Logging SHALLOW dives
- Thread starter tgreene
- Start date
Given, that, I would not log them since that would effectively inflate your number of dives while not being really an indication of true experience. The numbers used by various certification agencies are pretty low, in any case, so they should not be difficult to attain them with "normal dives".
tgreene
Reefer
I'm usually laying on the bottom on my back or side, scraping and scrubbing furiously to remove coraline and other encrusted algae, and YES it has greatly improved my SAC rate by learning to slow down and conserve my air consumption.
My OW instructors both told me that I was very much ahead of the rest of the students because of actually cutting my air almost in half.
I'm 2 weeks from my OW check dives in Florida (Vortex Spring), but have been "tank diving" for several months now.
-Tim
My OW instructors both told me that I was very much ahead of the rest of the students because of actually cutting my air almost in half.
I'm 2 weeks from my OW check dives in Florida (Vortex Spring), but have been "tank diving" for several months now.
-Tim
Kenmx10
New member
Hey Tim, Hope everything is good with you, Cant wait till the water gets a little warmer.
As far as Logging goes, If its for certification purposes down the road, I dont think most organizations will recognize them. ( For Dive Master Cert. ) But if its for your own personal records, there's nothing wrong with accurate record keeping. They may come in handy. If its something you like to do, I say go for it. If it becomes a burden, then stop.
Have you been doing any riding lately?
As far as Logging goes, If its for certification purposes down the road, I dont think most organizations will recognize them. ( For Dive Master Cert. ) But if its for your own personal records, there's nothing wrong with accurate record keeping. They may come in handy. If its something you like to do, I say go for it. If it becomes a burden, then stop.
Have you been doing any riding lately?
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SeaJayInSC
New member
You could keep two logs if you want... A "working dives" log and a "recreational dives" log.
Personally, I keep a Suunto D6 on my wrist whenever I'm diving (interestingly, it calls anything below 2' for 20 seconds a dive), but when I'm working and scraping I take it off, for fear of scratching it up.
Inadvertently, I have logged only "real" dives. A best-guess for the number of "working dives" (regardless of depth), would be for me to take basically 250 working days a year times two or three dives a day times five years. Nobody's really looking for anything more accurate than that.
After all of the work is done and the gear is clean, I invoice the clients and balance the books... I can't imagine adding to my daily workload by trying to record the dives by hand, too.
Of course, your mileage may vary, so you're really going to need to make that decision for yourself.
Regardless, I think that after 100 or 200 dives or so, you'll stop bothering to log them - whether on purpose or not.
Personally, I keep a Suunto D6 on my wrist whenever I'm diving (interestingly, it calls anything below 2' for 20 seconds a dive), but when I'm working and scraping I take it off, for fear of scratching it up.
Inadvertently, I have logged only "real" dives. A best-guess for the number of "working dives" (regardless of depth), would be for me to take basically 250 working days a year times two or three dives a day times five years. Nobody's really looking for anything more accurate than that.
After all of the work is done and the gear is clean, I invoice the clients and balance the books... I can't imagine adding to my daily workload by trying to record the dives by hand, too.
Of course, your mileage may vary, so you're really going to need to make that decision for yourself.
Regardless, I think that after 100 or 200 dives or so, you'll stop bothering to log them - whether on purpose or not.
SeaJayInSC
New member
Yeah, that's what I have found.
That said, I've heard of people being asked for their log book when renting gear or when going for their Divemaster or other, more advanced certification. I've never actually seen it happen in person, though, as the absence of a log book can indicate both a diver that hasn't dived in a long time (lost log book) AND a diver that dives all the time (has given up on logging dives). So... Not having one doesn't prove anything at all about abilities, and anyone that insists on seeing one is probably pretty clueless if they don't know that it's absence indicates nothing. IMHO, the only thing that indicates another diver's skill level is diving with them and seeing for yourself.
I know a lot of really educated divers with all sorts of advanced certifications that I wouldn't dive with because I know they're not safe divers. I've even seen "C-card mill" dive shops that will take a person from no C-card to super-duper-head-honcho-instructor-trainer (what's that, like seven levels in the PADI system?) in two months or less. Yikes! I also know a lot of Divemasters with less than 50 dives under their belt.
Conversely, I also know a lot of divers who have been diving for 20 years or more and have thousands of dives, who also couldn't donate air their way out of a wet paper bag... So in my opinion, neither education nor experience are end-all indicators of a good diver... The only way I know to form an opinion about a person's abilities is to dive with them.
