Log book is full...

[g1138]

1) Photo copy a blank sheet of your favorite log book form.
2) Print it out on half sheets of paper
3) 3-hole punch
4) Stick it in a half-page 3-ring binder like those made by Trident
Sports Chalet, NAUI, PADI, and plenty others make their own branded version as well if you're particular

 

[Searcaigh]

DivingLog 5.0 and I only take my iPad on trips.

Must be a bummer trying to read things on your iPad after all of the dive ops have stamped it

I too print my own, and customized for my photography, changed through the years from using Nikonos cameras, different strobes, housed cameras from film to current digital.

 

[TXreefer]

Must be a bummer trying to read things on your iPad after all of the dive ops have stamped it

That's easy- I don't get stamps! But they actually have an answer to that problem...there is an option to have someone add their John Hancock to the log with their finger- kind of like signing your CC transaction at Home Depot.

 

[nimoh]

just don't do what I do. I quit logging for many years. I wish I had not. Also, try not to get backed up on logging. You can look in my current log and tell when I waited too many dives to log. The comments go from very descriptive to "nice dive". lol.

I'll second that. Even after a few weeks, my computer remembers all of the technical details, but I have trouble remembering what I saw on the dive, and even which dive was which? Last week, I was getting caught up on my logging, and even had trouble associating the right lake with the right weekend (I was about 2 months behind at this point).

 

[DivemasterDennis]

When making your own logs, do you record the certification # of you dive buddy? I ask because some of the things I want to do in the future require a certain number of "verifiable" logged dives. What else should be carried over for verification?

I have every logged dive signed by a buddy. I have many hundreds of them logged and signed. Once I have a buddy's number in a log, I don't worry about it being written in by them each time after that- but I do get it at least once. Whenever I am in a dive shop anywhere and they have loose leaf replacement pages for sale I snap them up as they are becoming harder and harder to find. I will get to the point of having to make my own, but so far so good! I carry the log of the last 100 dives or so with me on trips, and leave older pages in "the archives," a series of loose leaf books going back to dive 1.
DivemasterDennis

 

[TXreefer]

I'll second that. Even after a few weeks, my computer remembers all of the technical details, but I have trouble remembering what I saw on the dive, and even which dive was which? Last week, I was getting caught up on my logging, and even had trouble associating the right lake with the right weekend (I was about 2 months behind at this point).

This is the beauty of the software I use...I can add the details like dive site, tank pressures, buddies, notes and then at some point later, I can go back as download the info off of the dive computer and just update the logs I made.

Couple things I have found about the software...
1. You can only have one working copy, either on PC, or iPhone or iPad. In order to use iPhone and iPad at same time, you have to sync it with PC first. Easy solution, only use iPad to make logs while on vacation. (I was using my phone as well because it takes photos where my ipad1 does not)

2. It's easier if you create the logs first and then add DC info afterwards (rather than downloading the DC and adding info to it). The reason is because you can use the last dive you manually entered as a template for successive dives and won't have to update much of the info (where as if you download first, you have to change all fields manually except the ones added in by the DC of course).

I'm not trying to push this off on everyone else, but I was looking for a solution to logging dives and I didn't realize the full capability of the DivingLog software until I messed around with it.

 

[nimoh]

The software doesn't really address my issue. With my log book, I can fill out certain information like dive site date, and then add the rest later much like with the software. The problem is that I just keep putting it off

1. I also only have one working copy with my log book, in order to use with another log book, I need to sync up with a photocopier

2. It is also easier for me to create the logs first (print the pages) and then fill them out later.

There are two advantages I can see with using software:
1. after a lot of dives, a log book gets very bulky (I am not there yet)
2. if it were integrated with voice recognition software so I didn't have to type.

Advantages for a log book:
1. I don't know how many other sites are like this, but in Bonne Terre, MO, diving in the mine, there are something like 7 trails, and you need to do them in order. So to do trail #4, you need to prove that you have done trails 1-3 and the only way to do that is to show them your log book with their stamp in it.
2. I sometimes like to draw pictures of things that I saw, or paste in stickers from a dive shop, or operator.

Don't get me wrong, I am not anti-technology, as a matter of fact I am a software engineer by profession. I just don't think that dive logging software has made log books obsolete...yet.

 

[Dive the World]

Buy one of those big dive log folders - download profile pages online or photo copy a blank one and carry on with you dive records

 

[Bonuss]

I agree that I prefer paper for adding notes, drawings etc "freehand" without getting out a "device" (and I've owned a few); on the other hand I have a whole "digital" log from my uwatec computer and smartrack (whatever their software is called) I like the dive profile graph (with any alarms/warnings) that the smartrack app provides... just can't figure out how to paste it in my paper log with my notes.

I would not likley convert all my handwritten notes to digital when I got back as I generally avoid the "putting off filling out dive log" issue described above by trying to fill it out "immediately" wherever I am. (I'm not better than anyone, it's more like I have had to "model" this behavior for my kids; if it were just me I would likely have been behind too)

Bob in CO

 

[Hatul]

So my PADI Diver's Log is full, it holds like 60 dives. I feel a little silly paying 13 dollars for another one. Any recommendations for a replacement? I'm considering just using a write-in-the-rain field book. Anyone ever done this? Thanks.

Yes I once bought a notepad from REI with waterproof pages and used that as a logbook. It had nothing preprinted, just blank pages. The thing held an incredible number of pages and dives and on one of my dive trips it was stolen, along with other things. The lesson I learned is not to keep too many dives logged in one book.

Now I'm using Scubapro Dive Passport logbook, which is pricey, but well laid out without too much preprinted junk.