djwang2000
Registered
I'll post the link someone else posted the last time this subject came up; I couldn't imaging NOT logging a dive in this pool: http://www.nemo33.com/en
What is rated / condidered a "dive"?
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I'll post the link someone else posted the last time this subject came up; I couldn't imaging NOT logging a dive in this pool: http://www.nemo33.com/en
Bob DBF
Contributor
Log what you want. I now keep track for my rig configuration, weight, sitemap, and conditions.
An Instructor will count what they want, when evaluating you for a class.
If there is a large descrapancy between the two, you might want to rethink how you approach SCUBA. Dive numbers are a gauge of experience, if you gain no experience while counting lots of dives, then the number means nothing.
Bob
--------------------------------------------
I may be old, but I’m not dead yet.
An Instructor will count what they want, when evaluating you for a class.
If there is a large descrapancy between the two, you might want to rethink how you approach SCUBA. Dive numbers are a gauge of experience, if you gain no experience while counting lots of dives, then the number means nothing.
Bob
--------------------------------------------
I may be old, but I’m not dead yet.
Lizard Leg
Contributor
I will count a pool dive if the dive if I spend the entire dive training/practicing. For instance, if I bring all of my gear, jump in and practice hovering 24" off the bottom, with my camera rig, without ever touching the bottom or losing buoyancy, while playing with the camera settings and lighting, taking pictures of the other divers, games, bottom of the pool, and spend the entire dive practicing skills that WILL be used later, than, yes, I log the dive. If I jump in and go bowling, play poker and swim the obstacle course, not so much.
o2dependant
Registered
I would count pool dives if I was using them to refine my skills and log it as a training dive. Other than that Any dive where I was breathing off tanks and didn't call it on the descent( unless there was a significant lesson to be learned) I also log time under water just so I can keep a track of how many full days I have spent under water(not many at the moment)
So for those of you 2000 dives with an average of 50 minutes dive time have spent over 2 solid months underwater breathing off tanks.
:cool2:
So for those of you 2000 dives with an average of 50 minutes dive time have spent over 2 solid months underwater breathing off tanks.
:cool2:
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This a a question that has been asked often for different reasons. When I was looking at Rescue Course (which then required 20 dives) and then DM course, I made sure I had enough dives (I was way over for DM) that met PADI requirements--though no one ever did check my book. So, you have "official" dives that you may need to use to take a course. Not sure if they must have a buddy's signature or not, but I think in past threads it was generally felt no. Then, you log what you want. No pool dives for me (though I do log them separately when DMing a class--just for the heck of it). If my dive lasts 1 minute and equipment causes me to abort, no log. If I go down for 5 mins. and decide--1 inch viz--sucks, I probably log that, as I went through all the gearing up and down, and did get some depth. As far as number of dives listed on SB profiles--who knows what anybody REALLY does, and what's the difference.
Dive the World
Contributor
Here is the deal.
If you come back from your "dive" and HAVE to ask yourself if that was a dive - it probably wasn't.
Tracking of dives are for you, so just be honest with your self.
Personally, I would never count a pool dive.
If you come back from your "dive" and HAVE to ask yourself if that was a dive - it probably wasn't.
Tracking of dives are for you, so just be honest with your self.
Personally, I would never count a pool dive.
Mustard Dave
Contributor
A dive in my opinion is any time you use breathing apparatus underwater. I do not log pool dives and I don't log sticking my head in the bath to check a reg. I do not keep paper logs at all - I just download the data from my computer and fill in the site details and buddy name. If there is anything worthwhile adding, I can type notes into it and if I've taken photos, the software can find them from the time and date data and automatically attach them. If I need to show somebody my log book, I can show them the computer or export them to PDF and print them.
I can tell you exactly how many dives I have done but I have selected 'I just don't log dives' option for my SB profile. The reason for this is because I do not feel it is relevant. Say for instance a novice asks a question and gets two replies - one has 200 dives and is offering good advice and the second has 1,000 and is talking bollocks. The OP has no idea who is right, but which person are they more likely to trust?
There is a lad at my club, Alan, who did his OW in the UK in December 2011. The instructor introduced him to a few of us at the new year party and he was really buzzing from diving. I went along a fortnight later when he did his AOW and he had bought all the gear. We had a club trip to the sound of Mull, Scotland, coming up and he booked on it. It was a three day liveaboard on an old converted fishing boat and he hadn't been in the sea or deeper than 20 metres.
As he was so keen, a lot of people were happy to put in the effort to get him some time in the sea, so we organised a few days shore diving in Wales and got him in Dorothea (a very deep quarry) to get him experience of the 30 metres he was qualified too but had not yet dived to. Within about 25 dives, he had dived in crap vis, current and cold water.
