I'm a new diver with less than 10 dives under my belt and just a OW cert. I'm looking to eventually earn a AOW and AA. I've been tracking my dives in the SSI app because I saw SSI requires X number of dives for each additional certification "level". However, it looks like it only "counts" verified dives, not the total dives I've done. I've only done about half my dives with an SSI shop, the rest are with more experienced friends taking me or non SSI shops. Is verified vs non-verified dives going to be an issue?
SSI Dive Log Tracking
- Thread starter GooseIt
- Start date
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You just need to get those other dives verified. Your particular relationship with your LDS or your instructor will determine how easy or hard that is. The easy way is to go into the shop and chat with your instructor (assuming he is from your LDS) and tell him about the dives. He should be happy to verify them for you.
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- 539
- Reaction score
- 399
- # of dives
- 1000 - 2499
it was so much easier with paper 
Barnaby'sDad
Contributor
it was so much easier with paper
Yeah...don’t get me wrong...the convenience of electronic logs is nice, but I like having it written down, as well.
I’ve used the written log as a reference on numerous occasions. That and I stapled the arm bands from one of my vacation dive op’s to the applicable log-book page. It’s dorky in an adolescent scrapbooking kind of way, but it’s neat to peruse.
- Messages
- 539
- Reaction score
- 399
- # of dives
- 1000 - 2499
and you can collect stamps from other divers 
SpecialTest
Contributor
So you mean to tell me, that if I had 50 dives, with only a small portion being officially "verified" with the SSI app, SSI would give me a hard time trying to go for my Advanced Open Water Diver because I wouldn't have 24 of them officially "verified" through their app?
What if you just abandoned using their app to log dives all together? Does that mean you then forgo all future SSI certifications because then none of your dives would be "verified"?
I thought "verified" was just an extra layer of proof/justification for dive shops to trust when prospective customers/students show their log to meet the requirements for various certifications. As if, if you need 24 dives for the AOWD cert and show up to the shop with 35 unverified dives in some non-SSI log, the dive shop would generally trust them unless you clearly don't dive as well as someone with 35 dives...
The verified dives really only matter for the SSI decreed levels of Divers:
Specialty Diver (2 Specialty courses and 12 dives)
Advanced Open Water Diver (4 Specialty Course and 24 Dives)
Master Diver (The above 4 courses plus Rescue Diver and 50 Dives)
If you took all the specialty courses and they were your only dives, you would not get the card for the above "ratings" but would still have the cards for the various training.
There is also what is known as Advanced Adventurer which is really just doing the first dive of 5 different specialties to get a taste for what they are.
So if you do not get dives done on your own "verified" other dive shops can look at you dive log (Paper, electronic, whatever) and your cards issued for the course you have taken, and they can see your "qualifications" to dive.
- Messages
- 570
- Reaction score
- 582
- # of dives
- 200 - 499
The verified dives thing doesn't really matter that much. I got all my recognition levels (which are meaningless, really) without having verified a single dive. I just put them in my log book and as I collected cards, I got the recognition e-cards, too. If you become a pro, you can actually verify your own dives. I just scan my own QR code after my dives now, but before I did dive guide, I took a photo of a buddy's QR code and started having him "verify" all of my dives just for fun, whether he was there or not.
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