Is a computer actually necessary?

[24940]

Very few instructors are experts. Very few instructors have the experience required to state definitively one way or another what is or isn't best.

Kinda sucks, eh?

 

[RiverRat]

Very few instructors are experts. Very few instructors have the experience required to state definitively one way or another what is or isn't best.

Kinda sucks, eh?

True.....but attitudes like that person expressed don't help the rest of us Instructors/Divemasters whatever that want to do the right thing and give divers what they really want. Just some honest straight up information with no underlying agendas or personal ideals thrown in. Give the diver the knowledge and the rest will fall into place including gear sales.

 

[Web Monkey]

True.....but attitudes like that person expressed don't help the rest of us Instructors/Divemasters whatever that want to do the right thing and give divers what they really want. Just some honest straight up information with no underlying agendas or personal ideals thrown in. Give the diver the knowledge and the rest will fall into place including gear sales.

Aside from the obvious profit motive, I think it's a great idea to sell infrequent divers in general (not specifically divers in this thread) an AI computer. At least when they start getting really low on air, and it starts screaming, someone will come over and look, and hopefully know what to do. In this case, the "save your life" thing might not be too far from correct.

It's a lot easier (and safer) to help someone when they're at 800PSI than 0 PSI.

Terry

 

[giles45shop]

Gee,

I wonder if the OP bought a computer or not in the 5 years since the original post was made in 2003. Disclaimer: I didn't read all 15 pages of posts

 

[alchemist117]

You don't have to, but I like using mine!

 

[Kimsey0]

Then I apologize.

uh.... what are you getting on to him for exactly? the new guy didn't represent himself very well if you ask me, implying that depth gauge users are still in the "sone age"
heh, i reckon the DIR guys are still in the stone age b/c they use a depth guage huh?
i suppose the same goes for vintage divers as well, since they don't use one... lol for a first post that dude's came across to me as a little self-rightous/extreme IMO... but anyway... whatever.
as for the guy who asked " i wonder if the OP has got a dive computer after all this time" the answer is no, and i'm still alive arent i? or alteast... i think i am anyway *lol*

i got better things to do than buy something thats about $600 if it's not necessary to being a diver, and i have no interest in using it...
Anyway thanks heaps guys for all the replys to this (especially to the ones that empathised with my plight, LOL)!

 

[Cajuncru Diver]

Can you make a perfectly level line with a plumb bob and a bubble level--YES
Is a laser level a usuful and valuable tool to assist you in making a level line-YES

Is a computer an essential item for safety--NO
Is it a valuable tool to assist you through a dive profile--YES

 

[MikeFerrara]

Saw that this post is 52 months old. Just wait, someday we will look back on the post and realize that not embracing computer technology was just plane dangerous. Use the tables all you want but having a computer is just safer. I know that in the Maldives it is a law that you have one and my experience is that it is a great law. I also note that if you ever do get bent, having used a computer will help the doctor to determine how best to help you because it records your profile.

No law that puts the government in my diving is a good law! I'll see to my own safety and thank the government to stay out of it...or we might have to start the fight for independence all over again.

Guys we have got to get out of the Stone Age. Just go through diving history and see how technology has made our sport. Computers are going to be in our diving future increasingly and the faster a diver starts working with one the better off they will be.

Wrong again, computers are not in my diving future.

Reality check, remember the day you retired your typewriter for a laptop or realized that you could not do complex calculations more accurately with a slide rule than a calculator.

Yes, but have you seen what tea is selling for in China these days?

 

[drbill]

If they were, a lot of us "vintage" divers would be dead from dive-related incidents rather than just old age. I didn't buy my first computer until I had been diving for almost 40 years. Of course before that my diving was not as intense as it is today. I now carry two... one as a backup in case of failure.

 

[MikeFerrara]

The non-flat dive calculation of the computer is very nice. If you dive on tables and hit you deepest depth then come up to under 20 feet and hang out for the balance of your dive, say 45 minutes.
The table time is at the max depth for the entire time. You just lost the night dive that is sheduled on some dive trips.

On the computer it actually registered you as off gassing at an increased rate while you were watching fish and hanging out at 15-20 feet... The Nitrogen load from hitting max depth is decreased durring the durration of your swim. Now you can safely get in an extra dive or 2 that day...

I don't need a computer to plan and track a multilevel dive. I think Uncle Pug was right way back in the beginning of the thread when he said "Computers rot your brain."