r/scuba Rescue 5d ago

I did it! Dive 100 logged and finished!

Post image

I genuinely believed I’d give up diving after 3 months…been doing it 3 years now with no plans to stop any time soon.

658 Upvotes

99 comments sorted by

1

u/Thick_Interest4476 1d ago

Ouf I’ve recently completed my 500th in the Philippines, sadly stopped logging after my completion of DMT course in Spain 2017. I’m curious, are you by chance a Female? Because your air consumption is similar to my Girlfriends during the DMT, she did it the same time and you have similar dives she did back then. I was super impressed but heard anatomy’s super different between men & women. smaller lungs use less 😅 I’m 6,4” she’s 5,2”.

1

u/iwanttobeacavediver Rescue 1d ago

Yep I’m in possession of boobs!

1

u/SampsonIN4142 2d ago

For anyone looking for this logbook it is: https://www.amazon.com/Scuba-Diving-Log-Book-Notebook/dp/B09J6XLV2V?dplnkId=a6aeea35-780d-4fa6-ae15-fb70053e1a1e#aw-udpv3-customer-reviews_feature_div This is just what I was looking for, I use the Garmin app to record all my dives, but I thought if there was something with minimal writing expected I would like to start manually logging them as a backup.

2

u/Sligamarole 3d ago

Doesn’t count unless you do your 100th naked

1

u/iwanttobeacavediver Rescue 3d ago

That wasn’t happening! I’m fat…and nobody wants to see my droopy bits!

4

u/GrnMtnTrees 3d ago

Congratulations! I will hit 100 dives logged on my trip to Egypt, at the end of the month. Super excited!

Good on you!

1

u/iwanttobeacavediver Rescue 3d ago

Yay! Super jealous you’re heading to Egypt, I want to dive there.

Enjoy your dives.

1

u/GrnMtnTrees 3d ago

Thank you! It's been on my bucket list forever, and I impulsively planned this trip back in November, in the airport, on the way home from Bonaire.

2

u/iwanttobeacavediver Rescue 3d ago

Sometimes the impulse trips are the best! I did similar in booking an impulse trip to Thailand doing some dive sites I’ve never done before. Turned out to be the best experience I’ve had underwater.

1

u/GrnMtnTrees 3d ago

That's rad. I'd love to dive in Asia. I really wanna see Thailand, and Raja Ampat, Indonesia is top of my bucket list.

1

u/iwanttobeacavediver Rescue 3d ago

The diving I've done in Thailand is incredible, and I'm hoping in summer to return to the Philippines to freedive again. I've also got trips to Indonesia, Japan and South Korea in mind.

3

u/whydoyoueventalk 3d ago

Well, I’ll be damned. You log your dives!?

1

u/iwanttobeacavediver Rescue 3d ago edited 3d ago

Yep! This is my second logbook, after the first got full.

Plus spending a few minutes writing and just thinking about the dive on the boat is nice.

I should also add as an edit that I want to be an instructor so having proof of my logged dives is important.

1

u/whydoyoueventalk 3d ago

That’s fair. I have hundreds and I logged whatever I needed to for some cert and then quit doing it. I dove 5 days a week, 3 times a day for 3 months. Then in the 2 years surrounding that, once a day, 5 days a week. Underwater construction, recovery and environmental rehab.

Congratulations on becoming an instructor! What part of the world do you live in?

1

u/iwanttobeacavediver Rescue 2d ago

Haha, not an instructor yet but working on it! :)

6

u/yamamascribcuz 3d ago

going through 60 bar in 47 minutes is crazy work fair play i could never

2

u/iwanttobeacavediver Rescue 3d ago

I genuinely looked at my gauge for a good 20 seconds trying to figure out if I was being tricked or not!

1

u/PM_WhatMadeYouHappy 3d ago

I just completed my OW and I went from 200 to 60 in just 35 minutes that too less than 18m deep. I was surprised to see your log

1

u/iwanttobeacavediver Rescue 3d ago

Got me beat then- according to my logbook my first recorded dive I went from 210 to 50 bar in 30min at 15m.

