Interesting log books

[swimjimi]

I had a long paper log book a decade ago, but it was laborious and boring so was either lost in a house move or is hidden somewhere in a loft. I'm looking to do some BCU courses and might need to reconstruct it. Anyone made anything interesting as a way of doing a log book?

There seem to be lots of people doing interactive maps as guidebooks, and I wouldn't be adverse to building my own log book website / map based on data from these (although I'd have to learn lots from scratch). I don't think this would in anyway help my kayaking but would be a bit of fun.

Any interesting ideas of either how this could be a fun project or better still ways to make the logbook something to help me develop my skills instead of just something to show an assessor once and then ignore?

[andynormancx]

I just use a Google Sheets document for mine. I have one sheet for trips, one for coaching sessions I deliver and one for courses I've been on.

On the trips sheet I record various things:

Date
From
To
Via
Miles
Hours
Speed
Type (river, sea, lake, etc)
Wind Force
Tide (days before/after springs/neaps)
Tide range
Boat
With (who I was paddling with)
Notes

I have a few charts/pivot tables driven off that sheet so I can see how much I'm paddling and where.

[andynormancx]

And yes, I've also occasionally considered creating a website/app to do it 😉

[Poke]

It has been done before, and was used to log fairy glen descents in opposition to the hydro scheme that was proposed a few years ago:

https://www.ukriversguidebook.co.uk/for ... dle+bubble

However, the paddle bubble website now seems to be defunct.

I know that Rob (the brains behind Rainchasers) considered adding that functionality to the site/app, but didn't have time to do so, so it never happened.