Best Choice Dive Log Software?

"chilly" wrote

> I guess I'm lucky. I've never been asked for my log. I've been some
> places
> where prior notice had been given that it would be required but once I got
> there . . .no one asked.

I remember being asked once. I think it was one of my Cayman trips. The
guy that asked took one look at the notebook, with copies of my
certification cards on the front of the binder and checked off the box. To
the best of my knowledge, nobody has ever opened it. The rules have chanced
over the years. When I started diving, in 1962, you didn't need a card. In
fact, no card was issued for my first course (YMCA). Around 1969, it
started to get hard to get gas without a card, so I got one. The pool where
I worked as a lifeguard taught NAUI. My total cost was for the open water
trip on the instructor's private runabout, maybe $20. These days, more an
more operators indicate that they want to see a log. So, when I'm doing
something important to me, liveaboard, dive trip, or the like, I usually
take something to show them with me.

Speaking of taking things with me. Here's an idea that might work for
others as well as it works for me. I travel for work, sometimes to places I
can dive. I don't normally expect to be anyplace long enough to have time
to dive, but things don't always go according to plan. I learned, while
sitting in a motel for a week in Puerto Rico, the benefit of having proof of
certification all the time. I scanned the front and back of each of my
certification cards, put them on a single page and put a copy on all of my
computers. I don't go anywhere without a computer. There's also a copy of
my cards in my dive bag tool kit, in the front of my most current log book,
in my car and, often as not, in my wallet.

> I don't carry it with me anywhere and it wouldn't matter if I did. Can't
> remember the last time I logged a dive. I just got a new computer but my
> old one can hold 99 dives in the memory and that's rolled over.

I have a Citizen HyperAqualand watch. In fact, I have two of them. The
second one was given to me by a friend, now deceased, when my first one went
in for battery replacement and alarm disablement (is that a word?). If it
were not for them, I would not log as many dives as I do. Unfortunately,
they don't hold anything like 99 dives, which is one of the reasons I carry
a computer everywhere I do. I used to download them to my Palm OS PDA. So
far, I've not found software, etc. to let me download them to my Windows OS
PDA. Anyone know how to do this?

You make a good point concerning your computer. Most operators don't care
to know anything except that you've been diving fairly recently and that you
are capable of diving to depths similar to what is planned. If your recent
dives are to comparable depths, a computer will do that.

Lee

On Fri, 17 Feb 2006 07:12:37 -0500, "Lee Bell"
<pleebell2@bellsouth.net> wrote:

>
>When I think I may want to show my log to someone, I copy a selected
>portion, recent dives that demonstrate whatever abilities I think an
>operator wants to confirm. I don't do that often. Generally speaking, my
>1969 NAUI "SCUBA" certification card and more recent SSI Master Diver and
>TDI Nitrox cards are good enough evidence...

Dammit, Lee, I thought I had you beat. Got PADI certified as a "Scuba
Diver" in 1972. Had hair down to my shoulders and a mustache... Guess
I ought to start carrying that card again, it does make a point.

Terry L. Davis
>

chilly wrote:

> "T.L. Davis" <tldavis341@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
> news:ha0bv1lsb05b9p52eom79obelsivhemk2d@4ax.com...
>
>>On Sun, 12 Feb 2006 10:53:09 -0500, "Lee Bell"
>><pleebell2@bellsouth.net> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>My logs, for dives I managed to log at all, are loose leaf pages I
>>>created on my computer and printed on standard sized paper. I keep them
>
> in
>
>>>loose leaf binders. I find that my preferences have changed over the
>
> years.
>
>>>Logs for my earliest dives (that got logged)...
>>
>>No shit, Lee. I'm going to have to get together with my dive buddy
>>and attempt to log 20 years worth of infrequent lake dives just so I
>>can have an adequate log, since some operators want to see one. Did
>>log my Advanced Open Water and Nitrox certification dives, at least...
>>
>>Bad habits die hard.
>
>
> I guess I'm lucky. I've never been asked for my log. I've been some places
> where prior notice had been given that it would be required but once I got
> there . . .no one asked.
>
> I don't carry it with me anywhere and it wouldn't matter if I did. Can't
> remember the last time I logged a dive. I just got a new computer but my
> old one can hold 99 dives in the memory and that's rolled over.
>
>
>
Is it yer dive log that they are looking at????

--



It is said that drugs lead nowhere. This is probably true, but they do
take you on the scenic route….

__________________________________________________ _____________________________
"A prudent man foresees the difficulties ahead and prepares for them;
the simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences." - Proverbs 22:3

"T.L. Davis" <tldavis341@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:kbgbv1tf7vj4j03j319ql0i75pdkr9ncuh@4ax.com...

> Dammit, Lee, I thought I had you beat. Got PADI certified as a "Scuba
> Diver" in 1972. Had hair down to my shoulders and a mustache... Guess
> I ought to start carrying that card again, it does make a point.

Nah, the point's already made by your white hair and cane.

>> Dammit, Lee, I thought I had you beat. Got PADI certified as a "Scuba
>> Diver" in 1972. Had hair down to my shoulders and a mustache... Guess
>> I ought to start carrying that card again, it does make a point.

It's not a contest, but yes, you probably should start carrying that card.
It's a lot of fun to watch dive shop staff's eyes get big when the realize
you were certified before they were born.

Better still if your card has your picture on it. Mine is paper and has no
picture.

Lee

"Lee Bell" <pleebell2@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:1OpJf.10579$UD1.7526@bignews2.bellsouth.net.. .
> Better still if your card has your picture on it. Mine is paper and has
no
> picture.

That would have been your replacement certification after you lost the
original one that was chiseled in stone, right? <grin>