The Importance of Log Books

If you are one of these divers who are flush with cash (or rely on their credit card a little too much) you may be the proud owner of a swanky dive computer which records your dive to the n'th degree of accuracy - impressive dive profiles, undisputed accumulated time underwater, an unlimited space to write your account of the dive, you can even give your dive up to five stars.  

http://subsurface.hohndel.org/

Aside from being a technophobe and unable to find the USB cable for my Suunto Vyper, I find a certain satisfaction from the discipline of writing my dive account after every dive in my red BSAC log book. I find an annotated picture or silly sketch is easier to remember than a written account, and they're also more fun to do and look back on. I am on my 5th red book, it feels good to carry my experience around in my hand. 

The red log books are also rather resilient. In my early days I accidently left a few choice items in my drysuit pocket and went for a dive in Wraysbury. I emerged from the water searching for my log book, only to wake to a sobering realisation my soggy logbook was sloshing around my drysuit pocket along with the electronic minibus keys, which had to be dried out in the compressor room (they worked after a while, which was a relief). I managed to pull my logbook out of my pocket intact and lovingly took it home, carefully separated the pages and left it on the radiator. In the end it was stained, but the writing on all pages was still readable. The Neptune motif on the front had worn away, only to be redrawn by one of my buddies as Bart Simpson. Even though I know now how sturdy these books are I'd still rather not risk it again though!  

Returning to the point. Computer logs are clearer and more accurate than hand written log books. I feel the benefits end there, as I believe that log books exceed computers in this capacity several ways:

• Low maintenance, no printing, no cables, no electricity is required
• The more dives you log, the more books you collect, the more impressive it looks
• A certain nostalgia, especially for the early rustic log books
• Easy to carry around your whole experience with you
• More personal
• You can't stamp a dive computer with the site logo
• Your Buddy can't verify the log unless it's printed
• More satisfying to fill out
• Freestyle method of dive logging - pictures, diagrams, text, photos, there are no rules!

So keep your fancy computer logs, but also love your log books :-)