any serious divers here?

[David P]

I have no problems with WWW (warm water wussies) or vacation divers. But it seems like most all the posts here are about super pretty vacation diving where you stand there, natives put the gear on you and push you off the boat.

TechDiver, your a given, but is there anyone else here that is a serious diver? Bye serious, I mean more than 12 dives a year (very easy to do), deco, doubles, or at least a drysuit.

I was going to post about my dives this past weekend on an oil rig in 50F water to 164' with a bottom time of 25 minutes. Or of the second dive of the day where we were all on scooters playing for the HD camera. I go zipping by the camera man having fun, about a minute later I feel a bump on my legs, look and see nothing, I see a light on my fore arms, look and see nothing, 'bout a minute later feel a bump again, still nothing, I come flying up on a horizontal cross beam, do a barel roll so the pipe that was over my head misses my chest by a few inches, just having a ball. Then I feel a major bump on my legs so I stop, turn around and see the cameraman. Ok's around and Im off scootering again. During the debrief, I mention I kept feeling bumps and thought some sealions were playing with me. Camerman says "you're joking right" I give him a puzzled look and say no.... turns out when I zipped by him, he grabbed my manifold and went for a rid on my back. He thought I was playing with him by almost smashing him into the cross bar, and then I rolled over so he was safe he "knew" I was aware of him. Too funny

 

[tgreene]

Does diving in 4.5 feet of silty saltwater every other week, while the fish are trying to eat your face count..? If so, then I qualify!

Check w/ SeaJayInSC. He's a working pro that dives nearly every day, all day.

-Tim

 

[David P]

26 dives a year, sure that counts!

 

[tgreene]

This is when cleaning a 1000 gallon aquarium, but I have been under for as long as 5 hours at a time and generally average about +/- 2 hours at a time...

I'm currently finishing up my OW Cert.

-Tim

 

[ackee]

Consider the nature of this site. It is basically about warm-water aquaria, with a focus on keeping corals using relatively recently developed technology, especially in connection with lighting and water quality. Keeping salt water tropical fishes and invertebrates seems to be the central element.

As a result, most of the scuba posts here reflect this interest. I have been scuba diving for 30+ years, mostly here in NJ, on wrecks and in inlets. I also collect fish, up here in late summer, and occasionally in the tropics. I share the preferences of most of the people on this site for things related to coral reefs and the creatures that inhabit them. I also do some deep cold dives, not as often as when I was younger, and I try to dive the edges of the Gulf Stream in North Carolina at least once each year, where the best diving begins at well over 80 feet.

I'm not sure if I'm a serious diver because scuba for me is more a means to an end than an end in itself. I'm certainly not a technical diver, having pared my equipment down to a minimum. It's more fun that way, and having fun in the ocean is what it's all about for me.

 

[billsreef]

Right now I'm just waiting for the water temps to get up to at least 40 Opening week of scallop season I got in well over a dozen dives in nice cold northeast water, kept at till the water temps dropped below 40.

 

[philter4]

right now I'm having some health issues, but I used to collect for a living and dove multiple tanks up to 300 days a year if the weather allowed. My goal when I get healthy is to return to diving as often as weather allows. My last dive trip was a collection trip ( I still collect all of my own tropicals, though I don't do it for money any longer) to HI with a commercial diver and it was great, my only complaint was I had to do dialysis every other day so the # of dives was not enough. When collecting I usually dive deep sometimes over 150 ft because that is where the fish and inverts I like live. I usually limit my depth to less then 200 ft because past that I have too long of a wait for deco, not for me, but the fish, I don't needle my fish and from deeper then 200 I'm not that successful at getting the fish up in a reasonable amount of time.

 

[ackee]

I admire your spirit, Philter 4, and your refusal to let difficult health issues completely sideline you. My best wishes to you, as one deep water fish lover to another.
I remember diving a deep vertical wall in Jamaica years ago, and seeing the hundreds of Royal Grammas hugging the wall totally switch to countless Blackcaps, right at about 90 feet, as though a boundary line had been drawn. From a few yards distance it looked like abstract art. The Blackcaps continued down into infinity, becoming tiny purple fireflys until all color was absorbed by the endless deep blue abyss. I'll never forget it.

