Are dive computers making bad divers?

[BoltSnap]

You can't, but if you don't use them for a long period of time, you can forget. I had to learn to use the wheel for my DM exam, and I forgot how as soon as I could. Then I had to learn it again for my instructor exam. I have no idea how to use it now. Those two exams are the only times I have ever seen anyone use a wheel.

Understood if you are a "diver" who uses a dive computer but an instructor as alleged above is difficult to accept since he is also alleged to be teaching tables. I know how to use dive tables inside-out myself since I teach them regularly over the past almost 40 years of teaching. I am merely not accepting the story related above, it is at least an exaggeration.

even though I have not taught a table-based OW class in 7-8 years.

How so? Doesn't PADI require teaching dive tables in OW courses or you can just do dive computers only?

 

[BlueTrin]

@BoltSnap apparently you can teach any of these 3:
- tables
- rdp
- computer

The only valid reason I can see to teach tables to someone who will buy a computer, is to see how the NDL reduces with depth, the effect of surface interval and general dive planning, but … a table is not needed to teach that?

I don’t think you’ll see many of the new divers carry a table or RDP?

PADI not teaching dive tables anymore?

Forgive me if this has been discussed. Today I was told by a dive shop employee that PADI is no longer teaching tables to new divers? I really hate to think that they have to dumb things down to this point to keep the c-card presses and package sales rolling? Can anyone clarify if this is true...

scubaboard.com

 

[BoltSnap]

@BoltSnap apparently you can teach any of these 3:
- tables
- rdp
- computer

The only valid reason I can see to teach tables to someone who will buy a computer, is to see how the NDL reduces with depth, the effect of surface interval and general dive planning, but … a table is not needed to teach that?

I don’t think you’ll see many of the new divers carry a table or RDP?

PADI not teaching dive tables anymore?

Forgive me if this has been discussed. Today I was told by a dive shop employee that PADI is no longer teaching tables to new divers? I really hate to think that they have to dumb things down to this point to keep the c-card presses and package sales rolling? Can anyone clarify if this is true...

scubaboard.com

I see, I didn't know that. With NAUI I am still required to teach dive tables in addition to introduction to deco theory and dive computers. I spend a great deal of time and effort on dive tables, students solve close to 30 dive tables problems in class, but I also teach dive computers. The students need to use dive tables and dive computers during their openwater training dives too.

 

[whynot]

It’s been over 6 years - maybe time to close this thread and move on.

 

[Wibble]

It’s been over 6 years - maybe time to close this thread and move on.

Should be another 6 years before we reach consensus...

 

[BlueTrin]

Should be another 6 years before we reach consensus...

!remindme 6 years

Btw don’t want to make bad jokes but I don’t think time plays on your side if you side with the tables

 

[boulderjohn]

@boulderjohn at the same time it would make sense for someone who really believe that computers are the way forward to teach that way and get involved in their development?

I have no problem with the idea that someone who truly believes computers are the way to go would found an agency that would teach people how to use them, since the other agencies would not do so. Similarly, I have no problem that people who believed nitrox was a good tool for scuba would form an agency (like IANTD--the N is for nitrox) to teach it, since the other agencies refused. The fact that it made a financial benefit would be a bonus for him.

 

[boulderjohn]

But, I think it's clear now. It's not computers that make bad divers. *Divemasters make bad divers.

I have written something to this effect many times during the entire 18 years I have been on ScubaBoard. I called it "learned dependence." When I was certified, I learned how to set up my gear. Then I did my next few years of diving in Cozumel, where the DMs set up your gear. Then I did my first dive in Florida, and we were just about to the dive site before I realized no one was going to set up my gear for me. Let's see--how does this work again?

When people see divers who cannot perform certain basic functions like that, they usually blame the instructor, but they may well have been absolute whizzes on the skill during the class and then forgotten how to do it in the years that dive operators were doing it for them.

 

[Scott Lemmon]

i am a dinosaur. i started diving in 1973 have well over 200 dives and a computer of any kind was just a dream for much of my time underwater. i am with Bob who said the best question is "Can you properly plan a dive?". A dive computer is a wonderful and adaptable tool that can more accurately guide and record your underwater adventures and maybe keep you from harming yourself. Bad divers? A tool does not make a bad diver. Good instruction, thorough training in all your equipment and a humble "always learning" attitude will make a good diver.

 

[boulderjohn]

and a humble "always learning" attitude will make a good diver.

Yes. I sometimes sense that for a small portion of the population involved in any activity, including scuba, anything newer than what they originally learned is taboo. For them, the original is always the best and cannot be improved.