computer or tables?

[Crush]

How do you dive (most of the time) - with a computer, tables, or other?

 

[dmoore19]

I use a Suunto Cobra 3 for the computer with a Citizen Eccodrive watch with depth, time and temp.

 

[CalgaryDF]

I dive my Oceanic Veo 250 with a watch to back up. If something happened to my computer while I was diving, I would terminate the dive rather than continue it on tables.

 

[TSandM]

I use the UTD tables which are memorized, depth average mentally, and do minimum deco.

 

[Crush]

I use the UTD tables which are memorized, depth average mentally, and do minimum deco.

I don't understand fully what you wrote, but I understand enough to be impressed.

 

[Crush]

...If something happened to my computer while I was diving, I would terminate the dive rather than continue it on tables.

I agree with you there. Personally my skill isn't at the level where I can work out the N2 loading fast enough, on the fly, to continue with tables. I used to have a bottom timer as a backup to allow me to do a 3 min safety stop. Since then I have bought a second computer (both Sherwoods, both use the same algorithm).

 

[themagni]

I use the UTD tables which are memorized, depth average mentally, and do minimum deco.

Weren't we just talking about this?

I don't do deco dives, so when the computer fails (twice now) then I continue the dive with the analog gauge, watch my air, and do a safety stop as long as I can. I do still calculate my nitrogen load as per the tables when I'm at the surface.

I have dived twice without a timer or computer. Once was on a course and I knew how my air consumption related to time at depth reasonably well. (The timer died at depth at the start of the dive.) The second time was when the battery died on a new equipment dive.

Ah, actually, come to think of it, the last dive I was on had the computer fail halfway through. I signaled that it was broken, switched to analog, and continued the dive.

Maybe I should get a new computer. That's a 5% ROF, but then again, I'd have to get at least 1500 dives to get a good enough sample size.

 

[Reg Braithwaite]

I use the UTD tables which are memorized, depth average mentally, and do minimum deco.

I calculate rock bottom for a dive and then make sure my single tank is of such a size that with my SAC and the planned dive I will reach rock bottom before I reach the NDL limit as per UTD's Ratio Deco. I then depth average mentally and do minimum deco.

I back all this up with a Suuntu Gecko. Since switching to minimum deco it hasn't complained that I'm in deco yet.

p.s. Yes, we did just talk about this.

 

[Reg Braithwaite]

I dive my Oceanic Veo 250 with a watch to back up. If something happened to my computer while I was diving, I would terminate the dive rather than continue it on tables.

Personally my skill isn't at the level where I can work out the N2 loading fast enough, on the fly, to continue with tables.

I apologise if I'm straying into another one of those dead-horse debates that is repeated over and over again, but... Before we get into the water, don't we already have an idea of our maximum depth and NDL for the dive? I mean, we don't just jump in with our computers and swim around until it tells us to ascend, do we?

Prior to adopting Minimum Deco, I relied on my computer. What I was trained to do was use the plan mode before every dive to work out my NDL and to plan my gas management accordingly. If the computer failed during the dive I would already have written the estimated NDL down and could finish the dive on that basis alone.

What would have been broken under that scenario is calculating my residual nitrogen for the *next* dive. I would have had to break out the tables and work backwards from my logbook entries.

So what I'm missing here is why anyone would have to abort the current dive... I'm assuming you also planned to hit a specific depth or multi-level set of depths and dive for a specific amount of time you know in advance is within your limit?

 

[HowardE]

For fun shallow dives (less than 130 feet) - I just dive my recreational computer (Oceanic OC1) , and have a backup computer (Shearwater Pursuit).

For deeper more technical dives with multiple deco stops, I dive my Shearwater as my primary computer, and cut a table as a backup, and keep my OC1 in Gauge mode.

When I dive an Evolution, I use the Vision Computer (built in to the Evolution) as the primary computer, and my shearwater as a backup computer.