# How many dives?



## marmidor (Mar 15, 2008)

I know that we have MANY experienced divers on pff so i figured I would ask the question/s

How many dives do you have under your belt?

What is you goal for dives per year? 

How deep have you gone? 

Do you spearfish? 

How long have you been diving?


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## Snatch it (Feb 17, 2009)

I have never been diving nor plan on it!!!! Hahaha


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## marmidor (Mar 15, 2008)

Snatch it said:


> I have never been diving nor plan on it!!!! Hahaha


Come on D!! You got to get over that fear!!


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## SubmariNole (Jul 9, 2011)

Got certified late last year with Kurtis and Gary at Dive Pros. Only got in 15 dives before the water got too cold for me. This year I will hopefully eclipse the 30 dive mark. I need to justify dropping $$ on my used Sunto dive computer. I do spearfish, but I prefer the Hawaiian sling over other style spearguns. Feels more primitive and they are quite fun. I mainly go after flounder as I like to just observe and video the Elusive and Rare Red Snapper. Plan on using my GoPro2 to video killing some lionfish too this year. This year should be good, hope everyone gets a chance to get wet.


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## SubmariNole (Jul 9, 2011)

Oh and deepest dive last year was 110 feet. Need to get back


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## Telum Pisces (Sep 27, 2007)

How many dives do you have under your belt? *Too many to count
*
What is you goal for dives per year? *As much as possible
*
How deep have you gone? *162
*
Do you spearfish? *Every Dive, Can't put the gun down. I feel naked without it.

*How long have you been diving? *Only about 6 years or so*


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## SaltAddict (Jan 6, 2010)

How many? Thousands

Goal? As many as time will allow

Spearfishing? Is there anything else in life

Deepest? 220

How long? 23 yrs

Current cert level? AN/DP

Cert goal? Advanced trimix


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## naclh2oDave (Apr 8, 2008)

How many?.... I honestly can't say, round about 200+

Goal?............ Not to stop

Spearfishing?. Seems the only reason to get into the water.

Deepest?....... 180? Is that the sand at the Tennico?

How long?...... Got certified in 1999, didn't really start diving until 2008 though.

Current level... Nitrox, basic

Cert goal........ Next goal would be rescue diver, ultimately?.. Rebreather.


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## no woryz (Oct 2, 2007)

How many?.... Between SAR & spearfishing probably 150-200+ last year & probably almost a couple thousand over my lifetime...

Goal?............ To go diving tomorrow...

Spearfishing?. Only when there arent any lobster around....

Deepest?....... 222' to the props on the "O"....

How long?...... Got certified in 1989....

Current level... Adv. trimix

Cert goal........ nah...I'm good....


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## WhackUmStackUm (Jan 31, 2010)

How many dives do you have under your belt? *1000+*
What is you goal for dives per year? *100. I hope to do 50 dives over 200' deep.*
How deep have you gone? *370'*
Do you spearfish? *Yes. However, I usually stick to trophy-sized fish.*
How long have you been diving? *Since 2002*
Current cert level? *Rebreather instructor, divemaster, rescue diver, rebreather advanced trimix diver, trimix blender*
Cert goal? *Hyperbaric chamber operator*


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## FelixH (Sep 28, 2007)

marmidor said:


> I know that we have MANY experienced divers on pff so i figured I would ask the question/s
> 
> How many dives do you have under your belt?


Not nearly enough.



> What is you goal for dives per year?


Goal is the same for every year: "More than last year" 

I think I was only able to get out about 4 or 5 times in the past couple years... I have to get my priorities straight and dive more!!!



> How deep have you gone?


Deeper than I should have. 



> Do you spearfish?


That's mainly why I dive.



> How long have you been diving?


Since about '06.


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## Clay-Doh (Oct 2, 2007)

Good post Wade!

*How many dives do you have under your belt?* The first year I was certified I was close to 300, and then just quite loging them after I filled up the little log book you get with your course books, and a ton of copys I made of a blank page. I was out 2 or 3 times a week weather permitting. Certified in 2005 I think it was

*What is you goal for dives per year?* Not a set number, just as many as possible, because I am much happier under the surface of the sea then on top. Love the feeling of being weightless (like an astronaut floating through space), and all the beautiful marine life and wrecks to see. Every dive, even on the same wrecks, is a brand new adventure, and like poppin my dive cherry all over. Madonna's "Like a Virgin" comes to mind.

*How deep have you gone?* Deepest has been 172' standing in the sand at the bottom of the Tennaco. Wrist computer reads deepest as 167'. So my feet have been 172', my heads only been 165' 11". Ha ha.

