Recording dives ?

[nolatom]

After seeking advice here, I logged a 16-minute muck dive at my marina to find my lost prescription eyeglasses, max depth was 8 feet. Seriously.

But the scuttlebutt was, "it's part of your diving history" "you succeeded in your objective, go ahead and log it".

So I did. Actually I found it way more difficult than a 100' dive in clear vis (for me, that would be the Flower Garden Banks off Tex/La). Zero vis was very disorienting, you can't read gauges and everything is "braille". Took me three or four mini-resurfacing intervals to reorient and read my pressure gauge.

Plus if you ever have to do it again, the info about how much weight, how fast your air consumption was, and what thickness gear was comfortable (or not) are really valuable, and if you don't log it, you won't remember it.

I would bet those shallow river dives are more difficult than some of the 35' clear water--pretty fish dives we all log without questioning it.

 

[Six Feet Under]

I rarely log dives. I have a lot of river dives in similar conditions (20-22 feet, 200ft visibility, strong surface current but almost none at the bottom) and I lost count of those a while ago. The only reason I would have to log them is to show proof of experience for future training classes.

 

[MrChen]

I'm on the fence about whether to allow a dive in my log. I keep a digital record of my dives by importing them from the computer. We did a drop to 105 ft which was supposed to land us on a wreck but never saw the wreck. After a minute we began our ascent and performed a safety stop for 3 minutes. Total dive time was around 12-15 minutes. We made the decision to ascend earlier than another group, so our SI was 25 minutes before we jumped back in on a shallower reef for 40 minutes to finish off our tanks.

My buddy who writes out his logs said he was going to just combine it with the reef dive, but since mine is digitally imported, it appears as 2 separate dives. I enjoy having the graphical dive profile and there's no automated way to merge them.

 

[Bob DBF]

Log what you want, but be advised that for some training you may need logged dives to enroll. My advice is to log them all, you may put in some info that will be useful later, and an if an instructor checks your log there will be something in it.

I started logging dives twice and problems with paper and water made it futile, and back then no one cared about the log, if you could dive. After I got a dive computer I started logging from that and it could have come in handy when I did some training but no one looked, that may not have been the case if I was a new diver. I don't bother logging the dives I make without the computer.



Bob
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There is no problem that can't be solved with a liberal application of sex, tequila, money, duct tape, or high explosives, not necessarily in that order.

 

[EFX]

I agree completely with Bob DBF. If you are a new diver it's best to log all of your dives. Log at least 100 dives. You may have no desire to further your training but if you change your mind you'll have the record should someone require to see them. I say 100 dives because should you decide to get solo rated you will need that many dives as a minimum to get the training.

I use a blue reef zippered log binder with the PADI log sheets. I keep 4 sections divided by plastic index sheets labeled: logs, notes, equip, and training. The equip(ment) section is especially helpful. In it, I keep a record of equipment overhauls, weight needed for various wetsuits, weight distribution for carrying pony bottles, and full and empty buoyancy weight for different size tanks. I'm probably more meticulous than most in what i record but it's great to have the info because at my age the memory isn't what it used to be.

 

[Roatan Joe]

PADI Open Water Training Dives are generally suppose to spend the majority of the time at a minimum of 15ft. for a minimum of 20 minutes or 50cu.ft. of air, so any diving exceeding those minimums are what I have always logged. Pools I use are always shallower and for less time, so I've never logged one of those.

 

[Subcooled]

I do a lot of dives in shallow rivers, 22' max. Should I put all of these in my
Dive Log?

It certainly is allowed, and many do log shallow dives.

Shallow dives are an excellent practice in buoyancy. The current, and sometimes low visibility, add to the difficulty. Rivers sometimes have obstructions and mud. Shallow river dives are worthy dives and can be very serious too: Dive at one foots depth but under solid ice and that's a pretty demanding dive - especially in current. And then we have the blackwater dives, the search and recovery dives, and much more. Lot's to experience in rivers.

Just record the dive type somewhere. Note it in the margin of a paper logbook or add it as a tag/label in a computerized log. You can then count the total number of dives, river dives and sea dives separately. When everything has been recorded, you can always select a subset of the data to present.

If I were looking for a buddy for my river dives, then I would be very interested in your shallow river dives, and your salt sea dives wouldn't really count, would they?

 

[mac.calder]

Log what you like. Chances are in anything but the upper levels of tech if there is a course with a minimum dive number (let's take DM for example, 40 to start, 60 to pass certification) I would argue those pre-reqs are more of a "easy out" for the trainers - once they see you on a dive, if they don't think you are ready for it, log book please... I have never been asked for my logbook - I have been asked for "how many dives in the last 6 months" or "deepest dive" or "how many dives over 30m in the last 3 months" for certain technical dives, but never for the book itself.

In fact the only time I have seen someone's logbook checked was when the Dive Leader took an orientation dive prior to a deep(ish) recreational dive and was not satisfied with what they saw and did not believe a diver was ready - when the DM explained that perhaps they need to tune their skills a tad before attempting the dive, the diver got agro and the DM insisted on the book, tallied everything and pulled the "You have not dived > 12m, have less than the 30 dives we require for this dive site (as advertised) and have not dived within the last 6 months. Sorry you are inelligable; please take your money back."