Destroyed Dive Log

[Jamie Cotter]

Hello Divers,

I just joined scuba board. I have been diving for a little over two years. I am advanced certified and have done 58 dives.

I was doing some research diving in Madagascar, and keeping my dive log in my dive bag (stupid). While out on a dive once, the ocean shredded the pages, and I lost all of my dives.

What should I do? Do I have to start over from zero?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Joneill]

Hello Divers,

I just joined scuba board. I have been diving for a little over two years. I am advanced certified and have done 58 dives.

I was doing some research diving in Madagascar, and keeping my dive log in my dive bag (stupid). While out on a dive once, the ocean shredded the pages, and I lost all of my dives.

What should I do? Do I have to start over from zero?

Thanks in advance!

Not sure how to recover the 58 you lost - but would suggest switching to an electronic logbook moving forward and keeping a backup on the Cloud! Make sure your backup also includes a universal file format in case the dive log app you use ever “goes under”.

 

[Aviyes]

Depends on the dive computer you were using. Many retain at least the last 25 dives, so you would be able to recover the basic info of depth and time. However, unless you need the dive count for a specific course or training in your future, does it really matter if you start over or recover what dives you can and continue on?

 

[scrane]

Why do you need a record of your dives?

 

[SandyRobinson]

I would recreate the basic information of the dives as much as possible from memory and my buddies and then start again with #59. Basic info may be location, date range, buddies, and anything interesting. Good luck

 

[Jamie Cotter]

Why do you need a record of your dives?

I am planning to get rescue and DM at some point.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Hello Divers,

I just joined scuba board. I have been diving for a little over two years. I am advanced certified and have done 58 dives.

I was doing some research diving in Madagascar, and keeping my dive log in my dive bag (stupid). While out on a dive once, the ocean shredded the pages, and I lost all of my dives.

What should I do? Do I have to start over from zero?

Thanks in advance!

Further to what Aviyes said, I would ask myself: What kind of information did my dive log contain that I would like to be able to look up in the future? You don't "have" to keep a log at all--it isn't like there is some authority out there that checks dive logs. Almost no dive operators anywhere in the world ask to actually see a log. So we keep logs mainly for our own personal benefit. And all of us don't keep dive logs for the same reasons. Some of us want to be able to recall how much lead we needed to sink ourselves while using a certain gear combination. Some of us want to be able to recall what we saw on various dives, the depths, the temperatures, the names of the dive operators we dived with, or other such information. I would suggest that you identify what kinds of information are important to you to be able to look up in the future and then try your best to reconstruct a log. If you had been using one of those one-page-per-dive logs, don't bother with reconstructing all that; just make up a few pages that note whatever you can recall now that you think you may not be able to recall in the future. Probably the most important bit of data is your dive count. Start the next entry at number "59" and don't worry about it.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I am planning to get rescue and DM at some point.

Your Rescue instructor almost certainly will not ask to see a physical log as a prerequisite; at most you will be asked to state in good faith that you have done X number of dives.

 

[broncobowsher]

Do you have a dive computer you can download some off of? That would be a start.

 

[Angelo Farina]

I can ensure you that you can live also without log book.
I logged everything during my first 10 years of scuba diving, years 1975-85.
See it here:
http://www.angelofarina.it/Public/Underwater-Certifications/Logbook_1975-1985.pdf
Almost 250 dives.
Then I became a professional instructor, started working in resorts, and doing 150-200 dives PER YEAR.
So I simply gave up.
After 5 years as a pro I went back to be a normal rec diver, and subsequently a scientific diver. I never logged anything anymore, and this had never been a problem.
Sometimas I regret that decision, and I would like to have some note of a memorable dive..
But the time wasted and the effort required, on the end, were too heavy compared with these minimal satisfactions provided supplementing my aging memories.