To log or not to log?...

[pterantula]

(This question may have been addressed in times passed, but after some searching I didn't see any immediate evidence of it, so....)

During the OW cert process (w/SSI) it was implied that your divelog is truly essential, a habit you need to form, and its progress would even be checked by diveshops and operators; in practice I've seen a large contingent who never log dives, and have even encountered those (including diveshop staff) who feel that this is a practice borne of the desire to sell unnecessary crap.
I personally like logging my dives since it's a good way to track my progress from floundering ape to bipedal fish, as well as all the things I've seen.
Thoughts?

ALSO,
What do you think qualifies as a loggable dive? I know this may be entirely subjective, but I'd like to see what people think. "Dive #1" in my logbook is a snorkel swim at the beach, per my instructor; so, would I also log my snorkeling trip to Kane'ohe Bay (O'ahu, the year prior), since that was essentially a freedive (for me; I chased fish pretty deep)? Should I log my shark-cage trip in Hale'iwa? (I don't think so, since the cage never left the surface...?) Or is this all "cheating" toward a higher level classification?
Just wondering.

Thanx much,
cheers,
t

 

[SparticleBrane]

I personally keep a very detailed dive log, in the form of an Excel spreadsheet.

IMHO I only log dives that are "on scuba". If I'm snorkeling or freediving I don't truly consider them dives since I was not on scuba. However if I were an avid snorkeler or freediver, you'd bet I'd have a scuba log, skin-diving log, and a freediving log.

As to what qualifies as a dive--going down and back up. Obviously if it's 4 seconds of sticking my head in the water that doesn't count. I do follow the "10-minute rule" about time between dives, though. If I'm with students and we surface for a moment to talk about something and descend again, I won't count that as two separate dives.

Hope this helps!

 

[justleesa]

I log my dives by my pictures...I know the dive site, what I saw...can pull it all from the pictures.

What I have also noticed is that before we got back to the dock and took the divers home. I don't know if they logged or not, if they had the right site info or not. Then we started supplying site specific log sheets and people started to ask for them. Now after the charter we take our guests on a picnic and really take the time to log. It seems that if you make logging fun it will be fun and people tend to do it.

 

[Quarrior]

Realistically, the situation with "needing" to log dives has to do with travel and the kind of dives you want to do.

Some operators will not let you do certain dives unless you have a given number of a specific type of dives under your belt. Things that come to mind would be dives below 80' or 100', etc.

I think if you talk to the folks that you have known that do you keep a log and ask them how many dives they have in their log book, you'll find they probably have well over 500 if not well over 1000.

 

[SparticleBrane]

I understand people who don't log their dives after they have multiple hundreds, if not thousands of dives. Still though, I hope that I will be logging them just as extensively then as I do now.
Personally I think that a bit of it comes down to apathy and possibly laziness.

I don't see why people think it's such a big deal--just write the stuff down. The information only takes perhaps 5-10 minutes tops. If you use a computer/bottom timer then your work is cut in half. All I need to remember is my starting and ending pressures so that I can calculate my SAC--and even with this I write it down in my wetnotes. Everything else is recorded by my bottom timer--dive time, avg. depth, temp, time down and up, etc. Hopefully when I get home from the dive site I can remember where I dove and what day it was, what the conditions were like, what equipment I was using, and my mix. There's my whole dive log!

 

[serambin]

I log dives for specific reasons. I do not log all of my dives. For example, I log all dives on vacation, even if they are shallow, because I wan't to remember them and the good, bad and ugly about a dive spot. I also log most dives at a new location. This helps me assess the site for future diving. On the other hand, I do not log dives to my favorite honey holes (regardless of depth) because I know these sites and so what's the point.

The one thing I find concerning is the idea that a dive isn't a dive unless it is X feet deep. This is a crock. Some of the best diving you'll ever encounter is in 30 to 40 feet of water. The best of the Keys, the best of the Bahamas and much of the best of Hawaii doesn't require great depth. If diving deep gets your juices going, go ahead, but please don't decide what is or isn't a 'dive' for me.

Stan

 

[SparticleBrane]

The one thing I find concerning is the idea that a dive isn't a dive unless it is X feet deep. This is a crock. Some of the best diving you'll ever encounter is in 30 to 40 feet of water. The best of the Keys, the best of the Bahamas and much of the best of Hawaii doesn't require great depth. If diving deep gets your juices going, go ahead, but please don't decide what is or isn't a 'dive' for me.

Stan

I completely agree. I hear many times about people who always want to "go deeper"...I can't get them to understand that some of the best and most beautiful diving in the world is within 40ft of the surface!

 

[Halthron]

It depends on the situation. I'll log a dive if it involves learning or something new, no matter the depth or time. I don't log dives in the swimming pool although I would log one in an aquarium. Most dives in the ocean get logged (an exception would be a short dive to retrieve something that was dropped, etc.), never dove in a lake or quarry.

 

[Bratface]

Hey SparticleBrane,

You look like a 4 legged diver. Think of the possibilities, split fins on one pair of legs, standard fins on the other.

To everyone else. An open water dive is defined by some standards as being 20 feet deep and lasting for 15 minutes. And yes, I log my dives. I can look back and see my improvements in buoyancy, air consumption, how much weight I used for the conditions, friends I dove with and what I saw. Dives taken in the pool are not logged.

One of my friends has logged her dives throught her diving career. She made her 1,000 dive (yes, 3 zeros) this spring. She had a big celebration.

 

[SparticleBrane]

Heh yes, when that picture was taken my dive buddy and I had the same terrible slightly-head down profile. Although I was in the middle of a kick cycle so my legs weren't at a perfect 90º angle.

I did forget to mention--I don't log pool dives.