what can be considered a loggable dive?

[Thalassamania]

It all depends the purpose that you log dives for. I log all pressure exposures while breathing compressed gas, that includes pools, quarries, lakes, rivers, streams, seas, oceans, etc. I classify the dives by environment: Confined Water, Open Water, Other. I classify the dives by function: Training, Working, Proficiency, Qualification.

When someone asks me, "how many dives have you made?" my answer excludes dives that I made in Confined Water.

Various agencies define a dive in various ways, which has nothing to do with whether you decide (or are required)to keep track of the dives or not.

 

[H2O 70]

I don't typically count pool dives. I have counted a couple where I was under for an hour trying to work on buoyancy control.

I do count dives that I do in the Aquarium.

Right now you are in a spot where you want to show that you've 'logged' so many dives.

For me, I've reached a point where I just don't care to actually log, go through the motions of writing down each dive in a book. It did it at first because I thought I had to. For me that is not what SCUBA is about. But that is me. I have a dive buddy who will have me sign her log book and she loves to get stamps from DMs and shops. What is now important for me is size of my tank, my PSI in, my PSI out, Max depth and average depth. I jot that down and do the math later that night to see how my air consumption is. Saddly, I'm stuck around .7ft³.

I'm sure there are times when I'm shorting myself dives, but I'm sure there times when I'm adding dives. I figure it is a wash.

I'm pretty sure that this is a PADI thing, but you can start you DM with 18 logged dives. You can't actually get the cert until you have 60 logged dives. Now is it a good thing to only have 18 logged dives and begin DM? I don't think so. Even at 60, most folks wouldn't be ready. I wasn't at 60. At 140 I never felt like the DM course was able to 'stress' me.

So don't be in a hurry. Enjoy diving and develop your experience.

 

[Aquatic Eagle]

Look, there's nothing immoral or indecent about diving in a quarry. They're excellent for training in. Some people actually have fun in the things. I'll stick by my original premise, however: quarries are a poor substitute for diving in the wild and divers, especially those who consider themselves to be serious about diving or want to become professionals, should have a broader range of experience than they can possibly obtain from the local mudhole.

I agree that anyone who considers themselves serious about diving should have a broader range of experience than one quarry. I would never say otherwise. That doesn't mean that quarries should not count as open water experiences. They are good for training because many of them have zero visibility and sudden thermoclines. They also can have underwater hazards not found in most open ocean environments like downed trees. Not every open water dive has to be accompanied by rip-roaring currents and 10 foot waves to be counted towards experience.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Some quarries and lakes can have some real surprises even if you think you know them. Last friday in a lake I've been in many times. This was the first time on the scooter though. Over by the dam I ended up cutting 3 monofilament lines that stopped me pretty good. One thing that quarries such as Gilboa and even Portage can do at certain times is have temps cold enough to cause a reg to freeze up. Ocean dives normally don't present that hazard. I also found that for me anyway all the time I put in doing skills in midwater with only a depth gauge for reference, made my first ocean dives a breeze. Even the currents I encountered were nothing like the dirft dive in the river at Ginnie Springs that was the color of old coffee and enough to tumble divers end over end. My first open ocean dive was to the well deck of the Spiegel Grove. Current was very mild that day. But going to 118 on the Grove was easy compared to 110 in a lake with dark, silty, and cold conditions. It'd be easier than going to the bottom of Lake Erie or Gilboa where the avg temp is 38 to 40 degrees. I'd feel safer with a buddy who did these types of dives than one who had never been in water colder than 60 degrees and had no experience with real zero vis.

 

[Bogie]

Scuba diving and logging dives is a bit like golf. It is really only you who knows how many real dives you've made.

I have 84 dives in the Monterey. I have dove in Hawaii, Cancun, and Florida Keys that I did years ago and don't include. I have dive in Monterey. It would take 10 dives in clear warm water dives to equal the difficulty and challenge of the one shore dive with hugh surge, cold water, dry suit, thick kelp, and extremely low visibility. It is about skill, confidence and varied experience.

If you dive at Monastery Beach you better have excellent skills and be in good physical shape. The waves and beach exit can be extremely dangerous.

