scrane
Contributor
Although I do not log dives I do advocate obtaining C-cards.
The Importance of Logging your Dives. The Advantages for new divers (and old)
- Thread starter Gary_Ward
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Avonthediver
Contributor
I have seen thos same type of post over and over and over through the years.
Some do log some don't, I have only been asked one time and that was just a glance not even a real look!
So my two cents is I have always logged my dives and kept good records of what every aspect of the day or trip was. And I'm getting older so I like to reminisce so I have built my own log pages and season summary and packed as much information as I can into every dive and learning experience
I'll attach a pdf of my log pages.
Enjoy
Some do log some don't, I have only been asked one time and that was just a glance not even a real look!
So my two cents is I have always logged my dives and kept good records of what every aspect of the day or trip was. And I'm getting older so I like to reminisce so I have built my own log pages and season summary and packed as much information as I can into every dive and learning experience
I'll attach a pdf of my log pages.
Enjoy
I never really logged many dives over the many decades I've been diving. I started diving seriously in the late 60s, though I had done many shallow dives years earlier when I was in high school. My training was from books, and I was not certified until 1972 through NASDS, when shops began requiring a C card to fill your tank. That's when I did do some dive logging, especially when I began doing deeper dives on WW2 wrecks off the Jersey and NC coasts. It was useful for planning future dives to an extent, but since most of my other dives were pretty routine shallow jetty and inlet dives, there really seemed to be no point. In fact, it seemed rather silly, like a high school girl keeping a diary of her dates.
I did a great deal of diving in the Caribbean at various times, and lived in Jamaica for extended periods, once for more than a year after separating from the service. It was a great mental health restorative. I dived almost every day there for weeks at a time. It was all pretty simple and repetitive, sometimes assisting a small Jamaican operator from his dive shop on the beach, a shack, really, that could be moved according to the wishes of various property owners. Conditions varied over the months at the dozen or so sites we dived, but there was nothing particularly important to write down, except for legal and business reasons that did not concern me.
I have happy and vivid memories of those hundreds of dives, a few much more than others. I saw some wonderful things, and encountered some unforgettable people. All of this is bright and vivid in my mind. I was recently asked on this board about an American dive operator who ran a shop in Negril back in the mid-70s. I was able to come up with his name instantly, as well as the many conversations we had as two of the very few Americans in the area. I remember all of it, as well as my encounters with people who became famous in later years, several as reggae stars. It was all of a piece, my life on land, and in the water. Writing down times, depths, water temps, and other details seemed irrelevant, just like counting total dives. Separating diving from everything else you are doing seems unnatural. Again, it reminds me of a teenager's diary.
Highly advanced technical divers may need to keep detailed records of what they are doing, but I have never seen the importance for a casual sport diver like me. If you enjoy doing so, that's great, but I don't think it makes anyone a better diver. At one point in my teens I dived solo for lobsters two or three nights each week in the summer in local inlets. Should I have kept a record? I remember them well. That's enough for me.
I did a great deal of diving in the Caribbean at various times, and lived in Jamaica for extended periods, once for more than a year after separating from the service. It was a great mental health restorative. I dived almost every day there for weeks at a time. It was all pretty simple and repetitive, sometimes assisting a small Jamaican operator from his dive shop on the beach, a shack, really, that could be moved according to the wishes of various property owners. Conditions varied over the months at the dozen or so sites we dived, but there was nothing particularly important to write down, except for legal and business reasons that did not concern me.
I have happy and vivid memories of those hundreds of dives, a few much more than others. I saw some wonderful things, and encountered some unforgettable people. All of this is bright and vivid in my mind. I was recently asked on this board about an American dive operator who ran a shop in Negril back in the mid-70s. I was able to come up with his name instantly, as well as the many conversations we had as two of the very few Americans in the area. I remember all of it, as well as my encounters with people who became famous in later years, several as reggae stars. It was all of a piece, my life on land, and in the water. Writing down times, depths, water temps, and other details seemed irrelevant, just like counting total dives. Separating diving from everything else you are doing seems unnatural. Again, it reminds me of a teenager's diary.
Highly advanced technical divers may need to keep detailed records of what they are doing, but I have never seen the importance for a casual sport diver like me. If you enjoy doing so, that's great, but I don't think it makes anyone a better diver. At one point in my teens I dived solo for lobsters two or three nights each week in the summer in local inlets. Should I have kept a record? I remember them well. That's enough for me.
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Yes, I too have mentioned that it seems anytime a log book question comes up it becomes another long thread with basically the same responses (guilty here too). Guess we just like the topic.
To ME, "better diver" means more than just better in-water skills. More than just better buoyancy or better trim. It also encompasses the idea of being better prepared. A dive log can (can - sometimes, not always) enable a person to be better prepared for an upcoming dive by providing information from a previous dive, or dives. Information that they may not be able to just remember off the top of their head.
"It's been 2 years since I did a drysuit dive in salt water. How much weight do I need? Hmmm... Let me check my log from 2 years ago..."
"It's been 3 years since I dived off Kona. What water temp do I need to prepare for next week? Let me check my log from 3 years ago..."
Of course I know how much weight I need for my various wet suits. I mostly dive in warmer water, frequently with only a lycra skin, so weights are not a big issue. I know what I need with my 1mm suit in wintertime Caribbean water, and what I need with my 3mm and 5mm when diving local waters in the low to mid 70s. I'd never rely on what water temps might be based on the same date even a year ago. I'd find out for sure what they are now. I'm not interested in dry suits. Easy mobility and sleek outline are my objectives.
No, I think you gave one good example (weight with different suits) and one very poor example (water temps three years ago on similar date) of the usefulness of record keeping. I keep important records. I don't log dives in the sense that term is usually employed. I note problems with various dive operations, various government regulations in different islands, transport issues, availability of essentials and other things, food, etc., in the more remote places I prefer going to, names of people to contact regarding renting houses or cottages (I detest 'dive' hotels and resorts in general), car/suv rental policies, local drivers license processes, the quality of things to see in local forests and jungles, land wildlife, when things like mangos and ginip comes into season, the addresses/phone numbers of friends I've made, all sorts of things indexed by destination. General observations about sea conditions, currents, clarity, wave activity that may affect my ability to snorkel at dawn, and water conditions in general that seem to be specific to a given location are also in my location records. The minutia of what happened on each dive is, to my mind, less important.
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Agree to check current water temps.
Disagree on log book for weight records--use one sheet of paper for all possibilities based on previous weight checks & dives.
Disagree on log book for weight records--use one sheet of paper for all possibilities based on previous weight checks & dives.
Crikey! You guys can root around in the weeds all day, if you want.
The point was that keeping a log CAN help a diver to be better prepared for an upcoming dive. Which - to my mind - DOES mean that having a log can make you a better diver.
Peace, out, yo.
The point was that keeping a log CAN help a diver to be better prepared for an upcoming dive. Which - to my mind - DOES mean that having a log can make you a better diver.
Peace, out, yo.
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