That said, I can tell you that I've never once met a bad diver that's passed a GUE Fundamentals course. If they hold that card, I always know that they're squared away, and that diving with them will be an extraordinary pleasure because their buoyancy and trim will be spot-on, their consumption respectable, their gear issues nonexistent, and their communication clear, precise and predictable.
...But flash a GUE C-card at your local dive shop, and the Divemaster with 37 dives to his name may have no clue as to what it is... And instead ask for your log book.
Wanna impress him? Buy a log book at http://www.Leisurepro.com (one of the really nice ones), fill out all kinds of extraordinary things in it ("Dove to 1600 feet today... Assisted Jacques Cousteau in breeding whale sharks while inventing liquid breathing apparatus...") and then run it over with your car a few dozen times to get it really old and worn-looking. Then tell him you used to be a Navy Seal, but that you weren't allowed to log those dives (you could have, but then you'd have to kill whoever read your log book), and that you invented scuba diving, too (even though you were born in 1972). LOL...
Think this stuff is funny? I didn't invent the above... I have actually seen or heard all of that. One guy told me that he was Cousteau's roommate in college... Which was really interesting, since Cousteau actually attended the French Naval Academy. The guy telling me that he was his roommate was definitely not French - and almost certainly not a college graduate. All I could do was say, "Oh wow... That's unbelievable," to which he replied with stories about how he and Jacques used to drink beers together while they invented aqualungs in Jacques' garage.
Sorry - I'm off topic.
I think the reason why instructors encourage the use of a log book is really for YOUR benefit... Writing things down helps you to remember the dive and spot things happening. For example, if you record in your 5th dive that you were able to get 20 minutes out of a tank, then on your 15th dive you were able to get 33 minutes... Well, it shows your progress. It also does the same with weighting... Over time, you'll notice that your weighting gets less and less, and the log book is verification of that.
For years I have used a dive computer on my wrist primarily to see my dive profile - what my dive looks like. When depth is expressed graphically over time, the dive should look like a big check mark... Deep at first, then gradually coming up, with a long tail indicating that as I got shallower, I slowed my ascent. In a way, this graph is a "log" of my dive, and from it I've learned a lot and increased my safety margin physiologically. I would not have learned this had I not had a "log" of my dive.
...So I encourage you logging your dives, at least for a while. It can provide for you a lot of information later that will help you to improve your diving skills.
...But no, I have never seen someone else request it for any official purpose.
...And so whether you record every dive or only the ones that meet certain time or depth criteria... Well, it's your call.
Gotta run. Jacques Cousteau's college roommate is calling me...
That said, I've heard of people being asked for their log book when renting gear or when going for their Divemaster or other, more advanced certification. I've never actually seen it happen in person, though, as the absence of a log book can indicate both a diver that hasn't dived in a long time (lost log book) AND a diver that dives all the time (has given up on logging dives). So... Not having one doesn't prove anything at all about abilities, and anyone that insists on seeing one is probably pretty clueless if they don't know that it's absence indicates nothing. IMHO, the only thing that indicates another diver's skill level is diving with them and seeing for yourself.
I know a lot of really educated divers with all sorts of advanced certifications that I wouldn't dive with because I know they're not safe divers. I've even seen "C-card mill" dive shops that will take a person from no C-card to super-duper-head-honcho-instructor-trainer (what's that, like seven levels in the PADI system?) in two months or less. Yikes! I also know a lot of Divemasters with less than 50 dives under their belt.
Conversely, I also know a lot of divers who have been diving for 20 years or more and have thousands of dives, who also couldn't donate air their way out of a wet paper bag... So in my opinion, neither education nor experience are end-all indicators of a good diver... The only way I know to form an opinion about a person's abilities is to dive with them.
That said, I can tell you that I've never once met a bad diver that's passed a GUE Fundamentals course. If they hold that card, I always know that they're squared away, and that diving with them will be an extraordinary pleasure because their buoyancy and trim will be spot-on, their consumption respectable, their gear issues nonexistent, and their communication clear, precise and predictable.
...But flash a GUE C-card at your local dive shop, and the Divemaster with 37 dives to his name may have no clue as to what it is... And instead ask for your log book.
