What is a logged dive?

[Hawkwood]

John,

i mispoke. For us it was pool and ocean. But I assume I should have differentiated them better. Confined and open water would have been better.

---------- Post added August 6th, 2014 at 11:41 PM ----------



So based on the second definition the pool (controlled water) dives count?

The reference was from 2011.

The current reference is:

Logged Dives

To credit as a logged dive for course requirements, the dive takes place in open water and specific information about the dive (i.e.date, time, location, depth, profile, etc.) is recorded. Training dives for PADI courses (in open water) qualify as logged dives.

 

[boulderjohn]

That seems odd to me. They have no guidelines for logging at all?

Just playing devil's advocate here... Someone could go straight from OW to AOW, log another ~90 10 ft dives in a pool and PADI would be ok with allowing them to do the solo specialty?

As subsequent posts show, there are guidelines for what constitutes a dive for training purposes and training prerequisites.

A major overall concept that people have trouble with is the fact that no diving agency anywhere has any authority to tell you what to do outside of the training its instructors provide. It tells its instructors what to do when preparing students for its certifications, but it has no authority to control either your diving or your log book entries after that.

A second concept to remember is that you do not get a certification based on your number of dives. That would be silly. I could grab a few sheets of paper right now, whip out a pen, and have as many logged dives as I needed in a matter of minutes. Who would be able to say I made them up? The number of dives requirement is something like a screening tool that gets you "in the door" for training. That training is supposed to be performance based. That means that once you start that training, the training is not over until you have demonstrated a suitable level of performance required for the certification. That means the number of dives is irrelevant. Some people pick up diving skill remarkably fast and can be more skilled in 20 dives than someone else with 100 dives. It is how you perform in the water that is determines whether you qualify for a certification level, not a meaningless number of dives.

 

[TN-Steve]

I base it the idea that a dive is one TRIP into the water. I do a number of quarry dives where we might surface to get bearings, talk about what to do next, things like that. My DC (Mares Puck) uses 3 minutes as the surface interval for starting a new dive (wish I could change that, but it's not configurable). I don't view those as 2 dives, it's one dive with a short discussion on the surface between sessions.

It's a matter of personal preference. Would I log a dive in the pool where I'm going in and testing out some new gear, or maybe refining my weighting... no, I wouldn't. Would I log a dive where we jumped in, descended, and my partner thumbed it at 20 feet down because of an issue? I wouldn't, since in my mind it wasn't a dive. On the other hand, if I spent 40 minutes feeling through muck at 10 feet to recover a lost ring (like a buddy of mine did recently), then yes... that would be a dive in my mind.

I just apply the CST (Common Sense Test). I will be going to Atlanta in January to dive at the Aquarium... and yes, I'm logging that one, for nothing else for the memory. I like to make notes in my dive log, so there is always something I can look at and learn, chuckle or cringe about.

Steve

 

[nolatom]

I recently asked here about whether a specific dive was "log-worthy" and was advised "log it, it's part of your dive history, and you achieved your goal". It was an 8', 16-minute, multiple "pop-up" dive into no-viz muck to retrieve my eyeglasses dropped in the marina the day before. Numbers not impressive, but the difficulty (for me) kinda was. And I was using a bastardized rig with pony as primary, no wetsuit, so weighting was different, as was "navigation". Another (braille) dive was an amateur "survey" of storm damage to a set of launch ramps so i could advise the board I sit on that is supposed to get them repaired. 9 feet, 50 minutes, multiple pop-ups to shout details to my wife who wrote it down. Strictly amateur and would need a professional redo by a commercial diver, but useful at the time.

Both of these were outside my typical rec-diver comfort zone, so I don't think it's a numbers thing as such. More of an "experience" thing.

I use my log for reference next time on weight and exposure info for a given rig or neoprene setup. So it is history, I doubt I'll ever use it for much else, it ain't a contest and I'm probably not going to use it for any new quals. And it helps me remember who that helpful DM was on boat A last time, stuff like that.

 

[Scott]

That seems odd to me. They have no guidelines for logging at all?

Just playing devil's advocate here... Someone could go straight from OW to AOW, log another ~90 10 ft dives in a pool and PADI would be ok with allowing them to do the solo specialty?

PADI wouldn't say a thing because they are not the ones checking the log book.
Agencies provide prerequisites for courses and rely on the instructor to verify, by standards, that a student meets the required prerequisites, this includes minimum number of logged dives.
There may be some instructors out there that would accept a pool dive as a logged dive, I have yet to meet any that have said they would.

 

[BDSC]

I actually quit logging dives after I hit 500 or so. I guess now I have close to 1000 give or take. Now I only do a one page log of an entire trip if it's to a place I have never been before. I think in all my years I had one place ask to see my logbook and that was years ago. Like it has already been said, really no one cares about your logbook other than you.

 

[drbill]

Log whatever you like, but I doubt that pool dives will be taken into account if a dive operator wants to look at your dive log to determine your level of experience. I count both fresh (lake, reservoir, quarry, etc) and salt water dives but for my "porpoises" the dive must be to at least 20 fsw for 20 minutes unless special circumstances are involved (I did a number of dives with maximum depths of 7 ft while filming the first known occurrence of a damsel species in our state).

 

[stuartv]

There are a lot of comments in here along the lines of "log whatever you want. Nobody but you cares." I'm not sure how the OP feels (and I realize this is an old thread), but I have the same question as the OP and the reason is because, as a new diver, I am looking at near-future training and seeing requirements from the agencies for certain minimum numbers of dives. 25 dives for an SDI Advanced Scuba Diver. 40 dives before you can take Rescue Diver. 50 dives before you can get the Master Scuba Diver card. 100 dives before you can take Solo Diver.

So, what I log matters to me because, apparently, it does matter to the agencies. I understand that the agency is not going to look at my log, it's the instructor who I am trying to get training from that may or may not.

Some comments in this thread have been along the lines of "the instructor doesn't care about your log book. They care about the skills you display in the water." So, if I go to an instructor - who doesn't know me - and I have 100 dives written down in my log book and I tell them I want to take Solo, are they going to take me somewhere to get in the water and evaluate my skills before they tell me if they'll let me take the course? That seems somewhat unlikely. It seems MOST likely that they would talk to me about my experience and maybe glance at my log book. Skim it just to make sure it passes the Sniff Test, so to speak.

So I'm still uncertain about what to log. I took the Advanced Buoyancy Control class. It was in a pool and I burned a whole tank floating around at about 10' practicing buoyancy and trim exercises. Should I log that as a dive?

I rented a tank last weekend and went to the pool on my own and spent an hour or so floating around at 10' testing out some new gear and practicing my buoyancy and trim with a different rig configuration than I've used before. Should I log that as a dive?

And, to reiterate, when I ask whether I should log it, I'm really asking, should I put it in my dive log AND count it in my dive total towards, just as one example, going to the shop where I've done my training and saying "okay, I've logged 40 dives and taken the required First Aid/CPR/Oxygen course, can I enroll in the Rescue Diver class now?"

 

[Lorenzoid]

Stuart, for many commonly offered recreational courses with the major recreational agencies, instructors seem to take you at your word that you have the prerequisite number of dives. They don't seem to want to pore over logbooks. I've never seen them even glance or skim. "You wanna take my Rescue class?--sign up here."

An instructor taking on a student for a Solo course or an advanced technical course might look further--I have no idea.

 

[stuartv]

Thanks, Lorenzoid. That's kind of what I figured I would hear.