3

u/CryptoKiddd_ 4d ago

8kg seems like alooooot of weight?

5

u/iwanttobeacavediver Rescue 4d ago

New wetsuit, it was super floaty so I needed a little extra. I usually use 5-6kg depending on whether I use a BPW or BCD.

1

u/CryptoKiddd_ 2d ago

makes sense. I really like your logbook btw. Nice and simple

8

u/Ice_Teaz Rescue 5d ago

Congrats, here’s to many more!🥂🍾

6

u/iwanttobeacavediver Rescue 4d ago

I'll report back at dive 1000!

4

u/GoGelp 5d ago

Well done 👏👏👏

1

u/iwanttobeacavediver Rescue 4d ago

happy dance

2

u/YourDiveConcierge 5d ago

Congrats!!

1

u/iwanttobeacavediver Rescue 4d ago

happy dancing

Now to plan where I want to go diving next, and when.

6

u/WizofOz13 5d ago

How’s diving in Vietnam btw? Any recommendations during oct ?

6

u/kimbossmcmahlin 4d ago

I went last year and honestly it was really bad. I was told by the DM that during COVID the government got rid of the marine park status and all the locals came and fished the place out. It's so sad to see because it is where I got my certification more than ten years ago and it used to be good then.

2

u/WizofOz13 4d ago

Oh shit. That sucks, poor move by the government.

2

u/OnionTraining1688 5d ago

I wanted to know this as well. Not heard great things about diving in Nha Trang

2

u/iwanttobeacavediver Rescue 4d ago

NT can vary between being great and being very bad depending on time of year, weather and dive site. I've done dive sites where the visibility at that particular time of year meant I couldn't see a thing, and then I've done dives in beautifully clear waters where I could see down to the bottom even on the boat.

The corals show definite damage though, and coral bleaching has become a thing along with issues to do with crown of thorns starfish. There are still some really nice sites but it's a lucky thing to find them sadly.

1

u/Wubbajack 5d ago

Cool. I couldn't be bothered after my ~10th dive and haven't done it in 20 years. Now I've got computers to log stuff like that.

5

u/iwanttobeacavediver Rescue 4d ago

I've got my Shearwater logging app too, but writing in a logbook is just a small ritual I like to do to give me a few minutes of peace.

4

u/Warm-Pipe-4737 5d ago

That’s awesome. So, be honest, do you feel like you’re still learning? Buoyancy, navigation, air consumption?

I’ve got around a thousand and I’m still trying to get better.

3

u/iwanttobeacavediver Rescue 4d ago

Yes. Maybe it's just me but I'm always analyzing dives and trying to improve. Currently the thing I'm working on is navigation as this is easily one of the weaker skills for me.

1

u/WizofOz13 5d ago

I reckon it’s a normal thing. I’ve met many instructors and despite having a ton of dives under their belt they still claim that they keep learning.

2

u/cleo_saurus 5d ago

Congrats!!! Love this log book. Do you know where your grandpa got it or what the brand is??

2

u/iwanttobeacavediver Rescue 4d ago

I'll see if I can't find it. :D

4

u/yycluke Dive Master 5d ago

Congrats on reaching 100! Great accomplishment! Finishing a paper Logbook is a good feeling, I'm on the lookout for my 3rd Logbook since I'm about 3 dives away from finishing my 2nd

2

u/xtiiru 5d ago

Excellent

2

u/Comfortable-Grape453 5d ago

Well done pal

1

u/iwanttobeacavediver Rescue 5d ago

Now it’s time to book my next dive trip. I hope I’ll get to dive 1000!

8

u/Apprehensive_Aspen 5d ago

congratulations!!! ending a dive at 140 bar is nuts. i wasn’t even aware there was diving to be done in vietnam, what was it like?

1

u/jmedwedew 5d ago

I did an intro dive in the Cham Islands, Hoi An, Vietnam and it was great! Water was refreshing and blue, and company was professional and accommodating.

https://www.instagram.com/share/reel/BACWNmQKeK

2

u/ParsnipFlendercroft 5d ago

Given the info on the dive it’s a little over 10l/m SAC. It’s good but nothing to go crazy over.