 

[Grunt]

There's alot of brail diving around here, especially with rain. I typically wait until the water warms some what. I only have a 5mm, although I lasted in 30 degree water for awhile. There's a spring not to far that stays around 54 degrees year round, but is only open when trout season is closed (november/december). I don't have the money for a drysuit (x2, for wife too). Typically we just work on our skills and do familiarization here, and then enjoy our trips to warmer ocean waters.

 

[tgreene]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14444089#post14444089 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Grunt
There's alot of brail diving around here, especially with rain. I typically wait until the water warms some what. I only have a 5mm, although I lasted in 30 degree water for awhile. There's a spring not to far that stays around 54 degrees year round, but is only open when trout season is closed (november/december). I don't have the money for a drysuit (x2, for wife too). Typically we just work on our skills and do familiarization here, and then enjoy our trips to warmer ocean waters.

Hey man, I'm just down the road from ya, and if you're wiling to buddy with a very conscientios n00b that is a quick study, gimmie a holler... If you're into motorcycles even better!

-Tim

 

[craiglanda]

I wouldnt consider myself a "WWW" by choice.... If i could afford a dry suit id be diving cold waters all the time. Between the equipment and the classes it is very expensive to become a "serious diver" when you take into consideration that i have to purchase not only my equipment but my fiances as well! We are now taking GUE classes so even though we dont dive in the cold YET...we def have plans to do so in the future. So being that i broke down and sold my reef tank to pay for my new halcyon BC (which is amazing btw!!) i wil consider myself a serious diver in training haha!

 

[RicksReefs]

1200+ solo dives in the last 10 years in florida.

I grew up diving thru the ice in massachusetts.

I much prefer being a WWW, there's just something about having the option of a 3 mil suit or your swim trunks in february that I find easy to live with.

 

[billsreef]

Admit it Rick, your really jealous of us northern divers with our thick neoprene and lots of weight. Just think, you could be diving for real lobsters back in Mass.

 

[fishndive]

Warm water wussys huh. Man it sure is nice diving in shorts and no shirt...something them cold water weiners can't do. I understand thats what y'all have to dive in cause its all ya got till you go on a little vacation...but jealousy is a horrible thing to have.

 

[RicksReefs]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14447693#post14447693 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by billsreef
Just think, you could be diving for real lobsters back in Mass.

I miss diving with the seals in winter.

I love me some real seafood, the stuff they have down here isn't quite right. they deep fry little balls of tasteless rubber snails and call it 'conch fritters'... lobster is a big spiny shrimp...haven't had good chowda in a decade...

can someone FedEx me a seafood platter from sandy's restaurant in bourne, on the cape cod canal?

 

[snorvich]

I doubt that I am a serious diver by the original standards but I do have a fair number of them although mostly but not all, WWW dives.

 

[GO UF]

i dive everyday for my job(underwater dredging). i am also a charter captain and go spearfishing every weekend. i average 200 dives a year. ive got to the point where i go on one tank at 30 feet for 2 and half to 3 hours. but i am a warm water wussie, being a native floridian. i wear a drysuit in water colder than 60 degrees. what fish roam the oil rigs out there in cali? i wouldnt mind doing some spearing there(in the wamer months).

 

[olin]

Think I'm there - 3000+ dives as of a few years ago (bad at logging), max depth 500+ on trimix rebreather. But my best divers are as a WWW. I am a total sissy now. The drysuit comes on when it's lower than 72! I'm right there with you RicksReef! 3 mil or bust. Last trip the water was 67, and I was impressed by the girlfriend when she donned the 7-mil and stuck it out with me diving dry. But then, she's from Cali and tougher in every way than me.

 

[SeaJayInSC]

Very cool - a fantastic cross-section of divers with varying degrees of experience here, in all kinds of environments.

It wouldn't be fair to compare my experience diving... I do it professionally. It'd be like a truck driver trying to compare "miles per year" to the rest of the world - actual numbers would only serve to pump up the ego, and may or may not count for variation in experience.

I dive both wet and dry, doubles, singles, various mixed gasses, with and without scooters, both hookah and scuba. What I have NOT done (and is typically associated with commercial diving) is "hat" diving... Since I don't work in an environment where it's an insurance requirement, I haven't bothered to make the $10k - $20k investment.

I really don't know how many dives a year I make - pretty much, I'd say I spend 3-4 hours per day, every work day (and sometimes weekends), every year, underwater. I've been doing this professionally about three or four years, save for several months of chemotherapy, where I could only dive as much as I could without putting myself at a serious safety risk.