He had also booked a Red Sea liveaboard a couple of months later organised by one of the instructors. Officially he had to have 50 dives to do it but it was getting close and he only had 40. He mentioned it to the instructor who told him not to worry - he knew the dive operator and he'd square it with them.
When they came back, I was talking to the instructor who was having a chuckle about him. On the boat, they had everyone sat around the table for their introductions. They had about half the spaces and the rest were mostly lone travellers and couples. Most had about 100 dives and then they got to Alan.
"How many dives have you logged, Alan?"
"Forty-two."
The dive operator looks concerned...
"We've got a bit of a problem here..."
The instructor then chips in,
"Let me assure you, none of the dives will be a problem for him..."
"I'm not sure...Alan, have you ever been on a liveaboard?"
"Yes."
"Where did you do that?"
"Scotland!"
"Ha ha! Welcome aboard Alan!"
We get people all the time coming for refresher courses. They have 100+ logged dives because they have done a liveaboard every year for five years. They don't dive for almost a year and then come for a tune-up in the pool so they can go again. Apparently there were many like them on this trip who were banging into the wreck and going up and down like a whore's knickers while Alan was hovering effortlessly over the wreck thinking 'This is easier than Scotland'.
I dived with a lad a while back. He was a trainee Divemaster and was completely f**king useless. He had been doing two 15 minute dives on a single fill, without even getting out of the water in between. He wanted to get signed off quickly so he could do the IDC and move abroad, working as an instructor. He is now an MSDT after doing some sort of crash course in Thailand. He is passing on his knowledge to novices and has only ever dived in benign training sites.
I appreciate it is difficult to gauge somebody's ability until they are in the water, but one would assume more dives equals more experience and therefore more ability. However, I reserve all judgement until I've dived with somebody. My first thoughts would always be the guy with 200 cold water dives is probably more experienced than the guy with 1,000 dives in a tropical paradise.
I can tell you exactly how many dives I have done but I have selected 'I just don't log dives' option for my SB profile. The reason for this is because I do not feel it is relevant. Say for instance a novice asks a question and gets two replies - one has 200 dives and is offering good advice and the second has 1,000 and is talking bollocks. The OP has no idea who is right, but which person are they more likely to trust?
There is a lad at my club, Alan, who did his OW in the UK in December 2011. The instructor introduced him to a few of us at the new year party and he was really buzzing from diving. I went along a fortnight later when he did his AOW and he had bought all the gear. We had a club trip to the sound of Mull, Scotland, coming up and he booked on it. It was a three day liveaboard on an old converted fishing boat and he hadn't been in the sea or deeper than 20 metres.
As he was so keen, a lot of people were happy to put in the effort to get him some time in the sea, so we organised a few days shore diving in Wales and got him in Dorothea (a very deep quarry) to get him experience of the 30 metres he was qualified too but had not yet dived to. Within about 25 dives, he had dived in crap vis, current and cold water.
He had also booked a Red Sea liveaboard a couple of months later organised by one of the instructors. Officially he had to have 50 dives to do it but it was getting close and he only had 40. He mentioned it to the instructor who told him not to worry - he knew the dive operator and he'd square it with them.
When they came back, I was talking to the instructor who was having a chuckle about him. On the boat, they had everyone sat around the table for their introductions. They had about half the spaces and the rest were mostly lone travellers and couples. Most had about 100 dives and then they got to Alan.
"How many dives have you logged, Alan?"
"Forty-two."
The dive operator looks concerned...
"We've got a bit of a problem here..."
The instructor then chips in,
"Let me assure you, none of the dives will be a problem for him..."
"I'm not sure...Alan, have you ever been on a liveaboard?"
"Yes."
"Where did you do that?"
"Scotland!"
"Ha ha! Welcome aboard Alan!"
We get people all the time coming for refresher courses. They have 100+ logged dives because they have done a liveaboard every year for five years. They don't dive for almost a year and then come for a tune-up in the pool so they can go again. Apparently there were many like them on this trip who were banging into the wreck and going up and down like a whore's knickers while Alan was hovering effortlessly over the wreck thinking 'This is easier than Scotland'.
I dived with a lad a while back. He was a trainee Divemaster and was completely f**king useless. He had been doing two 15 minute dives on a single fill, without even getting out of the water in between. He wanted to get signed off quickly so he could do the IDC and move abroad, working as an instructor. He is now an MSDT after doing some sort of crash course in Thailand. He is passing on his knowledge to novices and has only ever dived in benign training sites.
