Log Every Oahu Dive: Why Our Divers Use the Buddy App

You just came off the boat at Kewalo Basin. The Sea Tiger was 100 feet of open wheelhouse and a whitetip that didn't care you were there. Turtle Canyon on the second tank, three greens on the cleaning station, one of them close enough to make you back up.

Now what?

For most divers, that dive lives in a phone camera roll and nowhere else. Six months later the details blur. Two years later you're trying to remember whether you dove the YO-257 or the San Pedro, and how much air you actually came up with.

That's the problem the Buddy app solves — and it's why we've been telling our Dive Club members to download it.

What Buddy actually is

Buddy is a free dive app built by divers. It's a dive log, a certification wallet, a dive site library, and a way to find people to dive with — all in one place, on the phone that's already in your dry bag. It's not a subscription. It's not a gimmick. It's the thing you pull out on the ride back to the harbor while the dive is still fresh.

Log the dive, tag Dive Oahu, validate with your guide

Every time you dive with us, log it in Buddy and link Dive Oahu to the entry.

That does two things. First, you build a real, permanent record of your Oahu diving — depths, times, sites, conditions, what you saw. Second, your dives stack up under our shop, so anyone browsing can see what diving Oahu's south shore actually looks like from a diver's point of view instead of a marketing page.

Your instructor or guide can also validate your dives. When you log a dive, tag them in the Official Validation section of the entry. That sends them a notification to review it, and once they agree, the dive shows as validated by a professional on your log. It's the difference between a dive you say you did and a dive a pro confirms you did — which matters when you're building toward Advanced, Rescue, or a professional rating.

If you dive a ScubaPro computer, link it once and forget it

We run ScubaPro gear here, and a lot of you dive ScubaPro computers.

If you already use the ScubaPro LogTRAK app, you can connect it to Buddy directly. Open LogTRAK, go into your settings and account, and link Buddy the same way you'd link SSI. From then on, every dive LogTRAK records syncs automatically into Buddy as a draft dive log.

The draft is where the good part happens. Your computer has already filled in the hard data — depth, bottom time, temperature, ascent. You add everything it can't record: photos, the buddies you dove with, Dive Oahu tagged in the details, your guide tagged for validation. Then hit publish.

Already have dives sitting in LogTRAK from past trips? Open any individual dive in the ScubaPro app, tap the three-dot menu, and share it to Buddy. It lands in your drafts the same way, ready to tag and publish.

Certification cards, verified for free

Open Water, Advanced, Nitrox, EFR — all of them can live in Buddy.

Here's what makes it more than a photo in your camera roll. You submit the card as a picture, as the details, or both. The Buddy team then goes to the issuing agency and verifies it's genuine. Once it's confirmed, it appears in your wallet as a verified certification.

That verification is free. No upgrade, no paywall, no fee.

Find people to dive with

Our Dive Club meets twice a month, and it exists because diving is better with people. Buddy covers the weeks in between — and because it works anywhere, it travels with you.

Turn on your location and the app matches you with divers in your area. Before you connect with anyone, you can look at their profile: their certifications, the dives they've actually logged, their bio, their Instagram if they've linked it. We'd recommend doing exactly that — someone's dive log tells you a lot about their experience level.

From there you send or accept a buddy request. Messages only open once a request has been accepted, so nobody can message you out of the blue.

Visitors staying in Waikiki looking for someone to dive the wrecks with, locals with a free Saturday, people who just moved to the island and don't know anybody yet — this is the fix.

Get set up before your next trip with us

Go to the iOS App Store or Google Play and search Dive With Buddy. Search the full name rather than just "Buddy" — it's much easier to find that way. Look for the b logo.

It's free to start. Create your profile and pick your type: Recreational if you dive for fun, Professional if you work at a shop, teach, or want to be able to validate other divers' logs. You can switch between the two whenever you need to.

Then you're good to go — log your dive and tag Dive Oahu in the details. And see below how to use the ‘Sharebuilder’ to share all your dives on Buddy :)

You'll also find Dive Oahu listed on the Buddy app and website — a growing marketplace of dive and water sports operators — a useful one to bookmark if you're planning dives on other islands or your next trip abroad.

Then come dive with us. Book your charter, your Discover Scuba, or your next course, and log it while the details are still sharp.