Some LOBs require a minimum # of logged dives, but I don't have a log book!

[Magnus Lundstedt]

Almost every captain will just quietly look at your gear after it's setup and decide if you are new or experienced. If your fins, gloves and wetsuit are all new and shiny with out any scratches (bonus points for leaving the tags still on) then he's going to tell the DM to keep a tight watch on you. If you are diving bullet proof regs, BPW's, kevlar palm gloves, fins so scratched up you can barely make out the logo,,,,,The capt probably figures you won't panic and drown underwater.

On my first trip after I got my own gear. I had 20 logged dives when i arrived to the resort. I had second hanf BP/W that look like new, Old Poseidon Jetstreams paired with A Aqualung Conshelf SEA first stage, and a mix of old and new stuff, i had everything but the tank with me.. i spent the first evening talking diving with the resort manager in the bar. Noone even asked me for a card, but they asked to see everyone elses card.

 

[divad]

I've been doing a lot of online research trying to decide where/when to go diving next, and I noticed that some LOBs require divers to have a minimum number of logged dives. I lost my first log book 25+ years ago, and since then I've never bothered with keeping a log book.

Since I can't prove I've got more than the minimum # of dives a LOB requires, how likely is it that this will cause me a problem? Worst case scenario they require me to do a "check out" dive?

Write a log-book. By kerosene lantern. Lightly singe the edges of the pages. Obfuscate with several
burnt and partially lost pages from the "war between the states."

 

[chillyinCanada]

Almost every captain will just quietly look at your gear after it's setup and decide if you are new or experienced. If your fins, gloves and wetsuit are all new and shiny with out any scratches (bonus points for leaving the tags still on) then he's going to tell the DM to keep a tight watch on you. If you are diving bullet proof regs, BPW's, kevlar palm gloves, fins so scratched up you can barely make out the logo,,,,,The capt probably figures you won't panic and drown underwater.

Another good reason to buy used gear,

 

[chillyinCanada]

Every lob that I've been on has required a sign up form to be filled out and each asked #of dives. On forms and in person on land and sea, before seeing me in the water, I've often been asked when I last dove.

In the way way back days, I used to fret and carried around my logbook but I quit logging 700+ dives ago.

 

[Sam Miller III]

2019 -25 = 1994

FYI
Official log books first appeared in 1955 when ex Lt Jg Dick Bonin, USN UDT returned to his native Chicago after the Korean unpleasantness and began working for the giant dive operation in that cold windy city called Dive Master, (@drbill- note) As an ex USN he thought it appropriate and necessary that the recreational diving community have a Log book...Dick designed one and Dive Master marketed it .
The book was way too eary in the market place and did not sell. Dick had several, but since he and his wife's passing have probably ended in land fill

Dick moved west to OC and in 1963 became a founding partner in SCUBA Pro

1n 1967 LA CO UIA developed the 3 month long first and only true Advanced Diving Program.
Tom Ebro the Sr Aquatic Specialist developed the second log book - The LA Co UIA log book. The students were, for the first time in the history of recreational diving, required to maintain a log book

Almost immediately NAUI copied LA Co log book and offered it to NAUI members

In 1970 John Cronin gave Nic Icorn, a US Divers employee and a LA Co UW instructor a cardboard box containing PADI records and charged him with creating a dive program - Nic copied the LA Co UIA log book for PADI and as I recall it was the late Ralph Ericksen, the president of PADI began marketing the log as one of their very first products

Now you know...just a little more about diving history of the log books--It all began in 1955 - 64 years ago or officially as a program requirement of the LA Co UIA Advanced Diver Program in 1967 - 52 years ago

Take your choice...
SDM

 

[scubafanatic]

Oh just go have fun. Bring your C-Cards that will prove experience and I am sure they will be satisfied by that. I've not had a LOB ask me for my number of dives. They may be just trying to cover their butts, liability, etc.

I, personally, log most of my dives, dives that I consider real dives. Setting a float for class is not a dive in my book. I just really enjoy logging every dive because I can then go back and relive the moment. Who I dove with, what I saw, how were the conditions. It's a personal diary of adventure and exploration. It's the same for all of my flights in my logbook, especially when I am doing aerobatics. My flight logbooks go back 30 years. It's fun to read them just like it's fun to read my dive logs.