I appreciate it is difficult to gauge somebody's ability until they are in the water, but one would assume more dives equals more experience and therefore more ability. However, I reserve all judgement until I've dived with somebody. My first thoughts would always be the guy with 200 cold water dives is probably more experienced than the guy with 1,000 dives in a tropical paradise.
Like pretty much everyone else who's responded, I generally stick with the PADI training definition of 20 minutes or more in open water with an average depth of 5m or more, although generally my dives are a lot deeper/longer than that. I don't count confined water, Rescue training, 5-minute bounces to see if somewhere's worth the effort of exploring properly, etc.
I'm like supergaijin - in all honesty, I've lost count. Based on the numbers I get when I do make the effort to keep track, I've probably done 3-3,500 dives. Mind you, I've been saying that for a couple of years! If you work in diving, you can rack up very high numbers very quickly.
Agree with Mustard Dave that dive numbers - especially unverified, on the interweb - are not a meaningful indicator of experience. Apart from the conditions dived in, who would you rather listen to; someone who's done a couple of hundred well-planned, well-executed dives from which they've learned a heap, or someone who's done the same ill-conceived and badly executed dive 1,000 times, getting away with it every time and learning nothing? It never ceases to amaze me how often you can get someone with over 500 dives, who dives regularly, into the water and discover that they're a complete basket case with no idea what they're doing...
I'm like supergaijin - in all honesty, I've lost count. Based on the numbers I get when I do make the effort to keep track, I've probably done 3-3,500 dives. Mind you, I've been saying that for a couple of years! If you work in diving, you can rack up very high numbers very quickly.
Agree with Mustard Dave that dive numbers - especially unverified, on the interweb - are not a meaningful indicator of experience. Apart from the conditions dived in, who would you rather listen to; someone who's done a couple of hundred well-planned, well-executed dives from which they've learned a heap, or someone who's done the same ill-conceived and badly executed dive 1,000 times, getting away with it every time and learning nothing? It never ceases to amaze me how often you can get someone with over 500 dives, who dives regularly, into the water and discover that they're a complete basket case with no idea what they're doing...
CT-Rich
Contributor
My log is larger the more I drink or the prettier the girl...
Generally, for me a dive is logged if I burn enough air to swap out tanks, i wouldn't count a bounce as a dive, and I count skills practice as a dive if it is done in open water, but I seldom do nothing but skills, usually I practice them at the begining or end of a explore. The only reason I log dives is so that I have a reference of activities and places. I Stopped for a number of years because it did serve any particular need. Now I started up again so I have documentation if I want to take courses.
How would you guys log free diving? I don't log them myself, but do others? If I go free diving in an exposure suit or spear fishing, would that count? I have done that hundreds of times and it certainly has added to my overall skill set, and experience in the water.
Generally, for me a dive is logged if I burn enough air to swap out tanks, i wouldn't count a bounce as a dive, and I count skills practice as a dive if it is done in open water, but I seldom do nothing but skills, usually I practice them at the begining or end of a explore. The only reason I log dives is so that I have a reference of activities and places. I Stopped for a number of years because it did serve any particular need. Now I started up again so I have documentation if I want to take courses.
How would you guys log free diving? I don't log them myself, but do others? If I go free diving in an exposure suit or spear fishing, would that count? I have done that hundreds of times and it certainly has added to my overall skill set, and experience in the water.
Mustard Dave
Contributor
I suppose it depends. Are you talking about a SCUBA diver who is doing a bit of freediving adding it to his log book or somebody actively involved in the sport of freediving?
The basic reasons for keeping a log will include some or all of the following, and maybe reasons I've not thought of:
- Evidence of experience for entering further training or where a dive operator requires a certain number of dives
- A record of equipment set-up (for example if you mostly dive in a drysuit and twinset, and are going somewhere sunny, what weight did you have with a 3mm shortie and ally cylinder)
- To help you remember your travels
- To keep notes of useful info for revisiting a site (boat skipper, fill stations, best entry point etc)
- What marine life you saw, details of wrecks etc.
- To monitor air consumption and look for improvement over time
- Willy waving ("I've logged more dives than you, so ner!")
I would not expect it to count towards the first point but the rest are valid reasons.
There are a lot of freedivers at my club. One of the instructors is an AIDA instructor trainer, judge and coaches the British freediving team. I intend to do the AIDA course at some point but haven't got around to it yet. I'm not sure whether they keep log books as such. Competitive stuff is done in the pool (static apnea, dynamic with fins, dynamic without fins), and in open water, depth disciplines such as constant weight, variable weight, no-limits, free immersion. I'm sure competitive freedivers keep some form of records to look for improvements.
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