On the "O" I had been below the flight deck multiple times, and have some video from way back. Would ascend when I would start to feel narced. Some people get stupid and loose inhibitions (like some women who like to take there cloths off after a few drinks) and lose all caution. I get paranoid when I feel it (which I guess is good) and start anally checking my air/depth/air depth/accent rate/air again/depth...ha ha. 

For a while deepest had been at the "O" when a non-diving forum member asked me to go with him to dive with his out of state sister and brother-in-law on the "O. They told me they had been diving for 2 years, which turns out meant certified 2 years ago in a rock quarry and 2 dives since in shallow lakes. 

When we got to the top of the tower on one of the mooring buoys, I looked away for a couple seconds surveying the wreck, and when I turned around, she had let go of the rope, and lost control of her buoyancy and was sinking like a brick and drifting out over the sand in the kicking current. As she descended, she of course became more negative and descended faster. 

I immediately dumped all my air, grabbed my nose and started clearing, and kicked down to her as fast as I could, all the while thinking, "oh man, I'm going to see the sand at the O." 

By the time I made it to her and grabbed her we were at 160 something (been years and forgot exactly what my computer said max depth was). Got hold of her, fought the current and safely ascended her to first platform above the flight deck. Had her recompose (her eyes through her mask were big as saucers with panic), and then we made our accent to the boat. 

When she got on the boat and I came up behind her, both her ears were bleeding pretty good. Trip to Doctors and turns out she suffered some pretty extreme baro-trauma and would not be able to dive again for some time.

(Lesson for newly certified divers, my personal opinion (not that it matters) is that the cert courses and exercises don't focus nearly enough on buoyancy control. She's lucky she let herself get too negative, and only suffered baro-trauma, and not the opposite letting herself get to positive and shooting to the surface with much worse consequences. 

Most our dives around here are at least 80'. Your buoyancy changes greatly at different depths. Being trimmed out perfect at 30 feet down, you will be a brick at 80'. And vice-versa, being perfectly neutral at 80', you will be like a cork at 30'. As you descend, the air in your bc and trapped air in neoprene compress, making you more negative, and it progresses as you go deeper, and of course the opposite as you ascend. Your inflator and de-flator buttons are not elevator buttons to go up or down! They are to get you neutral for the depth you are currently at, and to make small adjustments every 10 feet or so in depth change, to again get yourself neutral. Your fins are what you use to go deeper or shallower. 

And on that note, find _exactly_ what amount of weight you need for different wetsuit thicknesses, hoods, ect. Loading yourself down with too much weight, besides being uncomfortable, and more mass you have to move through the water resulting in more energy burned, it also requires more air in your bc to become neutral. More air = more volume expanding and contracting from different pressures at different depths = greater buoyancy changes at different depths = more inflator/deflator adjustments and also = greater "snowball" affect if you do lose track for a bit and are ascending or descending while fighting a fish or whatever.

And when you add spearfishing, where you are getting your ass handed to you by a fish that is pretty pissed off you stuck a big piece of steel through his head, you have your hands too full to watch your depth gauge, and mess with your inflator. I have many a times had to grab newer guys fins that were starting to ascend out of control without realizing it while they were messing with a fish. Not knocking new guys (I'm still new by some of the experienced guys on here, and was brand new not too long ago), just saying, learn your buoyancy, and don't shoot fish till you got that mastered. 

For your own safety, and those in the water with you. You should be able to float perfectly at any depth without use of your hands or feet to "tread" the water so to speak, and when you inhale, start to ascend slightly, and when you exhale, start to descend slightly. Then you know your perfectly trimmed out.

I saw a dive shop somewhere that has a "Advanced Bouyancy Control" certification course. One of the things in it, was the instructor had a hoola-hoop under water, and made the students get horizontal inside it, and couldn't use there hands or feet to kick or maintain there current depth, but had to get themselves truly neutral. If they touched the hoola-hoop...fail. I think that should be part of the standard dive open water certification.

Again, by no means am I trying to get down on newer divers! I've been with many divers for there first open water dive, some of the posters on here, and many others on this forum. I LOVE to see people getting into enjoying the other 70% of the earth covered in water there is to discover! And I'm not trying to sound cocky or a know it all. I am constantly learning new things, and have much more to learn, and many on here are 100 times more knowledgeable and experienced then me.

I just want to see everybody get back to the dock safe and healthy, and with a cooler full of fish!!!!

OK, sorry, done boring you guys with my endless rambling.

