"Logging Dives" Who – What – When – Where – Why – How

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“Logging Dives” Who – What – When – Where – Why – How

Logging dives tends to be a hot topic between many divers. Should you log all dives including pool dives, or should there a minimum depth and time limit before you should log a dive. So lets take a few minutes and go over the definition of a dive, and see what is worth logging.

Lake Hickory Scuba Center & Marina

Instagram – Lake Hickory Scuba
[email protected]

420 Taylorsville Beach Ct. Taylorsville, NC 28681
828-632-7649

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18 Comments
  1. I got a question will Aquarium dives count as a log dives for future training classes?

  2. Keith Saunders says

    Great video. I tend to go a little further, and try to capture any lessons learned, and record a brief narrative about the dive; the narrative helps me remember what went well when I'm planning that next Florida springs trip a year later. I also include much more detail in my narratives for any county rescue dives, especially for response dives, recording things like: sweeps patterns used, equipment, conditions, hazards encountered, and an overall narrative to the dive.

  3. SV methos scuba and sail says

    the way my instructor told me he does it is if u dive more then 33 feet/10 meters(1 atmosphere) u log that dive. u have to do a safety stop. u have to do everything u do when u dive to 100 feet/33 meters or deeper. 🙂
    love your videos i learn so much from u.

  4. Ron Feulner says

    What is your opinion on entering dives that happened years ago? Unfortunately, I have lost my log book from when I started (Padi OWD in 1982) and (Padi AOWD in 1986) and all of the other dives in between. My Son is now a diver and I was thinking about getting my Master Scuba Diver cert. I have exact memories about many of them, things like location and what we did, but the exact dates and gear data is lost. What is your opinion about adding "remembered" dives to a new log book or software? Naturally, I have started logging all of my new dives again.

  5. Viewcards says

    Should I log aquarium dives?

  6. OBHSfolk says

    I've been NAUI SCUBA diver since 1975, long before any digital logs existed. I logged over 300 dives in the next 5 years but ultimately lost my log book during one of my many moves. SO, do those dives not exist? And, if they do, what need for a log book at all?

  7. dharmapunk5 says

    I use PADI's scubaearth site to log my dives. It has all the fields I need to log everything I want too. I put in where I dove, the time in and out, pressure group in and out, water type, temperature, and average depth. I also note what the waves and current were like, and if there was surge.

  8. Jost B says

    I've never seen the use of my personal SAC for every dive, because in the end, I still calculate with the standard 20 l/min… What do you use this information for?

  9. diver dave says

    …mmm I've been SCUBA diving since 1979 and I dive around 50 days a year and the last dive I wrote in my dive book was May 21st 1982 ! I guess I need to add 1750 dives in my log book

  10. Rick's Corner says

    Great video as always. As a new diver I use the Mares dive organizer on my computer. I even did a quick YouTube video on this on my channel. For me it gives me everything I need to keep track of. As a firefighter I would say Wikipedia came the closest to the definition. Check it out and let me know.

    P.S. I leave tomorrow for 8 dives in Mexico playa del Carmen. Santa Rosa wall and Palancar reef are two of my highlights.

  11. oc2vegas420 says

    I am going through ssi here in California . And I can't thank you enough for taking the time to make these VERY informative videos and having fun while doing so . It's really exciting to watch your videos and then to have a head start in class . THANK YOU !

  12. Kurt Steiner says

    Hello Brian logging dives.
    yes well, most agencies and instructors reccomend that you log all dives be they padi or bsac. however this is a little impractical after 50 plus dives. i tend to follow naval routine, we would log dives deeper than 2 fathoms in depth and over 10 mins diration.
    Personally i started diving before computors were available, so tend to use a logbook as back up, as computors can fail and if there is a problem, it can be looked at to see what was happenig without needing computor access. i log things like, air or nitrox, location dive duration accumulated dive time, what type of dive it was, where when what you did hazards above and below the surface. who was on the dive, boat or shore dive. dive conditions, weights used salt or freshwater light, medium heavy salt water surface and bottom times and temperatures. i dont usually list diving Certifications of dive participants unless its a training dive.

  13. JCA ELITE SCUBA says

    oh. i just remembered that there are a bunch of people that volunteer in aquariums. if it was a trip and visit, i'd log it… if i worked in it, only one per day (combine them all)

  14. Eli Brin says

    Recommend to log using Subsurface. An excellent, fully featured and free program. For mobile devices DiveMate is excellent too. Both can dowload the log from a dive computer. I add suit, weights, environment condition and location information. A good quality indicator is my SAC, which is accurately calculated by the software.

  15. David Hamilton says

    I log both pare and computer, as someone has already mentioned if you go abroad it is sometimes easier to show a log book, and also, it is nice to see visually how far you have advanced since your first tentative dive, and the mistakes that you might have made.

  16. Jim A says

    Thank you for sharing this. Im am sharing it with my whole team.

    Personally i log all my dives on paper (loose leaf in 3 ring binder) as i was using a digital program and when computer died i lost 10 years worth of logs luckily i had most still on paper. Some times old school methods are the best.

    As always thanks for posting videos like this.

  17. JCA ELITE SCUBA says

    Very nice, Bryan. I log most of my dives. I don't log dives in the pool and I don't log going out to set the flag.

    You mentioned injuries in the pool… hmmm? It would take a lot of nitrogen saturation and subsequent desaturation to get bent in the typical pool, however, in that regard, there's only one way to prevent decompression sickness…

    I log all my dives electronically since early 2013… divers are welcome to look at it here: https://jcaelitescuba.com/divelog

    My computer collects more information than what's posted, but I believe that it's very important to be transparent. With that said, I'm also not going to go back an input over 1,100 dives to have everything digitized…

    For me, depth and time are not the big deal when it's shallow and short. Sometimes I combine those and sometimes I enter 15/15 to log it if I don't take a dive computer with me or don't know the depth and time.

    Here are some of the things I've heard divers say when I ask to see their logbooks:

    • I stopped logging after 100, 500, 1000…
    • I lost mine and never started again
    • I left it somewhere
    • I lost it
    • I never got one
    • I know how many dives I've done
    • My computer died

    …and my all time favorite, "I don't have the time!"

  18. American Digger In Europe says

    I log every OWD regardless of depth. I've logged dives where I was only 3-4 meters underwater, but I was underwater for almost 2.5 hours! Great conversation Brian!

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