Will a dive operator really want to check my logbook?

[mje113]

I'm just about to book a stay at Osprey Beach Resort in T&C through PADI travel and noticed this:

• Your proof of certification and logbook will be checked during check-in at the dive center to clarify level and experience: it is your responsibility to ensure you bring these with you and your diving could be at risk if you do not bring these

Is it really the norm to check logbooks? I stopped logging dives 23 years ago after I got certified. Granted, I probably only average a couple dives a year, but without a logbook do I risk getting turned away?

 

[Bigbella]

I haven't kept a logbook since college, an embarrassingly-long time ago (and only because it had been required for a class) -- and no one has ever asked for one.

Must be my filed-down teeth and surly disposition . . .

 

[bradlw]

I'm looking forward to the current answers....

I'm guessing you've been active diving off your own boat or something similar.....

based on my experience when last active 20 years ago, I remember most operators asking things such as
number of dives in the last year
how long ago was your last dive
deepest dive or deepest dive in the last year
but I do not recall anyone asking to to actually see a log book.... maybe once, or maybe there were times when I had the book handy to look up the date of my last dive and that was good enough for them..... so they didn't need to see it.

I fully expect that if I answer those questions honestly right now, logbook or no, that they would severely limit my dives or they would send me down with a divemaster.....
I'm sure I could do a few dives in my own pool...maybe a few shore dives someplace or dive off my own boat so that I can answer with "recent dives"...and it would probably be good.
but for just plain good sense, and maybe even more so as an excuse to build memories with my kids, I'm planning to join them when they get certified by taking a refresher class...getting some dives logged and maybe even proof that I did the refresher....

If I were you, and I'm assuming you have been active, I would get a paper and pencil and as honestly as you can write down the dives you've done in the last few months or the last year. Nobody cares I think if the dates are a bit wrong or if you log 80ft but it was really 75ft..... just document some recent history honestly, and that I'm thinking would be good enough for your trip.

 

[scubadada]

It might be best to check with the operator you will be using, I assume Blue Water Divers. If you don't have a log, do you have some of your dives on your dive computer log?

25 years, 2250 dives, resorts and liveaboards, I have never been asked for my log. Cert cards, yes, # of dives, yes, last dive, yes.

Some operators do suggest or require a refresher if your last dive has been x time ago. Some operators require AOW or recent experience for certain dives.

 

[mje113]

Thanks!

Yeah, I haven't been super active since my kids were born, but have done my own dives off a charter sailboat and just never considered logging anything. I did a few dives off a cruise back in December and did see some people getting turned away because they hadn't had a dive within 2 years--but it was just a verbal "yes" or "no", they didn't ask for proof.

 

[mcohen1021]

I stopped logging dives 23 years ago after I got certified

Sounds like you better remember real fast and write em all down. After you're caught up, I'll have you do mine, which stopped in 1998 lmao

 

[Lorenzoid]

My speculation is that if you tell them you only average a couple of dives a year and don't have a log book they will take you to the same beginner-level dive sites they would have taken you to if you had shown them a log book with evidence that you have been doing about two dives a year for 23 years.

 

[mje113]

It might be best to check with the operator you will be using, I assume Blue Water Divers. If you don't have a log, do you have some of your dives on your dive computer log?

Oh, that's a good idea. I'll check with them once things are booked. Not sure about computer logs... I just resuscitated an old Mares Puck that's had a dead battery for about 10 years. Not sure if it still has anything in memory.

25 years, 2250 dives, resorts and liveaboards, I have never been asked for my log. Cert cards, yes, # of dives, yes, last dive, yes.

Wow! That's a lot of dives! 23 years for me, but an embarrassingly fewer amount than you! Last dive was just December so hoping that'll work.

 

[Doc]

Some savvy dive-ops just look at your gear. It can serve as a “log book”. (as in, “can you still get parts for that?”)

Pix on your c-card of a much younger person also hold sway.

@Lorenzoid is right, all new guests get treated the same way, to the same initial dive sites- no one is trusted … as an unknown quantity.

T&C draws a large number of divers who are not widely experienced in challenging situations, it’s the nature due to ease of travel access, topside diversions, more of a vacation with diving kind-of island.

Go with it, do the required check-out dives, go with the flow.

 

[Pressurehead]

Some savvy dive-ops just look at your gear. It can serve as a “log book”. (as in, “can you still get parts for that?”)

It can run the other way, when I had a dive charter I would look at some gear and think " when was the last time that was serviced, or even used?".
Now I just flash the Shearwater app on my phone to showing enough to satisfy the operator, and I was asked on one trip to the GBR last year.
So keep a record.