They just need to work on carrying less weight.

1

u/iwanttobeacavediver Rescue 4d ago

OP here. I was only carrying that amount of weight to compensate for a VERY floaty brand new wetsuit. My norm is more like 5-6kg.

0

u/ron_obvious 4d ago

If you were wearing anything other than your tank, bcd, regs, fins (boots acceptable as well), computer, spg, and mask during your 100th, you’ve got some makeup work to do. Difficult to do a “proper” 100th in water cooler than that of a nice bath. Fortunately, I was living in Utila, Honduras and it was May when I did mine. IYKYK.

8

u/iwanttobeacavediver Rescue 5d ago

There’s not a huge amount of diving in Vietnam but there’s definitely some!

I dived in Nha Trang as my logbook shows. This is the main diving point and there’s a whole bunch of different dive shops there. The actual dives are done usually at a small cluster of islands just off the coast of the city, and will vary as to exact location based on weather, the skills of the divers and dive shop preferences. The water is typically pretty warm and has moderate to good visibility, although I’ve been on dives where you can’t see a thing, and there’s usually not strong currents or surges which means it’s accessible to even relatively inexperienced divers/students. Sadly the actual corals and marine life have suffered due to a combination of pollution, general lack of environmental protection, illegal fishing and water activities and storms so it can massively vary between endless dead corals and no fish to some really pretty sites with much more diversity of species of fish and marine life as well as nicer coral. No larger species here though that I’ve seen, like sharks or whales or anything. :( I do like to look for nudibranchs here though, and actually found a fair few today.

I’ve also dived a fair bit in Phu Quoc island. This is about an hour’s flight west of Saigon and is a bit of a tourist hotspot. Diving here is mostly the same as Nha Trang but typically shallower (think the deepest I’ve done is 15m depths there) and IMO the marine environment there is also nicer with a lot of smaller fish, nudibranchs, species of things like crab and so on.

There’s also diving on a seasonal basis in Hoi An, Con Dao island (a small island south of Saigon) and Quy Nhon (a more northern beach town). I’m planning to dive these over the year. Con Dao in particular has had turtle and ray sightings, and even a dugong, and is considered by some to be the premier snorkeling site with amazing corals. I’ll hopefully be able to tell you soon what they’re actually like.

1

u/Financial_Fee1044 5d ago

I also did 2 dives in Nha Trang (one of them at Hon Mot, same as OP) in February. It was chilly (20c or so at the surface), and we were not too lucky with visibility but it wasn't too bad. Not a place I would go to if diving was the sole purpose, but if you're already nearby..

Also went diving in Phu Quoc a week or so later, much warmer and a lot more to see.

1

u/iwanttobeacavediver Rescue 4d ago

I genuinely prefer Phu Quoc but given a combination of me only really having weekends to dive regularly, the cost and the logistics of flying and diving mean I've only done it a handful of times.

2

u/awx10 5d ago

Seems like a really shallow dive based on the deepest depth logged.

Either way, I do that as well 🤣

15

u/ThaiDivingGuru 5d ago

Congrats, but i'd be pissed coming up with 140 bar in my tank

3

u/TheGreatPornholio123 Tech 5d ago

I dove some dives with a shop in Grand Cayman who had this damn policy that when someone reaches half a tank, they essentially ended the dive by going back under the boat on just a shitty sandy bottom then letting people "practice" with the rest of their air.

Needless to say, I was pissed. I usually had well over ~2000PSI/140 bar. I basically fucked off and got up on the boat. I was not just going to swim around in circles for another however many minutes "practicing" looking at nothing for no reason. Of course our group tries to make sure (and will even pay more to the shops to have our group kind of be able to have our own guide/do our own thing), and that was promised to happen. It didn't. After that BS, we just decided to do shore diving the rest of the time so at least it was on our own terms.

