PADI O/W no tables

[Scuba Scott]

Wow I am surprised that tables are not taught.

Tables are taught, just not by that shop. You can still order crew packs with tables from PADI.

I still teach tables and have been criticized for doing so but they need something for those test questions and the alternative is the erdpml. It's great but less likely to be used after certification.

There are plenty of YouTube videos explaining how to use PADI tables.

 

[tom lauder]

thanks ill get a copy of deco for divers for after my training but right now I am hoping to get a better understanding of the PADI system as my previous certification was with ScotSAC and I'm assuming the tables are not the same

.

If you want a broader understanding, take a look at Deco for Divers or spend some time Googling decompression theory. Looking up numbers on a table won't tell you much.

 

[tom lauder]

There wasn't a set of tables in my crew pack so all I have to work with at the moment is the picture of the tables in the manual lol.

Tables are taught, just not by that shop. You can still order crew packs with tables from PADI.

I still teach tables and have been criticized for doing so but they need something for those test questions and the alternative is the erdpml. It's great but less likely to be used after certification.

There are plenty of YouTube videos explaining how to use PADI tables.

 

[boulderjohn]

thanks for the link. DO you know how the naui tables compare to padi?

They are very different.

The PADI tables are based on research conducted by PADI (DSAT, actually) in the early 1980s. The NAUI tables recreate the US NAvy tables. The NAUI tables will give you longer bottom times on your first dives, but you will be out of the water for a much longer time before your second dive.

Wow I am surprised that tables are not taught. While a large number of people use computers, learning tables is good as well because it teaches you on/off gassing principles if nothing else.

Tables do not teach you a thing about on and off gassing. Because so many instructors used to teach the two of them together, people get confused and think you need one to understand the other. You teach decompression theory, and then you teach how to deal with it. One way to deal with it is tables. Another way to deal with it is computers.

Somehow Mark Powell managed to write an entire book (Deco for Divers) about decompression theory without devoting a single sentence to explaining how to work the tables.

 

[KeithG]

They are very different....

Just to confirm: The numbers are different, but the tables work the same.

 

[Divedoggie]

Some PADI Dive Centers and Instructors teach tables and others do not. It is up to the individual Instructor or Center's discretion to teach Tables, eRDPml ( Electronic Multi-Level Dive calculator based on DSAT Tables), or solely Dive Computers.
We teach the tables, then relate them to dive computers, then thoroughly go into dive computers. I'd be happy to go over the tables with you on the phone if you give me a call. 855-55-SCUBA (ask for Kent)

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Tables will only show you in physical graph form a certain time allowed at one depth, with some rules applied to those depths and times. Tables are nothing but a mechanical and pretty crude device. If you are going to dive perfectly square profiles then tables are fine, but modern computers are infinitely more complex and calculate every depth and time way more acurately than any human brain is capable of.
You can learn how tables work for historical reference or perhaps for theory to some degree, but they are not going to cross over to computers very acurately. When someone says they want to know tables so they know when a computer is lying to them, this is only vaguely true. Computers will calculate differently than how tables work and you will get two completely different answers, simply because there is no way you can constantly and reliably readjust tables like how computers readjust in real time.
That’s why I laugh when I hear people say they like to use tables along side computers as a backup. The only practical (or perfect) backup to a computer is another identical computer. Even different computers with different algorithms sometimes don’t jive.
Even if you use a computer for a perfectly square profile they still won’t jive with tables. Tables start as soon as you begin your decent, so if it takes you 10 minutes to get to your depest depth, all that time is attributed to the depest depth. Computers will constantly read your depth every few seconds so you get credit for each depth you go through on your way to your depest depth. With this fact alone you already got fkt in the first 10 minutes of your table dive.

 

[mainedvr]

Morning all

I am a returning diver who was previously certified in the UK 20 years ago. I have signed up for my O/W course in a couple of weeks and the LDS said they dont teach tables at all anymore its all computer diving. I understand this is the way things have gone and I have no real issue with it at this stage but I would like to understand and learn the tables for my own interest. The last time I dived computers were only just starting to appear in my club so I spent a lot of time learning and diving tables. Are there any reources to get/learn the tables that I can access?

Thanks
Tom

So if you do a formal class room the tables are part of the curriculum if you do elearning the tables are like the last 4 questions on the quick review. So

 

[Wtfkaratemonkey]

@ OP here is the video!

 

[Dirty-Dog]

Might be opening a can of worms here, but I'll say it anyway.
Dive tables should go away completely and nobody should be bothered. A simple computer is cheap, and will give you far more accurate real world info