SSI Dive Log Tracking

[Martijn]

Also, not every dive has to be verified. If I would verify your last dive, after we did a dive or specialty. The number of that dive will be your dive count. The dives before that don't all have to be verified.

 

[Pat85]

My lds does it like that, after the specialty, the total number of dives is verified.

 

[Anthony in NC]

My experience is this isn't a big deal, even if you feel the need to verify your dives or get them verified for "ranking" purposes. You can do your dives with anyone you want. My LDS has their QR code up on the wall behind the counter in their shop. You tell them you're there to verify and they trust that your dives are legit, so they let you scan the QR code and be on your way. Too easy. It's actually a step more than the old paper log book as far as "proof" goes. Theoretically, in the "old days" you could sit down and make up dives all day long and write them down in your log book. "A hundred dives? No problem! Look, I even used different colored pens every so often to make it look legit!" Haha!

What even the purpose then? Just a fancy QR code?

I just did a google search and logged a dive from "Happy Bubbles Dive Center" in Turkey. Never been there.

 

[TMHeimer]

I'm a PADI guy, but I wonder how solo dives fit in with either agency? No one at the shop here ever asked to see my log book for number of dives--"verified" or not. Not even for signing up for the DM course. Now, everyone knew me in the shop, and I took several courses including Rescue there. I guess someone at an SSI shop would what-- look at your bunch of solo dives and consider whether they knew you well enough to verify them, figuring they were real? Are buddy dives with signature considered "verified" or do the dives have to be in some way related to an SSI shop?

 

[Anthony in NC]

I've been asked before. It's on their liability release form at the LDS. They didn't verify. I guess as long as the number you write down isn't something crazy ridiculous, they just accept it as true. I suspect it's more to cover their butt than anything else. If you have five dives and lie and say you have 500, and die on their charter, they can argue they did their due diligence in seeing that you were "qualified" to do the dive.

When I applied for my MSD rating through PADI, the instructor flipped to the last page of my dive log and looked at the number of dives, and signed me off. Only the first few dives were signed by a buddy. After the "new" wore off after the first year of diving, I quit bothering to ask someone for a signature. Then probably 20% of them are solo dives so there's no buddy signature to get.

I log all my dives for my own interest and if that isn't official enough, then to hell with them. I'm past having to flash a dive log to "prove" I can dive. If they want me to do a "check out dive" fine, but I'm not paying for it.

 

[TMHeimer]

I've been asked before. It's on their liability release form at the LDS. They didn't verify. I guess as long as the number you write down isn't something crazy ridiculous, they just accept it as true. I suspect it's more to cover their butt than anything else. If you have five dives and lie and say you have 500, and die on their charter, they can argue they did their due diligence in seeing that you were "qualified" to do the dive.

When I applied for my MSD rating through PADI, the instructor flipped to the last page of my dive log and looked at the number of dives, and signed me off. Only the first few dives were signed by a buddy. After the "new" wore off after the first year of diving, I quit bothering to ask someone for a signature. Then probably 20% of them are solo dives so there's no buddy signature to get.

I log all my dives for my own interest and if that isn't official enough, then to hell with them. I'm past having to flash a dive log to "prove" I can dive. If they want me to do a "check out dive" fine, but I'm not paying for it.

I can do your PADI MSD one better. When I completed the 5 specialties my instructor was ready to give me the paperwork for the MSD. I told him I wouldn't have 50 logged dives for another two weeks or so. He said "I trust that you'll do them".

 

[FluffyRabbit]

My experience is this isn't a big deal, even if you feel the need to verify your dives or get them verified for "ranking" purposes. You can do your dives with anyone you want. My LDS has their QR code up on the wall behind the counter in their shop. You tell them you're there to verify and they trust that your dives are legit, so they let you scan the QR code and be on your way. Too easy. It's actually a step more than the old paper log book as far as "proof" goes. Theoretically, in the "old days" you could sit down and make up dives all day long and write them down in your log book. "A hundred dives? No problem! Look, I even used different colored pens every so often to make it look legit!" Haha!

My experience is different depending on who is staffing the LDS. Some will just take out the QR code from under the desk and let you do what you want, others will actually ask to see your dive computer to verify that each of the dives are legit.

 

[Anthony in NC]

My experience is different depending on who is staffing the LDS. Some will just take out the QR code from under the desk and let you do what you want, others will actually ask to see your dive computer to verify that each of the dives are legit.

Can they use the ScubaPro computer I sold the guy in New York that had 58 logged dives on it?
How does the staff guy know that computer belongs to me? What if I was to give my shearwater with 170 logged dives on it to my buddy and tell him to go show it to the dive shop guru and scan that code 170 times? "legit"?

 

[FluffyRabbit]

Can they use the ScubaPro computer I sold the guy in New York that had 58 logged dives on it?
How does the staff guy know that computer belongs to me? What if I was to give my shearwater with 170 logged dives on it to my buddy and tell him to go show it to the dive shop guru and scan that code 170 times? "legit"?

I did my OW cert at that LDS and they know me, so while most of the staff are pretty lax about it, I'm sure they have the common sense to know what is reasonable and what isn't.

I'm sure there are ways to game it, but ultimately, those who do are just cheating themselves. The most any charter out here will want to see is an OW or AOW card, and there is no one checking cert cards at the beach for those who shore dive. No one other than me will ever ask to see my log book. I just don't see the point of faking logs. Diving should be for fun, not for logging dives. The real test is the water, anyway.

 

[DiveProKoko]

I think what's being lost here in the maze of how you could "game the system" is the fact that you could ALWAYS game the system if you wanted. Paper log books...really? You could sit down one afternoon and "log" a hundred dives if you wanted, have your "buddy" witness them, and take that to any dive shop in the world and they'd take you at your word. Of course you can game the computerized/QR code system as well, but in theory, by having you scan the shop or instructor QR code it gives at least a layer of credibility to your dives. Especially if you need them to advance professionally (where it really counts) as you are likely to take those needed courses at that same shop. Recreationally......I guarantee you that out there somewhere is a Master Diver with less than 50 actual dives under their belt but they are showing "Century Diver" (100+) with all kinds of "experience" logged in their book. At least they make you take the 5 courses and Rescue (SSI) . LOL!