Question For purposes of logs and certifications, what counts as a "dive"?

[Sascha314]

I do put a "log entry" (hand writte logbook for aborted dives as well, but not put a number / increase my number of dives. Thats to remember and see what happened. Once we aborted a dive, because the visibility was so bad, that it was hard to read the computer. We were basically swimming elbow tomelbow and could barely see our heads. We tried three times, but it did not make fun.
However others just went out a bit farther and just directly dropped to 19m. It was "night" but clear, so lesson learnt: maybe try to go down below this layer first, to enjoy a dive. Its not a counted dive but a memory and lesson.

Once you have reached a certain experience, no one cares, its for my personal use. I think then its just a thing of showing last dive / Regular dives to a center on vacation, so you are not put in the owd group

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

I do put a "log entry" (hand writte logbook for aborted dives as well, but not put a number / increase my number of dives. Thats to remember and see what happened. Once we aborted a dive, because the visibility was so bad, that it was hard to read the computer. We were basically swimming elbow tomelbow and could barely see our heads. We tried three times, but it did not make fun.
However others just went out a bit farther and just directly dropped to 19m. It was "night" but clear, so lesson learnt: maybe try to go down below this layer first, to enjoy a dive. Its not a counted dive but a memory and lesson.

Yep agree. I did end up writing in my log book the aborted dive. Obviously did not give it a number.

Once you have reached a certain experience, no one cares, its for my personal use. I think then its just a thing of showing last dive / Regular dives to a center on vacation, so you are not put in the owd group

Again, agree. I am at that point. My logbook reads more like a diary., having made custom pages with the top third info and the rest of the page for details. I tell others I keep a paper log so when I am in a nursing home, in my rocker, people will read to me my log book.

 

[MB NZ]

Again, agree. I am at that point. My logbook reads more like a diary., having made custom pages with the top third info and the rest of the page for details. I tell others I keep a paper log so when I am in a nursing home, off my rocker, people will read to me my log book.

Nice, keep it up. I kept a detailed log for many years, then stopped. I regret that now. I was diving so much at time, it seemed like a big hassle (which is wasn't really). By the way, adjusted your post slightly

 

[tursiops]

One problem I have seen is new instructors that have 100 logged dives and they are mostly in the pool,

Not likely. PADI Instructor status requires 100 logged dives, pool sessions do not count, only those dives in open water.

 

[rx7diver]

... Questions come up in my mind about what counts as a "dive".

... Thoughts?

Another vote for "log whatever you think needs to be logged (i.e., whatever you believe you need to keep a record of), but if you're needing to meet some threshold for minimum total number of dives, then don't count training dives (and don't count pool/confined water dives) in that total."

(Senator, I might not be able to define a "real" dive, but I damned sure know a "real" dive when I see one!)

rx7diver

 

[boulderjohn]

It’s up to you! The only control that training agencies have over what you log is with training dives as part of a course.

If a student came to me wanting to take a solo class, and showed me a logbook with a lot of 20-minute-15-foot dives, I'd tell them "Not yet. Go get some experience with various conditions, depths, currents, temperatures, visibility, equipment, and entries/exits."

Yes, it is up to you what to put in your log book, but if you are trying to meet the requirements for an advanced class, as Tursiops indicated, it is up to the instructor to determine what will be acceptable.

My experience was that in almost every case, the student was far enough past the minimum that I did not have to worry about it. There was an exception, though. In the shop where I was working, the instructors teamed up to teach the DM students. We assumed the people who signed the student up did all that pre-class checking, and we just worked with them when we were assigned. I discovered one of the DMCs did not have the required minimum, and it was really obvious the first time he was in the water. I had him doing a dive with an AOW class, and all the AOW students were better than he was.

But IMO the requirement is not hugely important, because all it does is get you into the class. You still have to get through the class and demonstrate the required skills. In a tech class, the number of dives you had before starting the class does not count for diddly squat if you can't do a valve shutdown drill while holding your depth on a decompression stop. All the dive count does is give some indication that you should be ready to start that next level of learning. When I started working with tech students, I did a dive with them, and what I saw on that dive was more important than a dive count. I advised more than one student to get a bit more practice in before starting the class.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Another vote for "log whatever you think needs to be logged (i.e., whatever you believe you need to keep a record of), but if you're needing to meet some threshold for minimum total number of dives, then don't count training dives (and don't count pool/confined water dives) in that total."

(Senator, I might not be able to define a "real" dive, but I damned sure know a "real" dive when I see one!)

rx7diver

Right. What counts as a “real” dive depends on who the log's contents are intended for. If you don't care to log a particular dive but you believe someone else might want to know about it, log it only if it's the kind of dive you know or suspect they had in mind.

Probably nobody but you the diver will ever want to know about your pool dives, but by all means log them if YOU might want to recall something about them. As I mentioned above, a diver could even consider keeping separate logs.