Why dive in a quarry? Should you log them

[Lorenzoid]

Does this thread also apply to ponds, rivers, inlets, lagoons, etc.--in other words, any place with less challenging conditions than the open ocean? I dived once in a quarry, and the thermocline scared me off for a long time--my buddy said my face turned white as a sheet just before I thumbed the dive. Now that I have a drysuit, I'd be willing to go back with an open mind. In the meantime, I have enjoyed diving in all kinds of places that are less challenging than the open ocean. If there is something about a dive I want to keep a record of, then I record it in my logbook. Some dives I don't record. Some dives I tally up in my running "total number of dives" and others I might record some information for but not add it to my "number." I don't have rigid criteria. Not that it's common, but if a dive op were ever to ask how many dives I have done deeper than X feet within the last Y months or whatever, I could go back and count them.

One of my favorite dives in FL is Blue Heron Bridge, where the maximum depth reaches around 25 feet. The attraction is that it's sort of a nursery for a diverse range of marine life. I know plenty of people log their BHB dives. There are some who live nearby that seem to dive BHB exclusively. It's a lot more benign than a quarry. But if you are the type who just isn't into marine life, then I suppose a quarry might be more interesting to you than a place like BHB. If a place suits your interests--if that is where YOU enjoy doing your diving--then why would you not record those dives in your log book?

 

[Clark Fletcher]

So, to summarize:

1) To all of you who completed certification of any kind while diving in a quarry, immediately return your certification cards to your respective certifying agencies and start over.
2) To all certifying agencies, please clarify in your certification requirements that henceforth quarries will be excluded from acceptable locations to complete certification dives.

Hope this helps. LOL.

 

[Doby45]

1) To all of you who completed certification of any kind while diving in a quarry, immediately return your certification cards to your respective certifying agencies and start over.

Owwwwww damn! *kicks a rock and hands in C card*

 

[stuartv]

Not that it's common, but if a dive op were ever to ask how many dives I have done deeper than X feet within the last Y months or whatever, I could go back and count them.

One of the things I like about Subsurface is being able to sort my dive list based on pretty much any column (not that other logging software can't do the same thing). I just sorted on depth and found that out of 141 dives total, I have 35 past 100 feet. None in a quarry. Some were training dives. They are all in my log and "count". I could do the same thing to figure out how many times I have dived a particular site, or how many times I have dived in my drysuit, or whatever.

I download all my dives, including pool dives, so I have a record of what I did and when. It's a lot easier than trying to somehow only download dives that are non-pool dives. I set the dive # for the pool dives to 0 and skip them in numbering all the dives, so they don't count in my total. For quarry training sessions, it's pretty common to have things show in the log as multiple individual dives because of coming to the surface for long enough that the dive computer "ends" the dive. For those, I select all of them and do a Merge, so all those dips are combined and only show as 1 dive in my log. If I actually get out of the water for any amount of time and then get back in, then I leave it to count as more than 1 dive.

 

[They call me Tater]

So does DAN count quarry accidents in their statistics or dont those get recorded?

(sarcasm light)

 

[HantsDiver]

So does DAN count quarry accidents in their statistics or dont those get recorded?

(sarcasm light)

Does DAN count pool accidents due to scuba in their statistics or don't those get recorded?

I'm asking not to be sarcastic but because I don't know. If your criteria for logging dives is what DAN does if they do then you should too

So, to summarize:

1) To all of you who completed certification of any kind while diving in a quarry, immediately return your certification cards to your respective certifying agencies and start over.
2) To all certifying agencies, please clarify in your certification requirements that henceforth quarries will be excluded from acceptable locations to complete certification dives.

Hope this helps. LOL.

Quarry dives are fine for training. But your only qualified within the limitations of your training. So if you did your courses in a quarry you should get extra training before jumping into the ocean. People don't but ideally they should. They are not trained to dive in the sea.

 

[Lorenzoid]

One of the things I like about Subsurface is being able to sort my dive list based on pretty much any column (not that other logging software can't do the same thing). I just sorted on depth and found that out of 141 dives total, I have 35 past 100 feet. None in a quarry. Some were training dives. They are all in my log and "count". I could do the same thing to figure out how many times I have dived a particular site, or how many times I have dived in my drysuit, or whatever. . . .

That kind of sorting/filtering capability is the ONLY reason why I would consider an electronic logbook. I love my paper logbook, but I have to admit it would be useful to get "stats" like that. Subsurface, eh? Can I download directly from my Shearwater? I may have to grudgingly enter the 21st century.

 

[Colliam7]

I didn't and don't consider training dives to be actual open water dives.

would you mind developing this thought a bit more? Please understand, I am not taking issue with, or exception to, the thought. Rather, I am particularly interested as an Instructor in better understanding the thinking. Perhaps, you could also share some background on the environment in which you completed you OW training. Thanks.

 

[stuartv]

That kind of sorting/filtering capability is the ONLY reason why I would consider an electronic logbook. I love my paper logbook, but I have to admit it would be useful to get "stats" like that. Subsurface, eh? Can I download directly from my Shearwater? I may have to grudgingly enter the 21st century.

Free download from here: Subsurface

Versions for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

There is also a mobile companion app, which offers some of the functionality of the desktop version, but definitely not all. I don't think there is any support for downloading from your dive computer directly into the mobile app, for example. And the dive planner that is in the desktop version is also not in the mobile version, I don't think.

Also, Subsurface will download directly from many, many dive computers, including almost all the Shearwater computers. But, it does not yet have Bluetooth LE support, so it won't yet download directly from the Perdix AI. However, you can download from the Perdix AI into the Shearwater Desktop app, export the data, then import it into Subsurface, if you want. That is not a perfect process yet, either. But, for downloading from my Atom, Petrel 2, TX-1, and Seabear it has been pretty much flawless. And the data from all of them is combined in one log. Where there are two versions of the same dive, from two different computers, Subsurface automatically combines them so the dive only shows once in the log. But when you view the dive you can toggle the displayed profile to show any of the different computers that logged that dive.

One thing I'm not sure about is how it decides which computer's data to use when it displays, for example, max depth, since invariably my different computers do not record exactly the same depth, dive time, temperature, etc..

 

[FinnMom]

I love quarry dives and I live just 45-60 mins from the sea (drive time depends on the season). We've even got boats readily available. But even if you stay in sheltered areas, there are often times you can't so easy dive the sea: wind, waves, lousy vis, no skipper or just too little time. Ice can also be an inconvience.
Quarries are like lakes with vastly clearer water and usually more depth than a Finnish lake. If you really enjoy being underwater, the place really doesn't matter. I can have fun with nothing to look at but the underside of the water, the streaks of sun thru the water or a single small perch huddling next to a leaf 1/10 his size obviously thinking "I'm hidden, you can't see me!".
Did you know that if you get caught in a quarry in a real heavy rain it looks like a million silver swords being thrust thru the surface? You can also set up underwater navigation courses, play with your reels or in the middle of absolutely nowhere on a plain bottom leave a sack labled "[insert diving friend's name here]" with a beer inside to surprise your friend next time they happen across the same small piece of nowhere.
Most of us can't do ocean dives or "big" (demanding) dives all the time. If you dive nonetheless and have no regrets, I bet your diving skills show it. Competence is a muscle: it needs exercise. It's also a lot more fun to be around people who can spend a hour underwater, in 3m vis, report seeing mud, 3 rocks and one plant, and still be smiling.
So dive where ever you can and whatever you enjoy. If your diving isn't good enough for someone else, that's their choice.