I'm totally the opposite, dive logging mania is really just scuba stamp collecting, uber boring bureaucratic paper shuffling, I get to do that nonsense at work back in the real world, Totally defeats the 'live in the moment' purpose of a carefree dive vacation to a super remote spot where I seek to shed all that nonsense!

 

[Magnus Lundstedt]

I'm totally the opposite, dive logging mania is really just scuba stamp collecting, uber boring bureaucratic paper shuffling, I get to do that nonsense at work back in the real world, Totally defeats the 'live in the moment' purpose of a carefree dive vacation to a super remote spot where I seek to shed all that nonsense!

I understand you.

I log my dives by conecting my DC to the phone and import the dive, no hassle, no papers to shuffle. quick and easy, and it gives me some pretty grafs too.

 

[scubafanatic]

I've been doing a lot of online research trying to decide where/when to go diving next, and I noticed that some LOBs require divers to have a minimum number of logged dives. I lost my first log book 25+ years ago, and since then I've never bothered with keeping a log book.

Since I can't prove I've got more than the minimum # of dives a LOB requires, how likely is it that this will cause me a problem? Worst case scenario they require me to do a "check out" dive?

I don't ever remember being asked to provide log books/computer 'proof' of anything to verify past experience. You will go through 2 layers of screening by the dive op.

Layer (1) will be questionaires relating to your DAN (or comparable) dive insurance member/policy #, your C-card certifications/issuing agencies/ ID #'s (they like to see AOW and Nitrox certs as applicable.) They are especially interested in your recent dive experience to alert them if you are 'too rusty' to be safe without a refresher of some sort. Some may be interested in your total # of logged dives, but generally they are more interested in your provable certs/insurance coverage/recent relevant dive experience. It's critical to remember to bring all the applicable C-cards/insurance cards !!!

Layer (2) will be the on-site/in person assessments by crew/DM's. They will watch you gear up/suit up, and see if you have a clue about how much weight you will need. The first dives will be 'check-out' dives under moderate conditions, where you are being watched for competency/comfort/air consumption/buoyancy control/dive computer knowledge. If you start asking the crew to tell you how much weight you will need, or how your computer works, this will raise eyebrows if it conflicts with your cover story of claiming 500 ocean dives.

It's pretty easy for crew/DM's to spot experience from pretenders.

 

[Sam Miller III]

In the early 1960s , probably 55 or more years ago I was working for the late great Andy Rechnitzer
(@Magnus Lundstedt - he was first generation Dane--Google him !)

Andy was fresh from being the Project manager of the Trieste in the Challenger deep dive and was now project manager of the DDS Beaver.

I came on board as the CDO & DSO of the project and was charged with selecting and hiring support divers and DDS pilots --but what is a criteria for a knowledgeable, experienced and reliable diver / DDS pilot ? LA Co UIA and NAUI the only two active established certifying agencies were clueless (YMCA was disorganized- PADI et al was 10 or more years in the future before they were effective)

The ONR was just being established

So Andy arranged for a long distance overseas telephone conversation to an old friend in France named Cousteau which I was privileged to be a part of but all I did was to listen and take written and mental notes . JYCs suggestion ? Set down with the applicants and let them talk- let them tell you about themselves -- so we did and ended up with some world class divers.

One was the late great Ralph White, who became a DDS pilot who later gained fame as the pilot of the Mer and had more time on the deck of the ill fated HMS Titanic than any of the crew or passengers.
( Ralph passed away on the eve of his beloved the Super Bowl about 10 years go)

So Magnus, ole chap, as you know I have been following you since your first post - you demonstrate an undefinable attitude that some how some way translates into the possibility of becoming a good long term diver - Currently and to some yet to be identified time in the future you are one of the multitudes who dives but is not yet a diver

Don't fail me and especially the under water world. become a diver

SDM

 

[Hoag]

I come from a 30+ year career in the Air Force (RCAF). That means that I tend to log pretty much everything. I have been asked how many dives I have and I have also been asked when my last dive was, but I have never been asked to provide proof of it.