Ok, so just like the title reads...What constitutes a logged dive? Is it diving with a buddy and coming back alive? Is it diving with an instructor? Do people just take your word for it that you have logged 1,00 dives? Just curious.
What constitutes a logged dive?
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for me, I have adapted the minimum of 20 minutes, deeper than 20 feet. I have my computer set to not log anything that doesnt meet that min requirement. I know of people that no matter what happens, if they drop under the surface, and then come back up, thats a dive. Drop a mask on a 15 foot platform, drop down, pick it up and come back, thats a dive. I would very hard pressed to go through my log book and find anything that wasnt a class shorter than 30 minutes though.
I would say any open water dive. Experience gained in an open water environment, even if it is only 15 minutes could prove valuable. I don't log pool dives, but if you wanted to i don't see why not.
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- I just don't log dives
"Logged" = dive recorded in a written logbook &/or by a dive computer.
That being said, the rest is subjective. Dubiously, some boost their numbers by counting every submersion in scuba no matter how short or shallow (even to 3 ft to clean the pool filter). Training organizations generally count 20 mins/20 ft as a minimum.
It's about documenting your true experience. If documenting a very short dive, were there circumstances that made it a learning experience worth remembering/sharing?
Logs are for you as you discover the 3/4ths of the Earth that is underwater. You will be asked to show logs as you pursue further training or at some dive destinations that offer spectacular but challenging dives and want to see that you have the experience/training to make those dives safely.
That being said, the rest is subjective. Dubiously, some boost their numbers by counting every submersion in scuba no matter how short or shallow (even to 3 ft to clean the pool filter). Training organizations generally count 20 mins/20 ft as a minimum.
It's about documenting your true experience. If documenting a very short dive, were there circumstances that made it a learning experience worth remembering/sharing?
Logs are for you as you discover the 3/4ths of the Earth that is underwater. You will be asked to show logs as you pursue further training or at some dive destinations that offer spectacular but challenging dives and want to see that you have the experience/training to make those dives safely.
BlueDevil
Contributor
What you choose to log is entirely up to your personal preference, there are no 'regulations' or 'accepted practice' when it comes to this.
Personally I don't log any pool dives since I just see them as training sessions and are not part of my 'diving history' that I see any need to recall at a later date.
I log all open water dives, I don't set any time limit on what constitutes a logged dive. With due respect to the choice of the previous poster who chooses to log only dives greater than 20 min I cannot for the life of me figure out why you wouldn't log a dive of, say, 15 mins while you would log one of 20. I have done dives that have been quite short but nevertheless significant in some way and definitely dives that I would want to remember.
I do a lot of quite shallow dives since I have an area only 5 mins drive from home that provides very good, but shallow, diving. Many of my logged dives are around 3-4 m (10 - 13 ft). These are great dives and I definitely want to log them - if I applied the "greater than 20ft concept" I would probably 'lose' about 60% of my annual logged dives. Seems ridiculous to me!
I do however agree that if I did a very short dive, say of only a couple of minutes, for no other purpose than recovering a rod some fisherman had droped over the side of a pier I would probably not log it. However if something of significance happened while I was down there that was worthy of note I probably would log it (eg a great white swims past!!) Or maybe I may have to abort a dive early on and the reason I had to abort is of significance and something I want to record as a learning experience - so I would log it.
As I said, it all comes down to personal choice - its your logbook so you can put anything in it that you want!
Personally I don't log any pool dives since I just see them as training sessions and are not part of my 'diving history' that I see any need to recall at a later date.
I log all open water dives, I don't set any time limit on what constitutes a logged dive. With due respect to the choice of the previous poster who chooses to log only dives greater than 20 min I cannot for the life of me figure out why you wouldn't log a dive of, say, 15 mins while you would log one of 20. I have done dives that have been quite short but nevertheless significant in some way and definitely dives that I would want to remember.
I do a lot of quite shallow dives since I have an area only 5 mins drive from home that provides very good, but shallow, diving. Many of my logged dives are around 3-4 m (10 - 13 ft). These are great dives and I definitely want to log them - if I applied the "greater than 20ft concept" I would probably 'lose' about 60% of my annual logged dives. Seems ridiculous to me!
I do however agree that if I did a very short dive, say of only a couple of minutes, for no other purpose than recovering a rod some fisherman had droped over the side of a pier I would probably not log it. However if something of significance happened while I was down there that was worthy of note I probably would log it (eg a great white swims past!!) Or maybe I may have to abort a dive early on and the reason I had to abort is of significance and something I want to record as a learning experience - so I would log it.
As I said, it all comes down to personal choice - its your logbook so you can put anything in it that you want!
divestoclimb
Contributor
A diver's logbook is a practice borrowed from aviation but unlike in flying there's no one who enforces any aspect of it. I keep my dives logged on my laptop in a database, which doesn't always come with me on trips. I've never had someone actually ask to review my logbook other than for training/certification purposes, though I do get questions like "how many dives do you have" or "when was your last dive" on some boats' release forms.
DIVESeekers Jason
Registered
Very well put olli!
We have divers that log every dive they do and we have divers that only log dives that are important to them or that are in a certain genre such as (wreck dives, cave dives, rebreather dives, Ice Dives etc..). Oh yeah some of us get to lazy and never get around to it
.From a Training Dive Perspective, an "Open Water Dive" consists of:
A Dive must take place in an Open Body of water such as a Lake, River, Ocean etc.
A student diver must spend the majority of the time at a depth of at least 15' and:
a. Remains submerged for at least 20 minutes
OR
b. breathes at least 50 cuft or 1400 liters of compressed gas
Yes, it is possible for an individual to consume 50 cuft in less than 20 minutes.Cheers
Guba
Contributor
My logbook is a learning tool and it's totally for me, as opposed to something that is supposed to impress someone else. Therefore, if I find a dive significant (read that memorable) for any reason, then I log it so that I can review it later. It might be a new gear configuration, a cool location, a unique set of circumstances, or perhaps just because I'm diving with someone new or special. For that reason, I've logged a pool dive (I was asked to film a discovery dive session for a group of educators I had presented a workshop to), some short dives (one about fifteen minutes...a "search and recovery" dive that presented special challenges), and one "dive" that lasted only about four minutes and we barely left the surface (an emergency situation in which I learned a LOT in a very short amount of time--absolutely deserving of a place in the logbook).
After all, your dive log is YOURS. Put whatever you wish into it.
After all, your dive log is YOURS. Put whatever you wish into it.
DiveMaven
Contributor
I have to agree that a log book is for YOU, so you should decide what you want to log in it.
Some people like to write pool "dives" in their log books since they practice skills and find it valuable time. However, I've never heard of anyone who assigns a pool session a "dive number", so they are "logged" but not part of the total number of dives.
Some people like to write pool "dives" in their log books since they practice skills and find it valuable time. However, I've never heard of anyone who assigns a pool session a "dive number", so they are "logged" but not part of the total number of dives.
Thanks for starting this - I've had the same question being a new diver. The Baltimore Aquarium volunteer program requires 30 logged dives - I have 2 pool entries in there because they were long (90 min) and I wanted to remember what I had worked on since it was practice for my wreck cert. Also, they are on my computer. So I started questioning whether I qualified. Finally decided to wait until next year's training/acceptance period so I can just dive and have fun for awhile but it is interesting to hear other peoples perspective on logbooks.
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