What sort of things do you like to put in your Logbook?

[Ana]

All the data mentioned above will be useful within 5 or 10 years, but after 20 years or more you won't care about the hard data.

If I was to do it all over again I would keep a book for hard data, and a parallel book with descriptions. Some dives you may just say it was "ok" or "cold" or "too short" or maybe even nothing, but there would be others that you may fill several paragraphs or maybe several pages.

20 or 30 years later those would be the entries that would make you go: oh yeah... I had forgotten about that day.

 

[drbill]

Unfortunately my log books from 1961 to 2000 are MIA. I returned to logging my dives in 2000 when I planned to finally do international trips after I lost my fear of flying.

My log entries are very basic: Date, location, max depth, duration, min water temperature and buddy or solo and camera equipment. Of course I carry a video camera ion almost every dive so that is how I "log" the marine life I see.

 

[ScubaSteve]

amount of weight and its distribution

I find this is often overlooked but can be critical. Slapping on 20# of lead may get you to the bottom but will likely do nothing to help your trim or enjoyment of the dive. At present I am only about to start logging dives again but this is an important piece of information. Each gear configuration may require weight in a different spot to keep yourself in good trim. OR if you are just trying things out you need to know what you tried and if it worked.

 

[Sam Miller III]

Professional diving log books were unknown in the diving world until 1967 when LA Co UIA established the world's first and foremost ADP and concurently published a very comprehensive LA Co Dive log, which are still published with out modification and are still in use by LA Co ADP & UICCs.

sdm

 

[imwright1985]

Besides the date, location, time and depth, what sort of things do you keep track of? What have you wrote down that you felt you wanted to look at 1 year or 5 or 10 years down the road?

weight, equipment, Start air, end air, terrain, fish, dive characteristics (current movement, clarity) dive buddy, swimming characteristics.

Weight, equipment and air consumption gives you an idea of your dive efficiency for configuration your diving

Sights you see will help trigger some memories so you know how much you enjoy the dive and if its something worth going back to if there is a tendancy to always be particular marine life there.

Dive characteristics so you know what to expect for visibility, temperatures and if its a heavy current often through the area

dive buddy so you know who you dove with and make notations on them (comprable air consumption, if you stayed in a well versed communication, if they dove with a different assertiveness in their dive approach)

swim characteristics (If you had to fight current alot to enjoy some of the sights) Fighting current causes air consumption to drop but if it is a nice pace you can use the current for your traveling but lightly fightit to enjoy some sights, take pictures or spearfish

I have software for my dive computer that allows me different equipment configurations, locations and add notes, monitors my air consumption input my dive partner and make notes on them, and attach pictures. With filling it all out I can easily recall my dives and see my first dives with certain partners and see improvements and bad dives where I Guzzled air (very high current anchored dive I did) Spots I dove that have had almost no life and others that were consistantly loaded with life.

 

[Thalassamania]

Professional diving log books were unknown in the diving world until 1967 when LA Co UIA established the world's first and foremost ADP and concurently published a very comprehensive LA Co Dive log, which are still published with out modification and are still in use by LA Co ADP & UICCs.

sdm

Er ... Sam, Andy Rechnitzer once showed me copies of his logs from Scripps from the early 1950s ... I'd call that a Professional diving log book - another Scripps first!

 

[w ripley]

I like to record bottom and top temps, as several years go by and I forget what they were. We've got a lot of offshore wrecks and it's nice to know what to expect when you get there. Nothing like getting to the bottom and find a 45 degree temp when you had planned for 65 degrees. The logging of that data has really helped, even for the quarries for winter diving.

I like to draw pictures on the back side of the previous dive sheet. Where to penetrate the wreck, where the cave line is located at the entry, how the wreck looks so I'll have a better idea how to navigate it next time, where I saw that porthole, what the cave looked like when I found the jump, etc. The pixs are especially nice when trying to describe to a new diver at the site what he or she can expect to see. They always come back and say what a help it was.

I find that I am looking at my log books (couldn't get everything into one) all the time, not to recall past memories but to refresh the memory I have.

When I was on OC I recorded my final pressures, especially when cave diving or doing very deep dives. Recording the time and pressures when I turned in the cave has helped me plan my next dive to that spot much better. Trimix gases have always been recorded, but I find I always run the mix programs anew for every dive anyway, so not much value there.

For me, it's the dives that I don't do on a regular basis that makes my log so valuable.

 

[Sam Miller III]

Knew Andy very well, he never mentioned the log book to me. Perhaps Jim might have some historical knowledge of the SIO requirement

Recognizing SIOs pioneer postition in the diving world I am certain they had a dive log requirement. I also suspect the USN had dive logs as soon as SCUBA was introduced by Doug Fane in the late 1940s

However, I was under the impression the subject was "civilian dive logs" - Not a California educational requirement or a USN regulation.

Therefore LACo was the FIRST!

SDM

 

[Thalassamania]

I think that you're splitting hairs, but given my respect for you and my love for LACo, I won't fight it.

 

[Heath Sapp]

I like to add if it was a spring dive, drift dive, No vis dive, deep. That way I can just open my book that was I have 38 deep, dives 80 spring, 25 no vis. ect. Just something I like to know. I have been told I take my log book to serious. I got back into diving on 5-1-09 and now just logged 122 hours under water.