Some of the more interesting things I've done: Several "dive shows" per month at the SC Aquarium in Charleston (full-faced mask, talking to the public), several big salvages (including cars, boats, and even a barge/crane/pushboat combination), more body recoveries that I care to recall, and countless search and recoveries for everything from keys, diamond rings, lost anchors and props to megalodon teeth, fossils, bottles and other human history dating back to the 1500's (well, in the "millions of years" for the fossils).

I have dived drug planes from the '70's, discovered several of our local shipwrecks (and researched the history behind them), supported the WKPP in their long, record-breaking exploration cave dives (and done some line-adding myself), and been featured on several TV shows on the Discovery and Science Channels. I currently own a commercial dive operation ( http://www.DeepSouthDivers.org ) and am the lead diver for Project ASSURE, a grassroots organization that's been featured in many forms of media as we search for a nuclear bomb lost off the coast of Savannah, GA in 1958.

I have extensive training with PADI, SSI and GUE, and hold various certifications with those agencies, as well as the AAUS. I studied at Duke University's Hyperbaric Facility, in cooperation with DAN and the US Navy for a few years, too... Although I've never served in the US military.

At 38, I feel like I have a lot more to learn about our world underwater... I feel like I have earned the right to learn at this point, and nothing more - and despite the fact that I've dived throughout the Caribbean, East Coast and Great Lakes, I have many more, exotic places that I would like to dive, and am in awe of those who regularly visit places like Fiji and Chuuk. I can't wait to dive the West Coast - I haven't yet, although I've got a considerable amount of experience in Mexico.

I have also participated in a variety of projects surrounting the recovery of the Hunley submarine in Charleston, and worked for the States of SC, GA, and FL, as well as several smaller government agencies for a variety of exploration, salvage, and discovery/recovery projects.

My deepest dive to date was 427 feet - I remember it specifically because the number is the same as an old "big block" Chevy... How's that for "redneck?" That dive was a 52-hour dive... Also my longest to date, although we used an underwater habitat for about an hour four times during the dive.

Anyway... "Serious" diver? Oh, I dunno... I kinda like it. Based on your question, it sounds to me like you're asking if anyone here is a GUE certified. After all, I know a lot of "serious" divers who divemaster on boats in Cancun, and do a LOT of diving, and get paid for it... But they probably don't own a drysuit, so they wouldn't fit your qualifications as a "serious" diver... So it sounds to me more like if you're asking if anyone here is GUE certified... Or "DIR."

...To that, I can raise my hand and say, "Yeah, I am," although I can tell you that I know a lot of GUE-certified divers that own drysuits and scooters, and won't step foot in the ocean, for fear of an unmanagable and unpredictable environment... Something many WWW's would consider "silly" and "newbie-ish."

I know a lot of divers that won't dive if they can't see - that is, they aren't going in the water until the vis is at least 30'... And I know a lot of instructors that couldn't "donate to an OOA buddy" their way out of a wet paper bag.

I also know a lot of divers that have no clue about doubles, mixed gasses or decompression procedures, but ARE very serious divers... A lot of these guys you'll find buried in the mud at the bottom of some random river between Savannah and Charleston... In zero vis, often without lights. Many "serious divers" I know would not put up with this.

...Anyway, yeah, I guess I could be considered "serious," although I have to admit that I still feel like I'm at the beginning of my dive career... So I still feel like a newbie.

I remember not too long ago, though, when I thought I knew it all about diving. Now I've progressed to knowing that I don't know. " Serious?" I guess - but I've gotten to the point, I think, where the term "serious" has begun to blur and I don't really know what that means any more.

 

[liverock]

You win

You win

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14457194#post14457194 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SeaJayInSC
Very cool - a fantastic cross-section of divers with varying degrees of experience here, in all kinds of environments.

It wouldn't be fair to compare my experience diving... I do it professionally. It'd be like a truck driver trying to compare "miles per year" to the rest of the world - actual numbers would only serve to pump up the ego, and may or may not count for variation in experience.

I dive both wet and dry, doubles, singles, various mixed gasses, with and without scooters, both hookah and scuba. What I have NOT done (and is typically associated with commercial diving) is "hat" diving... Since I don't work in an environment where it's an insurance requirement, I haven't bothered to make the $10k - $20k investment.

I really don't know how many dives a year I make - pretty much, I'd say I spend 3-4 hours per day, every work day (and sometimes weekends), every year, underwater. I've been doing this professionally about three or four years, save for several months of chemotherapy, where I could only dive as much as I could without putting myself at a serious safety risk.

