Dive Logs

Sag

Folk’s, having searched the forums it seems most people are recording / logging dives electronically, down loading computers. This is fine but having had my computer drop a nut at the beginning of the year I lost all data, so a print out or keeping a back up on disk, mem stick or similar is a wise option.
I was wondering if anyone still fills out a dive log or sheet, I haven’t seen anything suitable on the market and was going to format something in Word or Excel. I was thinking of doing this on trips, holidays, where weight limits or the shear amount of crap I’m carting around means I can’t be bothered to take the laptop. Being a lazy sod I thought I’d ask if anyone is doing this and has a format their willing to share.

Sue

Hi

A couple of months ago´, Danil presented us a great log, even if it was designed for the Meg, it can be used by other Rebreather divers

Check it out here
http://www.rebreatherworld.com/megal...-megglogg.html

Cheers

Sag

Absolutely perfect, many thanks.

Sag

Benthic

Dive Log?? What the heck is that?

Call me lazy--I haven't actually logged a dive in many years. Don't get me wrong, when I first learned to dive I logged everything religiously. But it eventually got to the point that I stopped looking back at it, and logging was just a chore, so I stopped. I recently started carrying a Sensus Ultra, but that's it.

However if my understanding is correct, BSAC is much more serious about the use of your dive log as proof of experience than clubs/agencies in the US are. I've never been asked for my log book as proof of anything I've done in the past.

Brian

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Sag

Well Lazy, I can appreciate your prospective and agree it can be a chore. But as a newbie to CCR (3 months) I’m still fine tuning my set up though I think I’m just about there, it’s good to look back and see improvements. If I want to take further training then proof of experience, or hours is required for all agencies I believe, same on some boats with deep dives .
I also like to dive different places and wrecks and it’s handy to be able to check back, as it can be confusing which was which when swapping tall stories in the pub, or I get the chance to go back to a particular site months or years later. I’ve noticed significant changes to a wreck from one year to another, good or bad vis can make a huge difference to the experience I take away from a site and its interesting to compare dives.

nigelh

I log the fills (gas and lime) kit and weights before a dive and then the durations et. all. after. This is just written on standard PADI pages because I bought lots when I was first starting out.

Mostly I use the computer and since my computers back up to one another and I keep the vision logs in a www partition not only does everything get protected but I could access them from anywhere.

Nowhere do I write up a diary of what the dive was like.

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nigelh

decoweenie

Excellent idea Nigel! Have some green...

This definitely solves the proof issue when going somewhere logs are required. Is there any particular way that yours were done that you don't mind sharing ?

I haven't logged any dives in the last 7 years due to sheer laziness and lack of benefits, but if the process is painless (i.e. download from the Vision to a webpage, etc) I could be tempted...

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nigelh

I just run it to a folder.
It's become a bit more complex now we are no longer hosting things from the office but the bandwidth hit on the guns and scuba sections was getting to be so much more than the company work...
http://www.nigelhewitt.co.uk/list.php?diving/logs

This gives away what a boring life I lead. No mystical 100 meter deep virgin wrecks, just a grope about under the Palace pier, some inshore stuff with BSAC students and (hangs head in shame) a loop of the Stoney Cove perimeter discovering how bad at scootering I was and why I so needed a tow-along strap.

The next dive to be added was quite a pleasant little bimple net cutting on a protected wreck followed by me getting into a fight with the VR3 over its stops (The stop is at 20m I am at 24 so why are you flashing at me? I can't go much slower without stopping altogether?) but I haven't downloaded it yet.

The PDFs are just a 'print' of the graph page. My simple minded PDF to file program won't do two pages from two separate vision s/w print commands or I'd do both.

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nigelh

decoweenie

As I don't ever look at the dive logs despite having numerous dive computers that log the profiles, I have never opened up the APD log viewer program.

So, in layman terms, how do you generate the PDF files ? They would be easier for someone at the dive center to open up to verify.

Is it a simple "print screen" then paste somewhere ?

Also, do you know if Adobe works inside the APD log viewer program so one could generate the PDF files directly ? I would open the Log Viewer, but I am at work and don't have my laptop.

Thanks again, Nigel!

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nigelh

I loaded a PDF 'printer' - that is a printer driver that appears as a printer to Windows programs but actually outputs a PDF file and then print it.
I use PrimoPDF 'cos it's free.

The stuff there is primarily for my benefit, normally when I'm shooting my mouth off on the internet and I'm hoping to come up with some facts to justify my pre-conceived imaginings ...

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nigelh