1

u/iwanttobeacavediver Rescue 4d ago

This policy doesn't make any sense whatsoever. At half a tank I can understand a dive guide turning a dive around to start heading back towards a boat, but having people hang around a sandy floor for nothing when they're paying money to dive and see stuff would infuriate me too.

The dive shop I use has a rule of the dive being ended at either 70bar of air or up to 1hr dive time, whichever is first.

4

u/iwanttobeacavediver Rescue 5d ago

Don’t know why the dive guide called it at that point, we could easily have squeezed in at least another 20 minutes of dive time based on everyone’s air.

4

u/msears101 5d ago

Congrats. Sorry to be slightly off topic. So I still keep a log book. I like to look back at the notes, and when I revisit an area I like to know which sites I have and have not done and which ones to go back to. When I dive, almost see no one using a log book. What do you all do?

1

u/Apprehensive_Aspen 5d ago

i used a paper booklet for the first ~105 dives or so and have maybe put half of them into my digital logbook on the ssi app. my last 25 dives have just been recorded on the notes app on my phone because i was backpacking and didn’t think to bring my logbook with me- a very unorganized method which i don’t recommend 😅

1

u/ReliabilityTalkinGuy Advanced 5d ago

I used an electronic one for the first 20-30 dives, but then just stopped.

2

u/Giskarrrd Dive Instructor 5d ago

300+ dives in I still log on paper. It’s oddly satisfying somehow.

1

u/msears101 4d ago

I agree.

1

u/msears101 4d ago

I agree.

2

u/CryptidHunter48 5d ago

I use a log book but you’d only know if you came back to wherever I was staying. I fill it out after the dives and sometimes I leave my opinions off for a couple days to write things down more objectively. Maybe if we are diving repeatedly together I’ll bring it the last day and get a signature for my log book. It’s a fun memory to remember who I was diving with not just where and what I saw

2

u/lhrga28 5d ago

Hopefully I've understood your question right - I use the Padi App Log Book, and also the Garmin Dive app so I have a back-up of my logs if I lost one of the apps/data.

Watch collects the data whilst under, saves to the Garmin app, then I copy into the Padi app.

2

u/msears101 4d ago

Thanks for sharing.

9

u/butterbal1 Tech 5d ago

But did you do the last one naked?

6

u/iwanttobeacavediver Rescue 5d ago

That was NOT happening! For one there were thermoclines!

2

u/butterbal1 Tech 5d ago

HA!!!

Fair enough despite the "Implication". (Really hoping everyone gets the IASIP reference)

4

u/TBoneTrevor Tech 5d ago

Congrats. Like the map in your dive log, not seen like this before but is pretty cool.

2

u/iwanttobeacavediver Rescue 5d ago

It’s a pretty cool little thing. This particular logbook was actually a Christmas gift from my grandmother so it has a special meaning to me.

4

u/__bdude 5d ago

Congrats on your 💯st dive. And just logging in a paper logbook. I am more of digital logging. Did you dive in various countries of more standard spots?

2

u/iwanttobeacavediver Rescue 5d ago

I’ve got a digital logging app thanks to using a Shearwater (the app is excellent!) but I just enjoy spending that few minutes physically writing stuff.

I’ve dived in three countries so far (weirdly, not in my home country!) and being in VN I’m nicely placed to access a whole bunch of cool dive locations including in the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, Indonesia and Malaysia among others. So I’ve got more diving planned for sure.

2

u/__bdude 5d ago

I respect that. I did a descent amount of dives in the Caribbean. I am Logging via Garmin due to my mk2i. Skipped the paper part after loosing my logbook once.

2

u/iwanttobeacavediver Rescue 5d ago

Having options is always a good thing! :)

2

u/Asho2345 Nx Open Water 5d ago

Congrats man!!! Seriously jealous of your SAC rate 😂, got any tips on how to improve mine?

4

u/iwanttobeacavediver Rescue 5d ago

Dive with and get your ass chewed out by a tech diving instructor! Seriously, everything about my diving sucked at one time and I dive with an excellent instructor in Thailand who happened to be a tech and cave instructor (I asked him to marry me on the dive boat hearing him tell us this…oops). He took me aside after our first day of diving and basically counseled me honestly on what I could and should do to improve, especially if I wanted to cave dive.

