electronic format is not the best for quick browsing
Really? I have all of my dives in my log, with extensive details on each one. 600+ dives on my laptop, I sync it with my phone, so wherever and whenever I am diving, I can pull up whatever information I need in a second. Very useful for looking up weighting when you dive with different rigs and exposure suits. I can quickly see all the times I did a given dive, or had a certain buddy, or used a particular piece of gear.
Gotta say, these threads mystify me. I mean, I'm assuming that people aren't writing their posts on postcards and mailing them to scubaboard headquarters, right? So we all have the basic equipment for a digital log. The software cost is trivial, some programs are free, the best Mac program by far is $25 shareware (Mac Dive). If you want to use a website, there are dozens of free ones out there, you can start logging dives immediately, you don't need any sort of special skill or access.
If you have a dive computer that syncs with a computer (pretty common these days), you have a big head start since you have a lot of data available that you don't even need to transcribe, including a perfect profile of your dive that you would never have with a paper log and which can come in handy in accident analysis, dive planning, etc...
I'm a data junkie, and I love my log. I just like looking at old dive entries, and since I can type the comments up much quicker than I could handwrite them (with unlimited space), I tend to write a lot more so it becomes a dive journal.
Finally, I don't understand why anyone would be OK with having the entirety of one's diving history on a single paper object. And not even one that stays safely at home in your desk drawer. A paper object that you take with you on a dive boat! If anything happens to that, or if you lose it, that's it, it's gone forever.
If you want a printed log for some reason, you can always print out a digital log file. The "legal document" argument doesn't hold water IMHO either - has someone really been refused a dive or a course (recently) because they only had a digital log? Yes, you could fake a digital log, but you could fake a paper one too, if you were stupid enough to do something like that. It's a dive log, not a passport.
Seriously, I can't think of a single reason why anyone would use a paper log book in 2013, unless you are really into those little stamps that some places give out. You can even store buddy signatures if you like, and I guess you could scan the stamp or something and store it if that was important to you.
Sorry, my 2 psi! Feel free to tell me that I'm wrong...
to Damselfish . . . my, ahem, dive log being almost exactly like yours. Get the offtheshelf notebook from the stationery store, with insert pockets. (sorry laughing away at myself here, not laughing at you)