*Do you spearfish? * I'm not a real spear-fisher, but I play one on TV. I always have a speargun with me, just seems I somehow don't shoot fish as often as I like and come up empty handed. (Much to the delight and laughter of my dive buddys. And I use that term "buddys" lightly. :tt2: )

*How long have you been diving?* Not nearly as long as some of the other much more experienced guys on here. Moved here from Detroit after Ivan in 2004, and "freedove" spearfishing cuz I was told by the doctors when I was a young teen I would never be able to dive because I had busted my eardrums way too many times. 

Deepest depths I ever made were probably about 30-35 feet shooting sheephead in a top secret illegal location. People always asked why I didn't get certified, and I told them my ears were too damaged to ever dive. Then my good buddys Dalton and Michelle (DKdiver and Rocklobster) pointed out to me that at 33 feet the pressure is 2 atmospheres, double the pressure on the surface, and that that depth change during -was the greatest pressure difference change compared to any other depth, and if I wasn't having any problems free-diving those depths, then diving shouldn't be an issue.

What did I have to lose? My ears where jacked up anyways. Dalton certified me like I said 2005 I think? Can't remember. I am glad to say, my head as of yet, has never exploded or imploded. And I don't think I am any more mentally damaged then before I started diving. Other than the addiction I have to diving.

And as far as my first open water "check-out" dive with Dalton to complete my certification??? There is a song for it "Kung-Fu Fighting", but that is a tale that will cost a beer to recount that one!

Damn...I type a lot. Sorry, you asked and I have difficulty giving the "condensed" version.:thumbup:


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## Clay-Doh (Oct 2, 2007)

After seeing your post Felix, made me realize it was early spring when I got certified, 2006. And you and paul had already been certified a while! Like we talked about at Riches wedding last weekend, out at Mcree you and Paul were urging me to get certified and go diving with you guys, and you let me try your Mares Quattro Advanti fins, and I immediately bought a pair!

So you've been diving longer than you think if my dates are correct. And Jon (Telum) said six years, which I'm at exactly six years right now, and I was already certified and he came out with me on his very first open water dive. And you were diving before either of us. 

That long hair got your brain overheated and makin your memory fuzzy, hippy? :whistling: Like George Thoroughgood said.... "Get a haircut, and get a real job!"

Gavin got our boat all done up...another water test tomorrow, and if all is good, The Tin Can Yacht will be out diving again! You and Lisa got to come on, her and Jackie will get a long great.


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## Telum Pisces (Sep 27, 2007)

Clay-Doh said:


> And Jon (Telum) said six years, which I'm at exactly six years right now, and I was already certified and he came out with me on his very first open water dive. And you were diving before either of us.


I remember it like it was yesterday. Me, You, Armondo, Brandy, and Josh all crammed onto Armondo's boat. I will forever be scared.

Hope to see you at the Shark fishing campout Clay.


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## FelixH (Sep 28, 2007)

Clay, it isn't the long hair... it's the 24 hr. hitch I pulled mid-day Thursday to mid-day Friday... still haven't caught up my sleep. I think I need another nap.


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## Clay-Doh (Oct 2, 2007)

Ha ha Felix!

Jon... those were the days. I forgot it was on the Crazy Cuban's boat. Was it flyinfsher Josh, or Fenderbender Josh?

And if you make it, we will definitely be at the shark tourney/campout.


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## Mattatoar (Apr 30, 2008)

I'm getting my ten year old certified this Spring in prep for bugging the Keys in August. He's going to have to read Clay Doh's post or manifesto as I think it really does a great job of conveying a lot of concerns with diving, especially with new divers or people you don't know well. Seriously good stuff there.

So! Ummm:

# dives: thousands since 1991, got addicted to shore diving in CA and would go every day, sometimes five times and into the night. Filled log books and tossed them.

Deepest: 160... chasing a newby that was headed to down check out the paisley whales he saw... 

Goals: as many as possible, anywhere, anytime that I can (curse you gas pump!!!)

Spearing: since 1995 off the FL Big Bend and I am fully addicted. It is the first, last, only place I want to be: headed down the anchor line with both bands taught on Ole Painless (one of my 54 Billers) and no other boats around


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## Pierce07 (Nov 13, 2007)

How many dives do you have under your belt? ~600

What is you goal for dives per year? As much as possible

How deep have you gone? 180

Do you spearfish? That's all I do. 

How long have you been diving? Going on 7 years


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## Andros Jim (Sep 14, 2011)

How many dives do you have under your belt? after the first 20 years and, teaching for some time, I guess alot 
What is you goal for dives per year? I have retired from diving for the most part. After a full life of diving around the world I pretty much found Ill just remember the good and the scary for a wile.
How deep have you gone? I learned backwards. We started with decompression diving then to shallow water.
Do you spearfish? another one of the things I loved and I think can still do, with practice.
How long have you been diving? Since early 1969
Current cert level? instructor alumni with PADI


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