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Batteries in devices with an internal charger (Qi, USB, ...) are usually not user-replaceable for safety reasons. The notable exception is the HW "OSTC plus" dive computer, and the accident happened at a trade show in 2019: somebody inserted a non-rechargeable battery, misconfigured the device...

Tillytec style. Very reliable, and can't turn on accidentally.

If you're mostly doing NDL dives at daytime then a LCD display will do and the issues that deco divers have with the Suunto style computers don't matter. As an older diver you may like the larger display of the Mares Quad.

I've used seal-on-seal gloves for some time now. drawbacks: needs practice and must trim the seals correctly in order to don and doff easily by yourself. Better practice at home before first dive. advantages: found it very reliable, easy to check if they're sealed (no wrinkles), never got wet...

If your last stop was on O2 at 6m/20ft, then you should ascend very slowly like 1min per 1m/3ft. Maybe that's what he meant with adding a few more minutes. I set my computer to a not super conservative value like GFHi=80, then add conservatism manually depending on the situation and environment...

note that it's not only the illness itself but also side effects of medication that can make diving unsafe. We had a fatal accident in a nearby lake in 2014 where a diver told her buddies she wants to return, swam back alone, fell unconscious and drowned in shallow waters only 30ft from shore...

It's not clear to me either what is the best factor to use. The rules of the Deco 2000 tables created by Bühlmann's coworker Max Hahn and used by German/Austrian/Swiss sports divers even ask for a factor 1,5x on the bottom time (+50%) for dives with longer phases of hard work, which has been...

got it, agree. If you use 50/80 initially, you could go down to 50/70 for working dives and that makes sense to me, too. Fits also to the concept with virtually extending bottom time: For example, say we have a 20min@40m (130ft) dive with air only and get a decompression schedule with GF50/80...

I don't hold to that theory and wouldn't suggest to move time from shallow to deep, like 20/80 or VPM does. I think that exertion at depth increases the decompression obligation in every tissue, fast and slow. That's an argument to prefer for example 40/70 over 50/80, but not a reason to pick...

Standard answer ;-) : You never want to on-gas more. You want to keep fast tissues from bubbling too much, in order to avoid an early in-water DCS hit. His specific problem is that due to high work load in a short bottom time, his medium-fast tissues may be more saturated than usual compared to...

Your choice of GF_low was a reason why I brought up the little test with work load and extending bottom time in MultiDeco. If you assume faster on-gassing in your medium-fast tissues by exertion at depth, then you want to pull your first stop a bit lower and GF_low=30 is not as over-conservative...

different idea: since you have a small group of divers repeating the exact same profile many times, why not bring a Doppler bubble monitor and record their bubble grades? That could be interesting for them to see, how does it relate to exertion at depth, and also to adjust the decompression...

Funny, isn't it? But +50% more perfusion is not excessively pessimistic for a strenous working dive in warm water. Looking at DCS incidents statistics, exertion at depth such as swimming against a current is a major contributing factor to "undeserved" hits, indicating that this problem is...

For working dives, there's a different traditional method that you may have a look at. The effect of workload is faster on-gassing at depth by better perfusion, which is similar to longer bottom time in a non-working dive. In the old tables you would read at 1.5x bottom time for working dives...

Remember that your last deco stop is not 3m but 0m, and it's a very important one. Make sure you decompress well right after surfacing; exit slowly, take a good rest, hydrate. That'll make a bigger difference than just minimizing GFhigh far below what your body actually needs, which again...

The OSTC shows "Saturation" which I think is the same as Shearwater's "GF99".

In sidemount, there are two schools of how to setup the regulators: (A) long hose + short hose backup with bungee necklace, see for example (B) two hoses of same length and no bungee, see for example The method "always donate primary" works only with (B), whereas with (A) you always donate...

Top shelf balanced primary regulators have adjustment knobs for resistance and a dive/pre-dive Venturi switch. That's not necessary but nice-to-have for a little more convenience, with the drawback that you need to take care of it: Forgetting to set it will result in freeflow or hard breathing...

The Mares 82x has a rotating turret. I use two 22x without rotating turret. For a while I thought about replacing them, but then I found a swivel adapter for the 1st stage that helped a lot with keeping the drysuit inflator hose short and straight. So now I'm not looking for a rotating turret...

The English title is "Decompression - Decompression sickness"