Some of the more interesting things I've done: Several "dive shows" per month at the SC Aquarium in Charleston (full-faced mask, talking to the public), several big salvages (including cars, boats, and even a barge/crane/pushboat combination), more body recoveries that I care to recall, and countless search and recoveries for everything from keys, diamond rings, lost anchors and props to megalodon teeth, fossils, bottles and other human history dating back to the 1500's (well, in the "millions of years" for the fossils).

I have dived drug planes from the '70's, discovered several of our local shipwrecks (and researched the history behind them), supported the WKPP in their long, record-breaking exploration cave dives (and done some line-adding myself), and been featured on several TV shows on the Discovery and Science Channels. I currently own a commercial dive operation ( http://www.DeepSouthDivers.org ) and am the lead diver for Project ASSURE, a grassroots organization that's been featured in many forms of media as we search for a nuclear bomb lost off the coast of Savannah, GA in 1958.

I have extensive training with PADI, SSI and GUE, and hold various certifications with those agencies, as well as the AAUS. I studied at Duke University's Hyperbaric Facility, in cooperation with DAN and the US Navy for a few years, too... Although I've never served in the US military.

At 38, I feel like I have a lot more to learn about our world underwater... I feel like I have earned the right to learn at this point, and nothing more - and despite the fact that I've dived throughout the Caribbean, East Coast and Great Lakes, I have many more, exotic places that I would like to dive, and am in awe of those who regularly visit places like Fiji and Chuuk. I can't wait to dive the West Coast - I haven't yet, although I've got a considerable amount of experience in Mexico.

I have also participated in a variety of projects surrounting the recovery of the Hunley submarine in Charleston, and worked for the States of SC, GA, and FL, as well as several smaller government agencies for a variety of exploration, salvage, and discovery/recovery projects.

My deepest dive to date was 427 feet - I remember it specifically because the number is the same as an old "big block" Chevy... How's that for "redneck?" That dive was a 52-hour dive... Also my longest to date, although we used an underwater habitat for about an hour four times during the dive.

Anyway... "Serious" diver? Oh, I dunno... I kinda like it. Based on your question, it sounds to me like you're asking if anyone here is a GUE certified. After all, I know a lot of "serious" divers who divemaster on boats in Cancun, and do a LOT of diving, and get paid for it... But they probably don't own a drysuit, so they wouldn't fit your qualifications as a "serious" diver... So it sounds to me more like if you're asking if anyone here is GUE certified... Or "DIR."

...To that, I can raise my hand and say, "Yeah, I am," although I can tell you that I know a lot of GUE-certified divers that own drysuits and scooters, and won't step foot in the ocean, for fear of an unmanagable and unpredictable environment... Something many WWW's would consider "silly" and "newbie-ish."

I know a lot of divers that won't dive if they can't see - that is, they aren't going in the water until the vis is at least 30'... And I know a lot of instructors that couldn't "donate to an OOA buddy" their way out of a wet paper bag.

I also know a lot of divers that have no clue about doubles, mixed gasses or decompression procedures, but ARE very serious divers... A lot of these guys you'll find buried in the mud at the bottom of some random river between Savannah and Charleston... In zero vis, often without lights. Many "serious divers" I know would not put up with this.

...Anyway, yeah, I guess I could be considered "serious," although I have to admit that I still feel like I'm at the beginning of my dive career... So I still feel like a newbie.

I remember not too long ago, though, when I thought I knew it all about diving. Now I've progressed to knowing that I don't know. " Serious?" I guess - but I've gotten to the point, I think, where the term "serious" has begun to blur and I don't really know what that means any more.

Whew you win...I remember when I was your age...indestructible....but now at 56...you will find things change...

Number of dives...who knows..thousands and thousands...certified in 1971...doing it for a living since 1973...I do enjoy diving now on the aquaculture site...at just 20 foot, seems almost too easy to the extrema stuff of many years ago...

I did get to dive worldwide...as Dad was military.....and you Maine divers...I was diving there before any licenses...and before the urchin biz ever started...I remember thinking to myself..there must be a market for all there spiney guys...what I miss most besides shoveling the snow out of the boat, and the run down to the river to the sea, where the draggers could not go, was the unlimited amount of dinner plate size of scallops...best in the WORLD!

Richard TBS
www.tbsaltwater.com
:rollface: :rollface: :rollface: