Dive Debrief Template
A debrief closes the loop a plan opens: what actually happened, how it compared to what was planned, and what's worth remembering for the next similar dive. Skipping this means every dive starts from zero instead of building on the last one.
Times, depth, conditions, vs. the plan
Deviations, problems, near-misses
Lessons learned, changes for next time
What actually happened
- Actual entry/exit time, max depth, and runtime, as reported by the team
- Actual conditions encountered
- Whether the stated objective was completed
- Actual turn point, if different from planned
What came up during the dive
- Deviations from the plan and why
- Equipment, communication, or navigation problems
- Environmental concerns worth noting for next time
- Any emergency events, however minor
Closing the loop
- Positive observations worth repeating
- Lessons learned
- Specific changes recommended for the next similar dive
Frequently asked questions
Is a debrief the same as an incident report?
Not necessarily -- most debriefs cover routine dives with no incident at all. If something serious did happen, your agency or operator's formal incident-reporting process still applies; a debrief captures the team's own account for future planning.
Why bother debriefing a dive that went fine?
Divers Alert Network's own Annual Diving Report is built on exactly this idea -- that reviewing what happened, dive after dive, is how small contributing factors and near-misses get caught before they compound into something worse. A team debrief is the same discipline, applied at your own dive site.
Dive Backup organizes information entered by the dive team. It does not calculate whether a dive is safe or replace training, certification, professional judgment, dive computers, agency standards, or a live predive briefing.
Filling this in on paper works until conditions change or a diver drops out. Dive Backup turns it into a shared, reviewable plan your whole team can see, so nothing gets decided verbally and forgotten.
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