in a particular activityb : the length of such participation <has 10 years'experience in the job>

3
a : the conscious events that make up an individual lifeb : the events that make up the conscious past of a community or nation or humankind generally

4
: something personally encountered, undergone, or lived through

5
: the act or process of directly perceiving events or reality

Examples of EXPERIENCE

• The best way to learn is by experience.
• We need someone with experience.
• She gained a lot of experience at that job.
• I know that from personal experience.
• She has five years' experience as a computer programmer.
• He wrote about his experiences as a pilot.
• That experience is one I'd rather forget!
• She had a frightening experience.
• Human experience is the ultimate source and justification for all knowledge. Experience itself has accumulated in human memory and culture, gradually producing the methods of intelligence called “reason” and “science.” —John Shook, Free Inquiry, April/May 2008

With that out of the way... Experience in diving comes like experience in anything. Experienced means just that. Are you a sage or wise one who knows how to handle all situations? I doubt there's but a small handful of divers who could do their first ice dive as easily as their 1000'th warm water dive, but it's entirely possible.

Experienced divers for the sake of your "ScubaBoard Title" doesn't mean more than you have experience as a diver. Not "I am experienced in all facets of diving"

Obviously the diver with 5000 dives is experienced at diving in general, even if they've never done a single cold water dive. The learning curve for an experienced person (one would expect) should be considerably shorter than that of a novice. When I made my first dry suit dive (after having 250 dives in general)... my adaptation to dry suit diving was quite easy, whereas the guy with 10 dives who learns to dive a drysuit could be a trainwreck. ALso for example... the first time I dived doubles, I had almost 500 dives. It was no big deal, but again... the guy with 20 dives might think differently.

If you truly believe you are experienced, you probably are to some extent. It doesn't make you conceited. It doesn't mean you know EVERYTHING or are unwilling to learn more. It just means you have experience. One would expect that it's more often the more experienced divers who know when a dive is beyond their experience level (or training level) and enter into some of those situations with caution... unfortunately there is a fine line between macho and experience.

Dive safely.

 

[DaMaDo]

Here's the two ways I see it:

One is that the diving techniques/practices for your area become second nature to where, if something happens, you can deal with the problem. -Since you don't have to think about buoyancy control etc, you have more situational awareness to deal with things that come up.

The other is that the valuable experience increases only when you actually have to deal with a problem pertaining to that activity.

Usually the more dives someone has, the more probability of them having had issues to deal with. Although issues in one diving location can be greatly different from those in another.

 

[Hank49]

So have we come up with the criteria for the "Experienced Diver" badge or card?

 

[Jax]

Never. Is Never good for you?

The more you dive, and the more places you dive, the more you'll realize what you have to learn . . .

 

[spectrum]

So have we come up with the criteria for the "Experienced Diver" badge or card?

It's a state of mind.

 

[Spazzy]

You're an experienced diver when you can lead an expedition to an unknown and remote location to achieve an objective.

 

[drbill]

After nearly 50 years and thousands of dives, I feel experienced... but mostly in kelp forests and tropical waters where I've done almost all my diving and at depths down to 200 ft (my basement depth). I don't feel experienced at all in waters with near zero vis or temperatures below 47 F, nor in doing any kind of penetration dive. Nor do I want to be experienced in those!