Wanna impress him? Buy a log book at http://www.Leisurepro.com (one of the really nice ones), fill out all kinds of extraordinary things in it ("Dove to 1600 feet today... Assisted Jacques Cousteau in breeding whale sharks while inventing liquid breathing apparatus...") and then run it over with your car a few dozen times to get it really old and worn-looking.
Then tell him you used to be a Navy Seal, but that you weren't allowed to log those dives (you could have, but then you'd have to kill whoever read your log book), and that you invented scuba diving, too (even though you were born in 1972). LOL...Think this stuff is funny? I didn't invent the above... I have actually seen or heard all of that. One guy told me that he was Cousteau's roommate in college... Which was really interesting, since Cousteau actually attended the French Naval Academy. The guy telling me that he was his roommate was definitely not French - and almost certainly not a college graduate.
All I could do was say, "Oh wow... That's unbelievable," to which he replied with stories about how he and Jacques used to drink beers together while they invented aqualungs in Jacques' garage.Sorry - I'm off topic.
I think the reason why instructors encourage the use of a log book is really for YOUR benefit... Writing things down helps you to remember the dive and spot things happening. For example, if you record in your 5th dive that you were able to get 20 minutes out of a tank, then on your 15th dive you were able to get 33 minutes... Well, it shows your progress. It also does the same with weighting... Over time, you'll notice that your weighting gets less and less, and the log book is verification of that.
For years I have used a dive computer on my wrist primarily to see my dive profile - what my dive looks like. When depth is expressed graphically over time, the dive should look like a big check mark... Deep at first, then gradually coming up, with a long tail indicating that as I got shallower, I slowed my ascent. In a way, this graph is a "log" of my dive, and from it I've learned a lot and increased my safety margin physiologically. I would not have learned this had I not had a "log" of my dive.
...So I encourage you logging your dives, at least for a while. It can provide for you a lot of information later that will help you to improve your diving skills.
...But no, I have never seen someone else request it for any official purpose.
...And so whether you record every dive or only the ones that meet certain time or depth criteria... Well, it's your call.
Gotta run. Jacques Cousteau's college roommate is calling me...
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yousmellsfishy
New member
no claspers?Sadly I won't be able to participate in this... I'm only hung like a horse, not not a 40' whale shark!
-Tim
SeaJayInSC
New member
No wonder yousmellsfishy.
Tim-
In my experience the 3 main purposes for logging dives are to:
1. Prove your experience to a dive shop or certifying agency.
2. Act as a sort of memory lane of your dives and your progress in the sport. As in, "Remember that cool nurse shark we saw on the wreck in Mexico?"
3. Provide information for use on future dives. A Caribbean dive in a shorty, a New England shore dive in a 7mm suit, a drysuit dive and a freshwater dive will all require different weighting. If you've been diligent in logging the conditions of your dives you won't have to reinvent the wheel every time you dive.
I don't think your shallow dives fit into any of these categories. Static 4 foot dives won't impress agencies and the conditions experienced won't change much with subsequent dives of this type. The reason agencies want to see a certain number of dives for various cert. levels is that you really need to get some experience in order to benefit from the instruction. For instance, if you can't control your own buoyancy in a light current you won't be effective in a rescue scenario. If you keep diving at a reasonable rate you won't have any problem with the agency minimums.
If I were you I would log only standard dives but add a page to the back of your log on which you record the date and duration of these shallow dives.
In my experience the 3 main purposes for logging dives are to:
1. Prove your experience to a dive shop or certifying agency.
2. Act as a sort of memory lane of your dives and your progress in the sport. As in, "Remember that cool nurse shark we saw on the wreck in Mexico?"
3. Provide information for use on future dives. A Caribbean dive in a shorty, a New England shore dive in a 7mm suit, a drysuit dive and a freshwater dive will all require different weighting. If you've been diligent in logging the conditions of your dives you won't have to reinvent the wheel every time you dive.
I don't think your shallow dives fit into any of these categories. Static 4 foot dives won't impress agencies and the conditions experienced won't change much with subsequent dives of this type. The reason agencies want to see a certain number of dives for various cert. levels is that you really need to get some experience in order to benefit from the instruction. For instance, if you can't control your own buoyancy in a light current you won't be effective in a rescue scenario. If you keep diving at a reasonable rate you won't have any problem with the agency minimums.
If I were you I would log only standard dives but add a page to the back of your log on which you record the date and duration of these shallow dives.
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