Everyone Loves a Sticker!

Article and Photos Provided By: Karen Erens

 

I want to ask you a question.

How many dives do you have? And how many of those dives did you register in your logbook?

The first 10 or 50?

Do you keep track of your dives?

Or aren’t you motivated anymore to log every dive in your logbook?

 

As dive instructors, we teach our students how to write down every dive in their logbooks. We do this consistently during the debriefing and always observe that our students put all the scuba exercises in the logbook while the instructor is waiting to have the logbook stamped with the usual worn-out stamps of the dive centre. The appeal of the logbook is completely zero. It is just some stupid administrative thing to do.

 

Logbooks are essential; your complete dive experience is written down in the small booklet. If you did not dive for a couple of years and want to start diving again on that upcoming holiday in an exotic place, the first thing a dive centre asks is: “Can I see your logbook please?” Or “when was your last dive?”

 

“Oh, oops, it got lost!” or “I forgot to bring it, but I have my certification card.” These are usually the answers to that question.

 

Okay, that plastic card shows you are an open water diver (or higher certified level), but there still is a difference between 6 dives of experience or 100 dives. So, the dive centre is very interested in knowing the number of dives you did, what kind of dives those were, and when. I don’t have to tell you that there’s a difference between a clear blue water dive in the Caribbean and a dive in the murky waters of a European quarry.

 

Logbooks usually start the old way, on paper. But nowadays, there are a lot of digital apps you can either use on a laptop or your phone. I researched and tried a few but did not become the biggest fan. It takes me more time digital compared to just filling my paper logbook and using a lot of those logbook Apps, you need the internet to access the locations, or you need a connection with a laptop or a camera to upload the pictures of that dive you just made and want to log.

 

If you ask divers about their logbook, until now, not a single diver showed me his digital logbook on his phone? Is it still not incorporated in our digital world, or is it because, when going diving, we don’t have our smartphone around to get the dive logged digitally?

 

I do it still the “old way” and log my dives on paper. It is so easy to put in an additional drawing of the divesite, and logging a dive while still on the dive boat without an internet connection, is not a problem at all; I need a pen to get the job done.

 

But I also must admit that the natural colours from your dive are challenging to capture in your paper logbook, but those days have changed, and I am not talking digital here!

 

For a few years, I have become a big fan of DiveSticker, a Swiss company that creates all kinds of cool dive stickers to put in your logbook or the logbook of your dive students!

 

Who doesn’t like to get a nice colourful dive sticker in their logbook?

 

Honestly, more than thirty years ago, I was doing my best at school to collect lovely stickers in my school notebooks. Back then, I was working hard to get the entire collection of “Care Bear” stickers and felt great with every new “Care Bear” in my notebook. Kids and stickers, it just works well. Do you remember those days?

 

Now, guess what?

 

When I put a cool dive sticker in the logbook of my students, they are always pleasantly surprised. They feel rewarded when they see the funny sticker at the end of the Open Water Course. And not only the children but their parents are also into collecting each dive speciality sticker. Suddenly the paper logbook becomes more attractive and a ‘collection’.

 

I still remember when diving with my ten-year-old godchild. After each dive (and even before we were completely dry), he was already searching in the DiveSticker-set for that particular fish we saw on the dive or the event on the dive that became memorable with the right DiveSticker. He made a nice sticker book of his logbook and used it as a fish guide in between dives to show mom and dad which fish he had seen during the dives.

 

Suddenly, the logbook became very special; he was always motivated to log all his dives.

So here is a way to motivate your students to fill in their logbooks!

But it can go further; there is even more to the story.

 

Dive Sticker also offers the possibility to personalise sticker sets. If you put your logo, name or website on the stickers, your students will stick your colourful publicity into their logbooks! Other divers will see it, and you will have some eye-catching publicity in their logbook.

 

They will never forget your divecenter or diveschool just because of the beautiful sticker they received from you, marking the dives and services you provided to them.

 

What else does Dive Sticker offer?

 

Dive Sticker has different fish sticker sets for the most popular dive destinations in the world, like the Caribbean, Maldives, the Red Sea etc., so divers can put the fish stickers in their logbook of all the fish they saw on the dives.

 

Dive Sticker offers a sticker set with all the dive spots of specific holiday destinations, such as Bonaire in the Caribbean. So, when taking their next holiday, divers can mark all the unique local dives, fish and more in their logbooks.

 

Dive Stickers offers funny dive stickers for all dive courses and speciality courses. They even provide nice dive comics stickers and a set called “sharks only”.

 

Check out their complete sticker assortment on their website https://eu.dive-sticker.com/ and make a plan on how to motivate your upcoming students to fill out their logbooks accompanied with a nice dive sticker. You might be surprised how fast your students will get used to receiving a Dive Sticker!