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In a message dated 10/3/01 11:08:01 AM Eastern Daylight Time, jimholcomb@x-*.co* writes: > Here's some numbers from a lurker - I've got a little over <snip> Jim, et al, Logged dives numbers can be really misleading and are not, IMHO, a reliable indicator of skill and/or experience. If a diver claims 1000 dives, but those dives are typically only 20 minutes in duration, it doesn't really amount to a lot of experience. In contrast, someone like you that does a fair share of cave diving will frequently log dives of 60 to 90 minutes duration, may easily match or exceed the total underwater experience of a 1000 dive diver with 300 or so dives. Compare a 1000 dives on a reef or in a quarry to 200 or 300 dives on deeper wrecks or in caves and there's a vast difference in the quality of the experience as well. Similarly, a single dive to 450 fsw or 12,000 feet back in a cave doesn't necessarily mean much either. Anyone can get lucky once, possibly even 2 or 3 times. Frankly I'd be more impressed with the diver that consistently logs dives in the 100 fsw to 200 fsw range, in quantities of 75 or more dives per year. Now granted, someone that consistently does dives deeper than 250 fsw and/or frequently makes penetrations more than 5000 feet in length on a regular basis definately is demonstrating a level of accomplishment worthy of respect. But an occassional foray past such limits may be as much luck as skill. Personally, I like long bottom times while avoiding rediculously long hangs in the open ocean environment. As such, I have little desire to go much beyond 250 fsw and, having nothing to prove by doing so, haven't bothered to so far. I probably haven't been much more than 2000 or 3000 ft. from open water in any overhead environment. My dive log shows in excess of 1100 dives, how many I've failed to log is anyone's guess. I don't even own a scooter. If that makes me less of a diver, oh well. If someone wants to impress me with dives logged, deepest dive or longest penetration, good luck. I am not that easily impressed by dog and pony shows. Bob D. owner-NCtechdivers@sportdiverhq.com www.SportDiverHQ.com -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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