Electronic log book to certify dives by Dive Master or Instructor?

[MrTW]

Hi there,

over the last 18something years of diving I stopped bothering to log my dives at one point as I started (and lost) too many paper log books.

I am now contemplating a dive master certification and realize that I don't have any logged dives to show.

Question is whether there is an electronic dive log book, which provides the feature of ‘certifying’ dives by a dive master/instructor through an electronic sign off process.

I thought that Padi’s Scubaearth would provide that function but apparently that site simply gives an option of sharing logged dives socially but without certifying a dive.

Would anyone know if an electronic dive log certification does exist, which can replace a paper log book?

 

[gr8jab]

Is there even such a thing as a 'certified' dive? What exactly is that? A dive with a signature from ... whom?

PADI prerequisite for Dive Master is:

• At least 40 logged dives to begin the course and 60 dives to earn certification.

They don't say anything about a 'certified' dive. I've gotten a few stamps in my paper log book, but never asked for (or been offered) a signature from an instructor to make the dive 'certified'.

Maybe I'm ignorant of how things work, but a logged dive is a logged dive, whatever the logging method (electronic or paper). I don't think any official 'certification' is needed. My pilot's log book is another story...

Someone here more learned than I, correct me if I'm confused.

 

[MrTW]

Is there even such a thing as a 'certified' dive? What exactly is that? A dive with a signature from ... whom?

PADI prerequisite for Dive Master is:

• At least 40 logged dives to begin the course and 60 dives to earn certification.

They don't say anything about a 'certified' dive. I've gotten a few stamps in my paper log book, but never asked for (or been offered) a signature from an instructor to make the dive 'certified'.

Maybe I'm ignorant of how things work, but a logged dive is a logged dive, whatever the logging method (electronic or paper). I don't think any official 'certification' is needed. My pilot's log book is another story...

Someone here more learned than I, correct me if I'm confused.

Very good point.

My understanding of a certified dive is a log with stamp and signature of a dive master or instructor.

Would be interesting to see what kind of log information an instructor actually checks when starting the dive master course.

Perhaps a padi instructor here would have some feedback?

 

[Pedro Burrito]

When I was going through my Instructor Development Course, my Course Director asked each person in the program to open our log book to the 100th dive. He did not look at the previous 99 dives nor did he look for signatures. I have very few dives that have signatures or stamps.

Start a new log book, either on paper, post it notes, spreadsheet or whatever. Start the new log book with the number of dives you think you have and go from there. I've been certified to dive since 1978 and I was diving for years before I was certified. I only have about 200 logged dives. The only reason I have logged that many was because I needed 60 for my DM, 100 for Instructor and will need 250 for Course Director.

 

[Steve_C]

When I did dives as part of a course the instructor signed. Most of my dives are with buddys. Sometimes they sign sometimes they do not. Basically I have them sign if they ask me to sign. When I did DM log book just checked for number of dives and for some certifications.

 

[gcarter]

My son calls me obsessive because I download all my profiles from my dive computer into my electronic log. I can't imagine chasing after signatures. The only ones I have are from my OW and AOW training dives, I captured those on paper just 'cause. Nobody has ever questioned my unverified electronic log.

 

[WarrenZ]

I figure the downloaded dive from my dive computer is better than a smudged signature from a buddy you may never see again.

Infact as I was packing up in Bahamas last year I came across an old paper PADI Divers log in my travel organizer/log book page holder and chucked it into the trashcan.

I carry a printed summary list of all my dives or as many as I can cram onto 1 piece of paper double sided with two pages per side (get out a magnifying glass) and a summary of my last 8 dives with dive profile from computer printed on them. So far thats been enough.

 

[scoobydrew]

Signatures and stamps are not required. I only log rebreather and tech dives nowadays and for that just use a simple excel spreadsheet. It isn't that pretty to look at but has the data recorded that will be fine to use as proof of experience for further training.

 

[mmerriman]

consult with your DM instructor about what he/she deems acceptable. You need to show the 40/60 dives with
"Logged at least 60 scuba dives including experience
in night diving, deep diving and underwater
navigation."

 

[Hemrick]

I know the thread is a little passed your original question but I used the program Diving Log. I download the profile from my computer into it then put some basic details about the dive depending how special it was.

The program also holds scanned copies of my C cards and it can back up to dropbox

They have recently released an app version for android which can sync all of this from dropbox, so if someone wants to see it i have all my dive profiles and cards on hand.

Then to get to your original question the app supports a signature on the touch screen to sign off a dive (just incase they believe a random signature but not everything else)