People come from Florida and are not capable of diving safely because they don't know the Monterey area. I have pulled a number out of the water. Just last Saturday a woman was knocked flat on her back and couldn't move in the white water. I ran down clipped her out of her BC and brought her safely up the beach. Her husband was staggering in the white water with his tank hanging a foot from the beach. My buddy secured his tank and got him up safely on the beach.

Numbers can be deceiving.

Some people have great confidence and natural scuba skills compared with people with more dives with less natural ability in easy conditions.

For me it is 20 minutes in Open Water but all my dives are much longer than that.

 

[Puffer Fish]

It all depends the purpose that you log dives for. I log all pressure exposures while breathing compressed gas, that includes pools, quarries, lakes, rivers, streams, seas, oceans, etc. I classify the dives by environment: Confined Water, Open Water, Other. I classify the dives by function: Training, Working, Proficiency, Qualification.

When someone asks me, "how many dives have you made?" my answer excludes dives that I made in Confined Water.

Various agencies define a dive in various ways, which has nothing to do with whether you decide (or are required)to keep track of the dives or not.

Thal, I was going to say I don't count pool dives... but heck, don't really count any of them. I do, however download to check air usage and profile.

A month ago in Queensland, New Zealand, saw a pamplet for white water scuba trips...not sure if you count that as a dive or not..really not that deep.

 

[Thalassamania]

It's got to have a pressure exposure.

 

[deepseadiver7]

Yes... Any dive you make breathing compressor air is and should be considered a dive. If you make several short dives the nitrogen does build up even in a pool. However I'm sure some one will abuse this and be under for a minute or two and consider it a dive. I would not consider a minute or two a dive though, but should calculate into total dive time.

 

[wadedeeper]

I am going to agree with Peter Guy on this one. I was a DM for over a year before advancing to Instructor. in that time I DM'd boats, assisted classes, and took people on Tours. While doing all that I learned all the ways divers can make mistakes, or screw of the simple things. It made me vastly more familiar than anyone in the instructor class I was taking when I chose to take it. Most of my peers where unfortunately clueless to "the signs" and one even remarked, "how did you know that guy was in trouble before he started calling for help?"

I realize your ambitions may outweigh my recommendation, but I would strongly suggest you take it slow and put in some more dives before you get overly ambitious to complete the "Minimum # of dives" to complete the course and move to the next one.

As for Counting your dives...consider this:

A prerequisite minimum # of dives is provided in an attempt to ensure a person has the minimum experience necessary to understand various diving conditions, equipment, and even environments. If you cut your single dives into multiple short dives...what value are you really getting? If you did add your confined water dives...how does that relate to the open ocean or other environments? Take responsibility for not only your life, but that of the people depending on you for guidance and earn experience the right way so you can react accordingly.

Hope you the best and good luck on the testing if you haven't taken it yet.

 

[WoodyLompoc]

I am not a diving professional, so I just log my dives for my own reference. As a RECREATIONAL diver who only has to live by my own (log) rules, I only log dives over twenty minutes (because that is what I “heard” was considered a dive) ,,, but I have also counted dives as shallow as eighteen feet, but note I do it for MY use as I don’t need a score card for any professional purpose. I never counted a pool dive, as my instructor didn’t have us use our logs until we did our first “open water” dive.

To be honest, it frightens me that people with so little experience become “Dive Masters”. A friend’s ex-wife became a DM. She went directly from OW, to Advanced, to Rescue, to taking her DM course. This with NO OTHER DIVES. The dive shop told her they would “make sure” she had enough dives on her log to make it “legal”. (She messed up and did two uncontrolled ascents during her DM training and ended up in the chamber for a couple days.) How can people with so little real life experience be counted on in the event of a problem?

I am sorry, but I think DMs should have much more experience before they get “the badge”. Just my opinion, but if someone has little actual diving experience, just go for Master Diver, not DM until you have had real world experience.

It does make one wonder how many DMs out there have never experienced assisting another diver, with a non-staged problem, while under the surface. (Even little things like a tank that slipped out or cutting a buddy free from fishing line.)