Diveboard Aims To Make Logging Scuba Dives Fun And Educational

When I earned my PADI open water diver certification, I had every intention of making scuba diving a regular hobby. Then I got a baby and everything changed. I haven’t been able to dive since, but I still have my logbook and keep looking for opportunities to get back into a wetsuit. The next time I do, I’ll be sure to log my dive at Diveboard, a new online dive logbook.

Diveboard lets you manually enter dives, or you can automatically upload output from one of several supported dive computers. (Extra props to Diveboard for supporting Linux!). You can share your dives, including linking to any pictures you might have taken while underwater, as well as see other users’ dives and pictures. You can also track the number and kinds of fish you’ve spotted, if you’re into that sort of thing.

Diveboard is taking things a couple of extra steps by sharing their collected data with safety and scientific organizations. Users can elect to not share anything, share their data anonymously, or be identified as the owner of their data. Medical information will be shared with the Divers Alert Network (with whom less than 5% of divers regularly share their dive data). Water temperature information will be shared with divers4oceanography.org/; and species occurrence data will be shared with the Ocean Biographic Information System. If you’re a diver just looking to log your dives, you can also help out these other organizations just by logging your dives on Diveboard. Good stuff.

According to Diveboard’s Alex Casassovici, the intent is to keep the site free to use for divers. As he says, “diving is expensive enough already.” The team specifically wants to keep the site fun and useful for divers. Casassovici recognizes that most social networks (Facebook, Google+, etc) can’t adequately cater to the needs of niche groups, and he wants to see Diveboard be meaningful to and successful with the niche population of divers.

If you’re a diver, why not take Diveboard for a spin?