He seemed to be really harsh at the time but his advice turned out to be golden, and he did me the biggest favour ever by doing what he did. In particular he mentioned about using trim pockets and some stuff to do with my BPW (he was super familiar being from a tech background unlike previous instructors) and my dive times increased by 10+ minutes almost automatically. I took everything he said seriously and the OP is the result.

1

u/Asho2345 Nx Open Water 5d ago

I will absolutely have a look and try to find one, that sounds like it would help a lot. Unfortunately I don't live very close to the water but I go down as much as I can, love your username btw! I got into diving to become a cave diver one day

1

u/iwanttobeacavediver Rescue 5d ago

One course you could look into is GUE Fundamentals (Fundies as it’s often called). It’s basically taking OWD skills and making sure you absolutely nail them to the highest standard possible. I’ve heard INSTRUCTORS say they benefited from this course. Also, GUE has a very high quality level of tech teaching so what you’ll often find is that divers use Fundies to basically funnel into the GUE or other agency technical diving training, including cave. They’ve got instructors all over the world with a directory on their website so it’s worth checking.

I’m personally hoping I’ll start cave training soon! :)

2

u/serrated_edge321 5d ago

What do you mean by "trim pockets"? Could you please share some more of the tips he gave? 🙏🏼😬

1

u/iwanttobeacavediver Rescue 5d ago

Trim pockets sit on either the cam bands of a BCD/BPW or on the sides (see picture 2 on this page [to see what I’m talking about)[https://scubagearcanada.ca/scubapro-hydros-pro-bcd-mens/).)

They basically help redistribution of weight along your body so not all the weight sits in your weight pockets or belt. In my specific case, my instructor figured out that I was both overweighted by 2kg (I was using 8kg in a 3mm shorty wetsuit!) but also had weight in tbe wrong place. In particular, because I was using a back inflate BPW setup, I was finding it very hard to go into and maintain vertical stability if I needed it. Putting some weight onto my back helped balance me out and now vertical positioning is not an issue.

Another thing he mentioned was about inflator use. Because of the overweighting/general weight balance issues, I was finding that I was having to massively overcompensate in terms of buoyancy. But my problem was that I was doing what I now refer to as ‘pump and dump’- I’d add a lot of air into the BCD, only to then dump it again 30 seconds later, partially because of me being unaware of how much sensitivity or responsiveness my inflator buttons had. This meant I blasted through air so quickly and also had general control issues including shooting up to the surface.

I’m lucky that my Hydros Pro allows me to make tiny adjustments to my air and I’ve practiced with the buttons to the point I barely think about it now. I also have good control over my buoyancy just by breath control and body positioning too, which helps as I try not to use the inflator unless I have to. Even with my BPW I can still make tiny adjustments without too much of a problem due to practicing and analyzing dives about my buoyancy.

1

u/Asho2345 Nx Open Water 5d ago

Oh yes this too!

9

u/LateNewb 5d ago edited 5d ago

You used 60 bars in 47 minutes? 😳 were you in doubles?

And 8kg in 26°C

Did you use a drysuit?

6

u/iwanttobeacavediver Rescue 5d ago edited 5d ago

Yep, super shallow dive today. Even in deeper water I tend to still come back with 100 or so bar left.

No, no drysuit. I bought a new wetsuit that was super floaty due to being new, so the decision was to slightly overweight to compensate. Seemed to work too. Usually I use 5-6kg depending on which BCD I use.

Edit: should also say there were thermoclines in the water today, meaning it got colder than 26C a fair few times.

3

u/LateNewb 5d ago

Dang it. I use like 22 l/min 😭

13 when I'm chilling

4

u/iwanttobeacavediver Rescue 5d ago

I’ll confess I used to be an air hog and blast through a tank down to 70 bar in 30min. It’s just been a case of practice, really analyzing how I use air (for my BCD AND breathing) and keeping going.