Start counting your dives?

[AquaTec]

Why do you log dives

If it is mearly to count dives then log away anytime you are underwater and breathing scuba.

Why do I log dives, to create a journal. I log dives that are interesting and unique. this is about 1/3 of the dives i have actualy done.

my thinking is that you wouldn't log every time you went to dinner, but you might log the times you enjoyed dinner with some great friends at a great restaraunt. so when you get old you can look back upon those days and remember

I use my log book to tell stories of diving to my kids at bed time.

think about what you are writing down and how it will be of use to you in the future. 20 years from now will it matter your time and depth, your weight, the weather...no

write down the friends you dove with, speak of the good times, the exciting things about the dive. tell the story of the remarkableness of the dive.....believe me many years later it will be hard to remember

here is a copy of a page from my log book circa 1980 when i was hunted by a tiger shark, the story is still there, our dive profile and what pressure group we ended up in don't realy matter 20 years later, but the story i still tell

 

[cyklon_300]

I was a diver for a couple of years before getting certified (it's a long story and no, I don't need to be scolded for anything).

I logged 71 dives prior to getting a card. I also count the 4 OW cert dives, too.

Logs are personal records, use them however you like...count whatever you think constitutes a dive.

 

[DiverBuoy]

From a logbook perspective having the signature of your instructor, AI, or DM as proof that you went diving adds even more credibility to a new logbook.

According to PADI :

"For training purposes, an open water dive is a dive during which a student diver spends the majority of time at a depth of at least 5 meters/15 feet and:

a. breathes at least 1400 litres or 50 cubic feet of compressed gas.

OR

b. remains submerged for at least 20 minutes.

So if your new but really conservative on air - you'll need to stay down a bit longer