Logging dives as a safety diver

[PappaJ5118]

I am working at a job as a safety diver for a safety training company and I’m looking into doing more certifications for my recreational diving. I don’t have as much time to go rec diving as much as I did before to get my required number of logged dives before starting those courses but 5 days a week I’m breathing on a bottle and getting my fins wet. I am diving in a 10 foot pool and actually do have to use skills such as maintaining good buoyancy each session and finding my reg if I get to close to a students leg and they kick it out of my mouth or reacting to one of them panicking so I have to pull them out of the trainer and get them to the side. I do three sessions a day each session is roughly 30 min long but is broken by short surface intervals to let the trainer operator know I’m clear of the trainer so they can reset it. Would I be able to log these sessions as a dive and have it count towards the required number of prerequisite dives before a training course, it seems to be a shame to spend all this time blowing bubbles and have it not count towards that.

 

[Bob DBF]

Would I be able to log these sessions as a dive and have it count towards the required number of prerequisite dives before a training course, it seems to be a shame to spend all this time blowing bubbles and have it not count towards that.

I would log it as a dive, but more importantly the bottom time. I doubt that it all would be counted as dives, but it is up to the instructor. In my experience prerequisites are one way gauge your ability to handle a class, if you show that ability to the instructor in another ways, the type of dive counted may not be as big an issue.

 

[DogDiver]

Pool dives are confined water dives. Not open water dives and if you want to log them, do so as confined water dives.

 

[Martijn]

You do you. It's your logbook. Write whatever you want in there

 

[Doc]

+1 @Bob DBF

There is no SCUBA Police, there certainly is no SCUBA Log Police. Log them as you would any other dive… or not.

I’m not sure about your desire for additional cents, assuming AOW?

Maybe just go diving. In Houston you have a lot of opportunities.

 

[Bob DBF]

I’m not sure about your desire for additional cents, assuming AOW?

Don't you just need a pulse and a check for AOW?

 

[Compressor]

Pool dives are just that: pool dives. You can log them but log them as pool dives. They are valuable.
OW dives are just that: open water dives. They are also valuable.

Experiences in diving is not the total # of dives. If I dive easy dives hundreds of times, I am less experienced than divers who make much fewer dives but ones that are more challenging.

I think, what I state makes sense. But of course it's my opinion.

 

[PappaJ5118]

+1 @Bob DBF

There is no SCUBA Police, there certainly is no SCUBA Log Police. Log them as you would any other dive… or not.

I’m not sure about your desire for additional cents, assuming AOW?

Maybe just go diving. In Houston you have a lot of opportunities.

As far as other certs I’m talking along the lines of things like public safety diver, dive master, instructor. I am trying to gauge what is acceptable to dive shops as far as what they will count as a logged dive. I dive at least once a month as a recreational dive but for instance a dive master it is required to have 40 logged dives if I am counting just purely my recreational dives than 40 takes a while if I am able to include my work dives well diving 5 days a week adds up quick. What I want to know is what a dive shop deems as acceptable for a logged dive I’ve heard of divers going down for 15 minutes then doing it over to get their required dives I’ve heard of people just forging it, I am actually trying to be honest about my dives before I say to a dive shop hey I am a good candidate for divemaster training or whatever cert I’m chasing at the moment.

 

[DAJ]

Repetition builds confidence and skill so log the dives. An instructor may question your experience so while you are in the pool, take advantage of that time by working on buoyancy control and other routine skills instead of just resting on your fin tips watching students. If you can show competency in open water, that may go a long way in showing the instructor you can handle the advanced class. Don’t get too wrapped around equating logged dives with experience. I use to interview guys trying to join our dive unit and they would come in with binders full of logged dives. After doing some simple math I would say something like “so you basically average 1.3 dives per day, everyday, for the last five years since you became certified.” and they would just look at me with that deer in the headlights look. Is it possible, maybe. Is it likely, not a chance. Log books can be manipulated but actually showing your skills in the water is a much better indicator on ones ability to dive.

 

[Barnaby'sDad]

Pool dives are confined water dives. Not open water dives and if you want to log them, do so as confined water dives.

Yup. That’s what I do. I log all dives. Confined water dives get a big ‘X’ in the dive number block though.