There are several different kinds of underwater writing devices ranging from slates to notebooks for divers. Whether you are a new diver or a Dive Instructor, or anywhere in between, you may have the need to write something down underwater. Whether it’s asking questions underwater or recording them for later back on the boat or simply noting down what kind of marine life you encountered to help you remember when filling out your log book later on. For an Underwater Photographer it may be the camera settings used on specific shots you took for review later, or the Instructor for writing evaluations of student’s skills; whatever the need underwater writing devices are a real boon to scuba divers. Here is a compilation of various responses we got while asking fellow scuba divers who use dive slate what they use their slates for?
“Well I’m a Dive Instructor, so my dive slate is an invaluable tool to communicate underwater with my trainees. I also note down all of the skills and important activities I need to cover on my slate, like a lesson plan and check them off as we progress.”
– Hassan A. PADI Scuba Instructor
“I use my Slate to record all kinds of marine life and coral we encounter on my dive, and when I’m back on the surface, I refer to the slate while filling out my log book. Helps me remember what I saw on each dive”
– Kate H. Advanced Open Water Diver
“My husband and I always calculate our dive plan referring to our dive tables and note them down on our slates. While we both wear dive computers we like to have to have something to fall back on in case it fails. We note down our maximum NDL time at the depth we intend to dive at as well as make note of the two zones immediately following that depth. The slate is extremely helpful to a diver as he has to remember so many things during a dive, and one less thing by using a slate makes a big difference”
– Gillian C. Rescue Diver
“My dive slate is my logbook in carry with me underwater. I have one of those that have preformatted details such as buddy, depth, PSI/BAR start, time up time down etc. This is really helpful as I hate filing up my logbook after a tiring days diving, and now I don’t have to until I get a free day.”
– Brendon S. Open Water diver
“As an underwater photographer I use my dive slate to note down my camera settings for a macro, wide angle shots as well as strobe power settings that worked really well on my last dive, so that I can try similar settings which give me the best combination. More often than not this gets me breathtaking photographs underwater”
– Neville S. AOW Underwater Photographer
“I dive Nitrox (EAN) and so it is one of the requirements that I carry a slate with the content of my breathing gas that will allow medical personnel know the best and most proper treatment to assure a fast and permanent recovery if DCS occurs. I note down my mix, pressure and oxygen analysis on the slate before each dive.”
– John H. Nitrox Diver
“I always draw out the dive site map on mine during the dive briefings as well as make note of key features on the site in the margin of the slate, so that I know exactly where I am at all times during the dive.”
– Alex F. Advanced Open Water Diver
“I just cannot dive without my slate. I use it primarily to communicate with my buddy details I cannot get across using hand signals…I mean how are you going to sign to your buddy that the creature you were pointing at, that he could quite make out was a Tubercular nudibranch? The slate is simply invaluable underwater as a communication tool”
– Lee C. Advanced Open Water Diver
“As an underwater photographer I use a smaller white slate as my camera’s white balance card. I set my camera white balance every fifteen feet or so in depth using my slate as a grey card.”
– Joanna D. Underwater Photographer
As you can see the humble dive slate or underwater writing pad has so many diverse uses, making it yet another multi-purpose scuba diving accessory one must have in their scuba gear kit.
