Error 130 dives on Fake Nitrox

[tmassey]

If you're an instructor/divemaster, regularly ask people for their NDL just like you ask for their air. If someone's NDL doesn't match what would be reasonable given the dive and mix they're on, pull them aside and check their computer

As a technical diver, this is absolutely one of the steps we do in GUE-style (cave-style?) head-to-toe equipment matching before we splash: “Computer, on and set to the right gas.” That check has absolutely caught both me and dive buddies on multiple occasions.

To me, that check is absolutely as important as that check of the pressure gauge you do right before you get off the bench and waddle your way to the water’s edge, and should be 100% linked together in each diver’s mind.

 

[Kendall Raine]

• Leaving the last setting (dangerous)

If what you mean is "being stupid is dangerous" then I agree.

Stupid, as in:

• Forgetting to analyze your gas
• Forgetting to turn on your gas
• Forgetting to check tank pressure
• Forgetting to hook up your LPI
• Forgetting to close your cam straps
• Forgetting to wear your fins
• Forgetting to close your dry suit
• Forgetting to breathe
• Forgetting how to use your computer
• Forgetting to check your computer settings

Come to think of it, diving is really pretty dangerous.

 

[jseyfert3]

My first computer, back in the last millennium, had a manual with the same problem as every other one I ever saw. It has absolutely everything there is to know in it. That gives them an out for any issue--hey! It's in the manual. The problem is that in information, theory, too much information is the same as too little information. What you need to know is a handful of drops lost in the flood of what you don't need to know.

Not only that, what you do need to know is not placed logically in a section titled Here's what you need to know. I am sure that is intentional, too for it prevents an attorney from claiming that doing so invited the reader to skip vital information. So as a new computer user, I had to ) figure out first what I needed to know, and 2) then I had to find that information scattered throughout the manual.

Years ago I bought an early Dive Right trimix computer online, and it did not have a manual with it. I got a PDF version online. Well, it turns out that the version I got was a PDF rough draft of the manual that was circulating with reviewer comments in the margins. Several comments expressed concerns about how the information might possibly open them up to liability.

I’m a bit of an outlier as I love as much information as possible. I’m the “manual guy” at work because I read more manuals than any other engineer in the company.

I’ve found the best manuals, for any product, do indeed have a “here’s what you need to know” chapter, usually titled “getting started” or similar. This chapter gives you all the stuff you need to know for most cases. Importantly, it also links you to more detailed sections if something doesn’t make sense in the quick start section, or you simply want to know more about how it works.

I can, however, see why for liability reasons companies may not want this two-tiered approach, especially for human safety devices like dive computers. Even this seems solvable, like the disclaimers I’ve seen on quick start sections/manuals that say “this doesn’t cover everything, you need to read the entire manual before operation.”