computer vs. no computer

[MDTzak]

i have been diving for years and have easily had atleast 150 dives. not once have i used or owned a computer. at first it was just out of my price range but now i just dont seem to want one. is there really that much to gain from your computer other than an automatic dive log?
-MDTzak

 

[jeckyll]

Yes

(15 char min)

 

[H2Andy]

yeah ... it's a lot easier to plan your dives with a computer, i find, particularly repetitive dives

also, it's a self-updating set of tables, so you can maximize your time, particularly on multi-depth profiles

it's just a labor-saving device, that's all

 

[PerroneFord]

i have been diving for years and have easily had atleast 150 dives. not once have i used or owned a computer. at first it was just out of my price range but now i just dont seem to want one. is there really that much to gain from your computer other than an automatic dive log?
-MDTzak

It's not big deal really. Mine is in guage mode nearly all the time. I actually dove with it as a computer in cave class, and bent the thing on my last dive. It's now back in guage mode.

-P

 

[*Floater*]

For most divers I think computers are great, but if you take DIRF or learn a good alternative to it some other way, then there's no need for one... except in gauge mode.

 

[crusader1xxx]

Computers are the future of diving, but having a solid back ground using the tables will help you understand just how the computer is working. you see the tables are based on a square dive profile where computers are able to adjust profiles while you dive. I once knew a guy that would calculate this dive profile with out a computer, but he spent his whole dive staring at his depth gage.

 

[Whale Whisperer]

It's like what one person said here "Computers will rott your brains out" lol. I say if it works don't fix it. I dive with tables and my computer in gauge mode personally. I do enjoy the fact that I can also log my dive profile on my laptop.

 

[Don Burke]

i have been diving for years and have easily had atleast 150 dives. not once have i used or owned a computer. at first it was just out of my price range but now i just dont seem to want one. is there really that much to gain from your computer other than an automatic dive log?
-MDTzak

If you are making multilevel dives, the computer can track your gas loading. On multiday, multidive per day, trips this can get pretty hard to follow with tables.

One thing about most tables is that they use several compartments to determine gas loading, but only one to determine offgassing. The computers I have checked out used several compartments for both. On a multiday trip, this difference gets pretty significant.

On square profiles, the log keeping is the biggest advantage, the other being the ability to cross check what you come with from the tables.

 

[Grounded]

I think it completely depends on the type of diving you do. For my first hundred or so dives, I didn't have a computer and couldn't think of a good reason to get one (plus- I was in college- without much money- and they were VERY expensive at the time).

All of my diving at the time was shore diving to a max depth of about 40 feet. Even on a steel 120, the SPG was my bottom timer. since they were single, shallow dives, a computer wouldn't have given me any benefit.

When I went on my first dive trip to the Caymans, I knew I was going to want to do 4-5 deeper dives off a boat every day. Since this required some planning and descion making, I figured it was time to suck it up and buy a tool that would enhance my experience.

As a joke, my ex-wife and I once computed the dives we made on a week-long dive trip on the navy tables. We concluded that, had we been diving tables, we would have had to stop diving part way through the second day and asked to use the chamber.

Which is a long way of saying- examine your dive profiles. If your dive profiles are such that you would enjoy diving more (e.g. more bottom time, more dives per day, shorter surface intervals) with a computer- and that enjoyment is worth the price of the computer- then buy one. If the computer doesn't offer you any tangable benefits, then buy something else.

It seems to me that dive equipment is personal and mission-dependant. for example- I know some people insist that diving with a dry suit is the only way to dive. Since I haven't done a cold-water dive in almost 10 years, I'll quietly disagree and slip into my .5mm wet suit.

Edited to add: I just noticed you live in S.B. (which is where I did all those shore dives). I'll revise my answer to read: don't bother with a computer. If you decide to try diving somewhere else, you'll probably want to get one.

 

[Charlie99]

Tables are relatively effective if

1) Your dives are so shallow, or your SAC is high enough, that you don't approach NDL, or 2) Your dive profiles are reasonably close to square profile (flat bottom) such that the tables are a reasonably accurate reflection of your actual profile.

Even in those cases, a dive computer offers the additional convenience and safety of accurately timing your bottom time and your surface interval. Yes, one simply has to look at the time when you surface and remember that, but looking at the SI indicator timer on a computer is even easier, and in my case at least, more reliable.

-------------------------

Tables become much more limiting if one is diving profiles that are signfiicantly multilevel. An example would be a reef dive where one descends to 90' for a few minutes, then on up to 70', then on up to 50', and then finally putters around on the reef top between 45 and 35 feet for a while.

A computer will easily track such a profile. A dive table, where the entire bottom time is treated as if it were all at the maximum depth, will seriously overestimate the nitrogen loading of a multilevel dive.

There are other methods, such as keeping track of ones depth every 5 minutes and keeping a running average. In addition to the obvious problem of being prone to human error, such methods have difficulty in keeping repetitive dives within the no-stop limits. There are also a lot of ad hoc rules that one must follow when depth averaging, particularly where one spends some time shallow first and then goes deeper.