Faking Logbook Entries Fact or Fiction?

[TheRedHead]

I'm at the office this afternoon and I'm perusing my new copy of Scuba Diving magazine. In the section about all the bad things that can happen to unaware divers, "Lessons for Life," there is an article about an AOW diver who supposedly had 11 dives when he started on the Road to Deception and Despair.

He faked 89 dives in his logbook by using different colored inks as well as strategic coffee stains and spaghetti sauce dripping on pages so that he could take a technical diving course.

It just SO HAPPENED that his clueless instructor decided that since 150 feet was ok for this course, then 180 would be even better so the diver with the faked log book experiences a Deep Water Blackout and lives.

Has anyone ever heard of anything like this happening in real life?

 

[DementialFaith]

Yea, but mostly people I know who fake logs aren't faking the way you're describing. It's always "they've done the dive, but didn't log it.' So had to make up logs. I mean, let's say Bob has thousands of dive under his belt, but because either he doesn't log his dive or he doesn't bring dozens of log books with him on trips a dive boat off Bali won't take him because they need at least 20 logged dives...

Now making up 90 dives while you only have 11... that's a little stupidity at work there. This guy's probably one of those macho die-hards that have half their brain cells killed by concussion before the age of 15.

 

[DennisW]

I've never had anyone ask to see my log book.

 

[mnj1233]

I say call "Myth Busters" they need some new material!!!!!!!! Maybe they could blow up a log book or something.

 

[Xanthro]

On a related note, I can't open my log book now. It's in a cover, and I had it in a water proof sack, but it somehow became completly encrusted shut after a boat dive a few months ago. I didn't even know it was wet.

Any hints on getting it open? The pages appear to be clued shut. I'd think salt somehow, but it's really stuck.

 

[daniel f aleman]

Probably took hours and hours to write up 89 dives. Pointless really, and if faked log books are used as proof of number of dives, well, good luck gaining legal liability from an instructor or dive operator if an accident happens.

 

[SStrecker]

Anytime logged dives are a class prerequisite, there will be some faked entries. As a previous poster implied, most divers have the opposite problem; an extensive number of unlogged dives. Only about a dozen of my first hundered dives (in the Pacific Northwest) were logged. Few people bothered, outside of a classroom setting. I think that a greater emphasis is being placed on logging in recent years. It certainly is a good idea and a discipline worth encouraging. Since getting back into the sport, last year, with my young son, I think it is important that I be a good role model. These are his formative years and children learn by example. In summary, my advice is to do it the right way; log your dives in an honest, complete and timely manner.

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

I agree with you, Stephen. As a new diver, I can't fathom anyone faking logbook entries... As it is, regular diving still occasionally gives me difficulties, and faking my entries so I could take a class that I wasn't experienced enough for in the first place, sounds like a real recipe for disaster. Man, that blows my mind...

 

[mnj1233]

On a related note, I can't open my log book now. It's in a cover, and I had it in a water proof sack, but it somehow became completly encrusted shut after a boat dive a few months ago. I didn't even know it was wet.

Any hints on getting it open? The pages appear to be clued shut. I'd think salt somehow, but it's really stuck.

You gotta start AAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL OVER AGAIN sorry!!!!!!

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

On a related note, I can't open my log book now. It's in a cover, and I had it in a water proof sack, but it somehow became completly encrusted shut after a boat dive a few months ago. I didn't even know it was wet.

Any hints on getting it open? The pages appear to be clued shut. I'd think salt somehow, but it's really stuck.

As a last resort, you could try steaming it open. Hold it over a tea kettle or a saucepan of boiling water and see if the steam will allow your pages to become unstuck.