Question on Form - How many logged dives since certified?

[shopguy]

If you have dived around 500 dives, but not "logged" any of them, and less than 50 of them have been after your certification, how would you answer the question? This is on a form Scuba Club wants me to fill out, but I think it is a pretty standard form, although don't think it says PADI on it anywhere. I suspect the question is to understand level of experience, so I would probably want to say ~500... on the other hand, I'm tempted to write 0 to prove a point that the form could be written better

Of course my computer has logged some of my dives... but being 99% shore dives (where the thing logs multiple dives for the same dive often), and having gone through 3 computers, not sure it makes any sense at all to go by that number.

Part of me thinks nobody reads these forms anyway, so probably doesn't matter. Maybe I should just draw a pretty picture in this space.

Logging dives, like in a book or something... feels like homework, pfff.

Would be nice if they would just write it like a human would ask it... how many dives have you done?

 

[OTF]

Am I reading your first sentence wrong or did you do ~450 dives before getting certified??

They want to know number of dives for experience. Refer to the "does anyone ask to see your logbook" thread.

 

[happy-diver]

I always put Nine Hundred and Ninety Nine Logged Dives Mate

Just as in other situations, I imagine I am at that fork in the road

but like this

so there is no question

 

[Bob DBF]

Am I reading your first sentence wrong or did you do ~450 dives before getting certified??

I guess it depends on when and where you started diving. I learned to dive in '62 and had 1000 dives or more, including what would now be considered tech, before I was certified in '80.

As for the OP's question, I'd give a close approximation of my experience. What's more important is to chat up the officer of the club, asking why it's important, and talk diving for a while.

Just as in other situations, I imagine I am at that fork in the road

You are a forker alright happy.

 

[shopguy]

Am I reading your first sentence wrong or did you do ~450 dives before getting certified??

Correct. I started diving about 10 years ago, but finally got certified less than 2 years ago because some places I wanted to dive require it (I'll mostly avoid talking about how much that bothers me -- nobody wants to hear it).

Thanks for all the replies! I'll take that advice and give some higher number, but also ask questions. I guess now that I think about it, my dive buddy's (wife and daughter for this trip) numbers are what really matter anyway -- they both got certified before diving, and my wife is less than 50, and our daughter less than 20. My wife even logs all of her dives in her fancy PADI book that her instructor sold her, so should be an easy answer for her.

 

[tursiops]

If you have dived around 500 dives, but not "logged" any of them, and less than 50 of them have been after your certification, how would you answer the question? This is on a form Scuba Club wants me to fill out, but I think it is a pretty standard form, although don't think it says PADI on it anywhere. I suspect the question is to understand level of experience, so I would probably want to say ~500... on the other hand, I'm tempted to write 0 to prove a point that the form could be written better

Of course my computer has logged some of my dives... but being 99% shore dives (where the thing logs multiple dives for the same dive often), and having gone through 3 computers, not sure it makes any sense at all to go by that number.

Part of me thinks nobody reads these forms anyway, so probably doesn't matter. Maybe I should just draw a pretty picture in this space.

Logging dives, like in a book or something... feels like homework, pfff.

Would be nice if they would just write it like a human would ask it... how many dives have you done?

Just be happy it doesn't ask how many logged dives you have. Seems easy; if you say anything other than 50 you are lying.

 

[happy-diver]

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha I had a go at reading this without some magnifiers

before I was certified in '80.

and got this

before I was certified at '80.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

I think I might buy a couple of new corneas, I don't think, I will, or is that I am!

 

[rick00001967]

i dont see the problem. seems like a pretty simple straight forward question.

if you have logged 50 dives since certification then that is what you put.

the fact that you claim to have 500 dives is irrelevant since you cannot prove any of them.

if you have not logged any dives since you were certified then you would put the number of training dives you had (those had to be logged) and just discuss your level of experience with the dive shop and explain why you filled it out the way you did.

quite frankly it makes no difference anyway. they need the forms for liability reasons and to gauge what level of divers they have on the boat. but most shops would not trust someones "logged dives" anyway. they want to see you in the water before they decide what you can or cannot do.

for example....if you have 500 dives, what type of dives were they? if they were all in clear, warm water in 30 feet or less, and you asked me to guide you in cold, dark, water in a drysuit, on a wreck, in 75 feet of water, i wouldn't take you.

 

[formernuke]

So I answer no clue. I haven't logged a dive since 2010 and don't have that logbook. Combined with my computer just getting replaced......

 

[Marie13]

Correct. I started diving about 10 years ago, but finally got certified less than 2 years ago because some places I wanted to dive require it (I'll mostly avoid talking about how much that bothers me -- nobody wants to hear it).

Thanks for all the replies! I'll take that advice and give some higher number, but also ask questions. I guess now that I think about it, my dive buddy's (wife and daughter for this trip) numbers are what really matter anyway -- they both got certified before diving, and my wife is less than 50, and our daughter less than 20. My wife even logs all of her dives in her fancy PADI book that her instructor sold her, so should be an easy answer for her.

Just curious - how did you get fills? Your own compressor?