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You misunderstand what I mean by tables. These are min gas values based on depth. No one does math in their heads. I create a 2 column table from this information:
My OW course is one weekend longer so I can address the content here: This is not something they learn/memorize. It is a guide for them to work through to develop a dive plan where they are comfortable with diving with their fellow classmates. It is onerous, excessive, impractical to use on a consistent basis, but thorough. It is only meant to give students confidence that they don't need someone to hold their hands, i.e. actually be an autonomous diver, a standard in which most open water courses fail.
Are we not talking about your basic OW training and what you did and didn't learn in it? And for someone who stated they didn't even learn BC remove/replace at depth, why are you so opposed to it and concerned that other divers are learning it? Don't like it, don't use it or practice it. Simple. But please know that pretty much every major training agency has it in their basic OW curriculum for a reason and has determined it is a practical skill. And OW students who have received proper training under their agency guidelines are learning all of these skills and more to make them safe, self-sufficient divers.
I'd guess that few newly certified, heck few experienced, cold water divers in thick wetsuits or dry suits would be able to do this with all the lead on their BCD. They have to know how to pull their kit over their head and maintain control. This simply isn't taught in open water and I expect that it is a rather risky manuever: one mistake, diver goes up, kit goes down.
This is a fact. Tables are pretty much a "familiarization" thing at this point with most agencies. Focus is on how the computer algorithms work, how to set them, and how to properly plan dives with a very basic, entry level computer, etc.
