Log Book

[Walter]

Most of the places with such requirements do not require logs, they merely ask.

 

[Jcsgt]

Good to know, Kirin, thanks.

 

[Kirin]

Straight up? They dont count your logged dives with no sigs?
That blows. I have very few sigs in my half-arsed excuse for a logbook...but luckily no one wants to see my logbook or I might have to do "check out" dives every new boat i go on...

Yeah, i cant remember which organization it is. Its either SSI, NAUI or PADI. But, everytime i get a dive charter with that organization (again forgot which one), they always ask to see my log book (especially for deep dives, night dives, or other specialty dives).

There are also various memberships and certifications that require "verifiable" dive logs. Meaning your dive entries must be signed by a divemaster or divebuddy.

Just do a quick google and you will see hundreds of people on forums talking about this issue. Most, like me, have been using computer logs and printing out the logs to show.

 

[Azza]

Right. I missed this part. That will teach me for skim reading in my tea break

I've never required a log book from anyone other than a student for training purposes...

C cards mean very little to me as well, including instructor cards. As you said, I have a couple of mates with 1000's of dives still diving on OW cards that can dive rings around most divers (locally). I did indeed misread your post. Apologies

 

[Azza]

Yeah<snip>

Wow. Thats different. Can't say I have found the logbook issue an issue over here. Great to have a perspective of how foreigners do things. Thanks mate

 

[Tom Smedley]

You don't need to keep a log book, you're already well documented by Clive Cussler

I was reading, in another post, about "unfit divers". One of the indicators mentioned was a log book with very little content. I've been diving for more years than I have fingers and toes to count on, can carry a standard scuba tank 25 meters to the dive boat (and back again), and descend stairs backwards like Linda Blair in "The Exorcist". But I have no log book.

Typically, when I go out on a dive boat, the serious hyper-certified Diver Dans who own log books with more volumes than the complete Oxford Dictionary of the English Language somehow manage to run low on air while I still have 11 or 12 hundred pounds. But I have no log book. Should I buy one, and fill the pages with fictitious data, describing my work on North Sea oil rigs and my instrument navigation beneath polar ice caps?

As a rule, I try to avoid being "buddy" paired on a dive boat with any of these log book toting self-righteous scuba Taliban . I've seen too many of them panic when something goes wrong.

 

[Diveral]

I mostly stopped keeping a log book after I made Rescue Diver in 1987. After that I mainly logged my exceptional dives and dives at new sites. Which means I did not log most of the dives I did in the Navy or on my Blackbeards cruise. I have reviewed my old logbooks and looked at the dives I logged. Didn't include a whole lot of detail in the ones that were logged. Now that I'm older and the memory isn't as sharp as it once was I wish I had done a better job of logging my old dives. I now log all my dives with alot more detail than I used to.

That being said I have never been asked to show my log book by any dive operation. I just got back from the Keys and neither of the dive operations I dove with asked for my logbook. Heck the certification date on my YMCA OW card predates the birthdate of the DM on the last charter I took. I wonder what's caused the attitudes shown in Kirin's post?

AL

 

[radio flyer]

I guess I think of a log book as an archive--not just a journal of memories (which has inherent value, too). I use it as a place to record something I've just learned on the dive and don't want to forget--an experiential history of what I learn (about myself, my buddy, technique, etc.) dive by dive. Now, I'm pretty new at diving, and so the learning curve for me is pretty steep, but I suspect that many of the 1000+LD divers here are still learning, too? Gosh, I'd love to read one of their log books from dive 1 through most recent dive charting all the way what they learned on each dive...that's an archive!!!

 

[BiggDawg]

Here are some florida key examples, right from these dive charter websites or waiver forms.

Florida Keys Dive Center

TO DIVE LESS THAN 60FSW:

{SNIP! ~ edited out by BiggDawg}
List of anal-retentive requirements that are not always enforced
​

TO DIVE MORE THAN 60FSW:

{SNIP! ~ edited out by BiggDawg}
ANOTHER list of anal-retentive requirements that are not always enforced
​

Amy Slate's Amoray Dive Resort

{SNIP! ~ edited out by BiggDawg}
Possibly the most onerous list of anal-retentive requirements.​

Horizon Divers

{SNIP! ~ edited out by BiggDawg}
A list of revenue-enhancing alternatives for the dive shop.
​

Ironically, they dont mention a log book is required on their website. But, when you call them to schedule a reservation, they indicate you must show your log book to validate you have dove within a specified time and have dove to the depths you are planning to dive.

I often only have my OW card with me, have dived with charters in Key Largo, and have NEVER been asked for a log book. Although, I must admit, just the wording on the Amy Slate's Amoray site is off-putting enough that when I saw it, I just went somewhere else. How obnoxious!

To be fair, you have to realize how many "I-have-nine-logged-dives-and-my-AOW-and-that-makes-me-ADVANCED" divers they get in Key Largo. Yet, I am not sure that I would want to be on a boat mostly populated by newbies and the 18-year-old divemaster, sorry.

I, too, have a stack of C-cards, but do not expect them to carry any weight above what I can demonstrate in the water, any way. It is reasonable to expect that if one certifying agency representative has previously said "he can survive in the water at this level" then I should get the benefit of the doubt until I show otherwise. But it is also reasonable for a dive operator, who will be the defendant in the lawsuit should my heirs have reason to sue, to expect me to prove my skill before doing anything other than the basic 30-foot reef dive in warm water. The C-cards that I have found an exception to this were Rescue and MSD. Most operator seem to react differently, maybe because they don't see so many of those. They also, by default, document a certain minimum number of dives (you can't get there without a certain number of logged dives being demonstrated).

Ironically, the dives that got closest to pushing the recreational limits (repetitive dives to 100+ fsw in cold water, low vis, full wreck penetration, etc.) are the ones where the dive charter was the least vigilant. Their attitude, business plan, and indeed their waiver paperwork, was "We are only a taxi driver. What you choose to do at either end of the ride is your problem. Seems that, for divers with minimum experience on those trips, most are self-limiting and self-select out.

The wording on the websites of those, and other, dive operations is for their protection. Should there appear to be a problem, they can always point to "the policy." That way, it is less direct for the boat crew to ask a questionable diver to prove his/her skills. "It's just policy..."
They can also use this wording to partially defend themselves, should a problem arrive. "Your honor, the plaintiff violated the terms of service which, you can plainly see, were right there on the website and the written waiver..."

But, I have never actually been asked to produce a written dive log, in any form.

Now, that having been said, the other week I came accross my original dive log book. It was of the large log/journal format. I kind of regret not having logged more of my dives, because the book brought back so many memories of my earliest dives. It reminded me of a time when every dive showed something new and exciting, or was at some new locale that I have since allowed to become clouded in my memory.

BD