Are dive computers making bad divers?

[boulderjohn]

Buoyant ascent--maybe the bends, but you probably live. BCD breathing--infection, loss of buoyancy ascending, but may work. Atl. air ascent with buddy--works great in the pool, but panic at some point could create real problems in a real emergency, so I've heard.

Buoyant ascent and bends? If your are within NDLs, as you should be, the possibilities are remote.

Panic during an alternate air ascent? Possible--but do you think it is more or less possible than a panic during buddy breathing? You will give your only regulator away to a panicked diver and assume you will get it back soon?

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Only important thing is you get to the surface. CESA is great. I can do it from 30' and usually limit solo diving to that depth--or a tad more. Buoyant ascent--maybe the bends, but you probably live. BCD breathing--infection, loss of buoyancy ascending, but may work. Atl. air ascent with buddy--works great in the pool, but panic at some point could create real problems in a real emergency, so I've heard.

My buddy said that using his BC saved his life on a solo 90 ft dive. He was not moving at all, taking pictures and sucked the tank down to about nothing without checking the gage or realizing it. He started kicking up and then just exhaled and inhaled back and forth into and out of the BC. Said he felt terrible but made it back to tell the story.

I've never done it, but my understanding is that you would be using it like a rebreather and therefore you would still be getting expansion and increased buoyancy on the ascent - you would not be sacrificing the buoyant air.

He got a pony bottle soon after that.

 

[Rhone Man]

My buddy said that using his BC saved his life on a solo 90 ft dive. He was not moving at all, taking pictures and sucked the tank down to about nothing without checking the gage or realizing it. He started kicking up and then just exhaled and inhaled back and forth into and out of the BC. Said he felt terrible but made it back to tell the story.

I've never done it, but my understanding is that you would be using it like a rebreather and therefore you would still be getting expansion and increased buoyancy on the ascent - you would not be sacrificing the buoyant air.

He got a pony bottle soon after that.

Not 100% calling BS on that, but tanks don't go dry suddenly. They are sticky to breathe for a good few breaths, and then really, really hard to breathe for a couple, and then they go dry. Sadly I speak from experience.

Plus when you ascend, you can get a couple of those magic breaths as you get closer to the surface anyhow without needing to call on the BC. Sadly on that I also speak from experience.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Not 100% calling BS on that, but tanks don't go dry suddenly. They are sticky to breathe for a good few breaths, and then really, really hard to breathe for a couple, and then they go dry. Sadly I speak from experience.

Plus when you ascend, you can get a couple of those magic breaths as you get closer to the surface anyhow without needing to call on the BC. Sadly on that I also speak from experience.

In general, I agree, He was a very experienced diver - but self taught..If you have a good high performance regualtor and you are trying to film tiny fish, you may be skip breathing and sipping the air in an exaggerated manner.. That is what he said he was doing... so when he first felt a restriction, he started to kick up and said he was immediately getting almost no air, so he started using the BC as a rebreather.. He was solo and not a BS'er... so I don't really know.

 

[TMHeimer]

Buoyant ascent and bends? If your are within NDLs, as you should be, the possibilities are remote.

Panic during an alternate air ascent? Possible--but do you think it is more or less possible than a panic during buddy breathing? You will give your only regulator away to a panicked diver and assume you will get it back soon?

Bends- yes maybe remote, but who knows if you are close to the NDL and shoot up after dropping weights.
Alt. Air panic- yes, much more unlikely than during buddy breathing. The only time I ever did any buddy breathing was in the DM course. Do any agencies teach this any more in OW? SEI?--Jim?

 

[Littlerayray]

I learned buddy breathing in my ow course but was told it's a skill that should only be used as a last resort and to leave it as the only option to prevent death

 

[bfw]

I got taught how to use tables but have never used them computers are more accurate

They are not more accurate; they are more precise.

 

[Fishdip]

I did my OW training this past summer. I learned that if you take the PADI e-learning course, you will learn how to use dive tables and one of those funny eRDPML devices. But apparently, for the people in my class who did the book version, learning dive tables was not required as part of the curriculum. So at least under the PADI certification standard, you have many new divers coming up who have never learned or heard of tables and will not know how to use them.

Having said that, I did dive with someone a few weeks ago where his computer died in the middle of the dive. So for the rest of the dives that day, my buddy relied on me to tell him how long our surface intervals had been and he did pull out a dive table for consultation at one point.

Interesting as my local shop requires dive tables for any one book or online.

 

[Fishdip]

Having said that, I did dive with someone a few weeks ago where his computer died in the middle of the dive. So for the rest of the dives that day, my buddy relied on me to tell him how long our surface intervals had been and he did pull out a dive table for consultation at one point.

to be fair in the book it tells you to no longer dive if you have a computer failure so if you use a dive computer is there really a point in knowing the tables?

 

[Brett Hatch]

I got taught how to use tables but have never used them computers are more accurate

They are not more accurate; they are more precise

Kind of a funny way to bring a 6-year-old thread back from the dead, because dive computers are both more accurate than dive tables, and they are more precise than diver tables. Accuracy and precision - Wikipedia

They measure your depth in typical increments of 0.1ft/0.1m versus of 10ft/3m for tables, and typical increments of time of 1-5 seconds instead of 60 seconds for tables. Dive watches make measurements of similar precision, of course, but the tables themselves are about an order of magnitude less precise than computers.

And for multi-level dive profiles (that is, anything besides a perfect square), they will also measure your depth over time more accurately. Even for square profiles, the accuracy captured by the dive computer is a little better as well, due to their improved precision.