Computer or watch and RDP ?

[armemo]

You have to dive on the basis of planning and not planning on diving.

If you think this alone would take a watch and RDP.

A computer is really something useful or just a fad?

 

[Kryssa]

I consider my computer really useful, especially when doing multilevel dives. Sometimes when we're logging our dives from computer to paper back at home, we joke that if we used tables our 82 ft max depth dive would be 20 min using tables rather than the 50 min it was using a computer. We had only stayed at 82 feet for a few minutes.

I'm not sure when you say "RDP" are you talking about the tables or the thing PADI sells that is blue and looks like a calculator. If it's the latter, I can't really compare because I've never used it.

 

[fjpatrum]

Fads don't generally last for 20 years... computers are useful tools that allow a little more bottom time than a typical RDP or tables dive because it recalculates your nitrogen loading in real time. Certainly they aren't necessary but tools that are nice to have aren't often necessary. Me, I carry a computer and a watch that I set with a countdown timer based on my planned depth and time. When my timer goes off (which has only happened once under water) I will call ascend and do my safety stop. Usually my dive is already finished or I'm doing my safety stop when the timer goes off so, either way, I'm good.

 

[Rhone Man]

I really depends. On a typical Saturday I will do one dive on air with a max depth around 70 feet. Most of my buddies don't carry a computer and that is just fine for that profile.

But in January I was on a liveaboard where we were doing up to 5 dives a day, almost al below 100 feet. I don't care how assiduously you track your depth and time for your RDP, you would have to be Nucking Futs to do that without a computer (or, preferably, two). Not least because your bottom time will be minimal by the end if you don't get the advantage of the computer tracking multilevel profiles.

 

[crispix]

Dive computers are an affordable luxury. You certainly don't need one, but it makes dive planning much easier.

I look at it like owning a Tivo or an iPhone, neither of which are needed to watch TV or make a phone call. But still, they're so awesome they even make my food taste better.

 

[Kingpatzer]

There are some great craftsman out there who create some amazing furniture with only hand tools, and the craftsmanship is second to none. And even if you have a wood shop with all the best power tools available, you almost certainly have a large collection of hand tools as well, because they come in useful sometimes too. Most woodworkers will choose the right tool for the job. Sometimes that will be a power tool, and sometimes it will be a hand tool. Only a very few stubbornly assert that one type of tool is inherently superior to another. Indeed, most guys who do work only with hand tools don't do it because they dislike power tools or think they are inferior, rather they simply get a great deal of pleasure out of the experience of using hand tools.

Likewise with divers, sometimes a table will make the dive planning easiest. Sometimes a PDC will be the right tool. Sometimes software on your laptop is the way to go. For some folks a smartphone app provides the perfect combination of capabilities and convenience. Technological advances such as dive computers aren't fads. They are powerful tools that have their place. But there are a stubborn few who insist only one tool is the right tool and all others are inferior. Just like in the wood working world, though, they are in the minority and generally thought of as quaint, if not slightly crazy.

 

[chuck34gboro]

Dive computers are just fads.

Like electronic fuel injection and the internet.

 

[cloudflint]

I just use dive tables.

People should use whatever methods and technology results in them not getting bent, i use a watch and depth gauge and don't get bent, so thats fine. Other people use dive computers and don't get bent, thats also fine

 

[TMHeimer]

This is akin to recent "tables vs. computer" threads. IMO, either one works, as does the eRDPml, though I haven't used it yet and wonder how many actually have. Computers are much better for multi-level dives. Tables are more conservative because you calculate based on max depth. But if the computer says 10 mins. bottom time left you could immediately begin ascent, thus being also conservative. As one poster pointed out, most normal rec. charter dives are planned by the crew to be "normal" and fit their schedule. Any time a dive is below 60 feet, though, I think you run more risk of reaching your NDL or getting too low on air. I always worry about myself in planning any dive, but find that the crew usually wants me back up somehat before it's really necessary-- though usually not by a whole lot.

 

[fnfalman]

Unless people can do the math in their heads as accurately and quickly as a dive computer, methinks that the dive planner/bottom timer/watch dealie is pretty much relegated to very specialized applications such as knowing in advance that all you will do are square profile dives, or plan for some serious tech dives.