Log book dinosaur?

[mockney]

I do a mix of both, I want to keep a record of all my dives. I'm only up to number 47 and my first 20 were all paper logged I now use Scubaearth online to keep a record of all my dives and on special occasions I will also keep a duplicate paper record (for example diving the SS President Coolidge at Christmas I got the turtle stamp in my logbook because I have seen a turtle over the wreck - seemed appropriate to keep a paper based log of that dive).

One fine day I would like to achieve my master scuba rating, maybe after that I will be less inclined to keep such a detailed log... who knows.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

I log my dives because it have become a ritual, sitting down with a cup of coffee and the logbook and talking about todays dives, and also sometimes it is nice to just look at the logs and think back on those special dives. The digital log is also nice to link images taken on dives to place, date, time, depth, weather condition and so on.

Or a cold beer..
I log all my dives. Made myself custom pages for my book. Gonna hit #1000 this year!

 

[MarineResearch]

I used to use a log book, but it disappeared. So I don't count any dives between 1975 to 2005. Now I just download my dives using the various programs that come with dive computers (e.g., Oceanic, Poseidon, Shearwater, Uemis (yup, I have one that is still alive)). Occasionally I sum up certain types of dives (e.g., rebreather # of dives and hours) to track maintenance requirements, or if I am preparing a dive plan for work-related dives where I need to show recent activity.

 

[barilhu]

I keep a printed copy of my electronic logbook. It used to be 1 dive per page, than 2 per page, .... now it's 50 per page

 

[DaleC]

...all right thinking people log every dive, people like you and me...

That's awesome.

 

[Laurie S.]

So, it's your laptop that's stubborn??

Yes, it's old and cranky.

 

[TMHeimer]

When the log book topic comes up the logging of amount of weight/tank type/exposure suit for water temps. is usually mentioned. I can maybe understand putting weighting in the book if you do a lot of dives in salt water places of varying salinities. Otherwise, I would think it more practical to just make one list:
1. Water temp. ranges for using each exposure suit (how many does one have???).
2. Weighting for each suit/tank and salt/fresh water for each.
3. Weighting for each type of tank(s)/pony bottles you use (again, how many different ones does one have?).

Otherwise, it would seem to me you would be writing some of the same exact stuff over and over in a log book.

 

[Nemrod]

Hi all,

When I was first trained I was taught always to use a logbook. But I pulled it out in Cozumel this weekend and this was met with exclamations of surprise and awe. Do people not use logbooks anymore?

Never logged a single dive and I began diving circa 1968. Logbooks are too new fangled for me.

N

 

[victorzamora]

I didn't properly contribute earlier, but I will say that my logbook is threefold.

1) I use Excel to log my dives in a SUPER dense format. One line per dive. All critical info. Small notes section....AND I have it count dives and dive time for me. It tells me how many of my dives were deco, in a cave, on nitrox, deep, etc. It counts cave dives after Full Cave (for Abe Davis award) and total bottom time, both total and in caves. I'm about to add an "OW vs Cave" section where I will hopefully have more time logged in caves than out of them. This has a cloud backup as it's my "primary" logbook.

2) Shearwater Desktop. Much more data about the dive, much less data about the environment. Date/time/depth/profile/location is about it. No viz data, gear data, etc.

3) Hard copy, on paper, in a binder.

 

[pdxgal]

Funny, I'm just the other way. I do most of my diving while on vacation. I log my dives not only for the diving , but so also as a bit of a travel journal. If I dived locally or alot more often, I could see myself not logging dives. I log digitally including downloads from my computer and periodically print out updates to my paper logbook as a hardcopy backup. My wife is an artist and she made me a very nice logbook cover, so it would be a waste not to use it. I really like digital logs because I can link media to specific dives. Everybody is a little different.

Yes, same me!!