computer or tables?

[Water Monkey]

It is difficult to make comparisons when asking what you use to calculate or tract you bottom time and NDL.

Some of the variables are whether or not you’re going to be doing deep tech diving, or if you’re going to be in an over head environment with no direct vertical access to the surface, or maybe your going to be floating around on a reef at thirty feet, or you could be making repetitive dives or not.

I have found that for most people when it comes to tables it’s just to easy to make a mistake while doing repetitive dives. I’ll bet if you were to go out on a boat in the tropics and you asked every one on the boat if they could come up with a NDL using the tables, not one of them would be able to do it.

I mean, we don't just jump in with our computers and swim around until it tells us to ascend, do we?

I’ve done this a lot, just throw on a tank jump in and have fun, but if I’m doing a deep tech dive I plan my dive with a lap top, and I have a dive profile and computer on each arm.

I’m pretty impressed that someone can do repetitive dives based on memorized tables and depth averaging on the fly. I’m not that smart.

 

[Crush]

I apologise if I'm straying into another one of those dead-horse debates that is repeated over and over again, but... Before we get into the water, don't we already have an idea of our maximum depth and NDL for the dive? I mean, we don't just jump in with our computers and swim around until it tells us to ascend, do we?

Hi Reg Braithwaite,

An excellent point. I have started a new poll at http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/basic-scuba-discussions/319772-plan-your-dive-not.html , addressing the relevance of planning your dive and diving your plan. I will be upfront here - I am decreasingly planning my dives (see above link to see why). I welcome feedback on the new thread.

 

[Reg Braithwaite]

I’m pretty impressed that someone can do repetitive dives based on memorized tables and depth averaging on the fly.

I am not going to quote methodology here, especially given that I don't even have 75 dives yet, but if you buy into a certain methodology and you are capable of remembering three numbers: 30 metres, 30 percent, and 30 minutes, you are smart enough to memorize a certain NDL table.

I am decreasingly planning my dives (see above link to see why). I welcome feedback on the new thread.

In the circumstance of doing a "trust me" dive such as a DM leading a group tour of a benign reef, if the computer craps out you can still dive your plan, namely you planned to follow the DM so I would carry on following the DM to the end of the dive and then worry about estimating my nitrogen load if I was going to do another dive that day

 

[DiveNav]

well ... today started raining .... and the forecast calls for a series of storms hitting California .... so, for the next few days I will ONLY DIVE WITH A COMPUTER (running our scuba diving simulator)

Alberto (aka eDiver)
PS
When I dive for real I have my brain as a primary, the Galileo Sol as a secondary and one of the many other computers we are working on as a back-up

 

[Crush]

In the circumstance of doing a "trust me" dive such as a DM leading a group tour of a benign reef, if the computer craps out you can still dive your plan, namely you planned to follow the DM so I would carry on following the DM to the end of the dive and then worry about estimating my nitrogen load if I was going to do another dive that day

Lest my confession be incomplete, I also do "lets go looking for the fish" night dives at the local site (fresh water, vis 30 feet at best, 2000 m elevation, just this side of freezing). We stay above 50 feet (in fact, these dives rarely go below 40 feet and often occur in about 15 feet of water), but the plan is:

1. Find fish;
2. Don't run out of air; and
3. Exit the water before you are hypothermic (with your dive buddy, if possible).

Culpa mea.