Well here goes, I use a console and have for ever or it seems forever. I have worked in a technical field for over 30 years and perhaps 80 out of a hundred failures are electronic so I might be a tad weighted towards mechanical devices. One thing I do use my console for in addition to a parking lot for gagues is a nav board. Where I dive its considered my responsibility to get back to the boat and I seem to do better with a home made nav board. Any techniques to making a wrist mounted compass accurate would be happily accepted. I am usually the one everyone follows when my group dives so perhaps I take that part more to heart than others may. I dive a steel 95 and have found that the console tucks in between the tank and my backside quits nicely. I did have the experiance of surfacing an otherwise out of control diver on two seperate occasions and I have to admit watching a wrist mount would have been an advantage at the time. I am new here so this venue is a new one for me.
Console or Wrist Mounted
- Thread starter Warren_L
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annie
Contributor
I feel really outnumbered (probably cos I am). I have my computer in the console!
I guess I like to look at my air quite often too and they're in the same place . .and I don't have a problem maintaining safety stops.
I could try taking it out and putting it on my wrist because everyone says it's better but I'll still have the console with one empty hole and I'll still have to look at it during the dive .so . . . . I probably won't bother.
I am going to put my compass on my wrist though. At the moment it hangs off my BC.
I guess I like to look at my air quite often too and they're in the same place . .and I don't have a problem maintaining safety stops.
I could try taking it out and putting it on my wrist because everyone says it's better but I'll still have the console with one empty hole and I'll still have to look at it during the dive .so . . . . I probably won't bother.
I am going to put my compass on my wrist though. At the moment it hangs off my BC.
I thought wrist was going to win this one.
I do like having my compass on my wrist also. The only thing that is attached to my pressure gauge is a bolt snap.
However, when I am teaching, I use a cobra with a compass attached to it...
So, I can see both ways as options...
However, even when I use the cobra, I use a wrist mounted backup computer as well (stinger)...
I do like having my compass on my wrist also. The only thing that is attached to my pressure gauge is a bolt snap.
However, when I am teaching, I use a cobra with a compass attached to it...
So, I can see both ways as options...
However, even when I use the cobra, I use a wrist mounted backup computer as well (stinger)...
vicky
Guest
Why wrist mounted?
IMHO the copmuter should go on the left hand- that's the one that holds your inflator. Suppose it's an emergency and you're ascending sharing air with your buddy- you don't have to let him go or leave the inflator even for a split of a second- just look at your left arm and you can control the rate of ascent, make stops (if necessary- in some emergencies you will skip safety stops, depending on situation) and so on while holding your inflator at the same time. For this reason I don't like to have an AI computer like the cobra (otherwise similar to the Vyper)- for emergencies I don't want to waste even half a second to look for the console- maybe it's there maybe not.
For navigation purposes for the very same reasons- You can keep your bearings and depth simultaneously. So the compass goes wrist mounted too, of course...
IMHO the copmuter should go on the left hand- that's the one that holds your inflator. Suppose it's an emergency and you're ascending sharing air with your buddy- you don't have to let him go or leave the inflator even for a split of a second- just look at your left arm and you can control the rate of ascent, make stops (if necessary- in some emergencies you will skip safety stops, depending on situation) and so on while holding your inflator at the same time. For this reason I don't like to have an AI computer like the cobra (otherwise similar to the Vyper)- for emergencies I don't want to waste even half a second to look for the console- maybe it's there maybe not.
For navigation purposes for the very same reasons- You can keep your bearings and depth simultaneously. So the compass goes wrist mounted too, of course...
I've found that computer/bottomtimer on the right wrist works better for me. I dive horizontally, including ascent and descent, so raising the inflator would take a left-wrist-mounted computer out of my field of vision.
Mounting your backup alongside your compass is a good idea for navigation, as you mentioned. Without a backup, I think the right wrist is a better choice however.
Mounting your backup alongside your compass is a good idea for navigation, as you mentioned. Without a backup, I think the right wrist is a better choice however.
vicky
Guest
In case of emergency you *WILL* be holding your inflator with your left arm, and secure your *BUDDY* with your right arm, and most probably both of you are going to be vertical, not horizontal. Or, suppose you are diving with a scooter and its batteries are flat dead on the middle of the dive. Have you tried to make a controlled ascent while dragging a negative buoyancy, bulky scooter?
For this type of cases that you need to end your dive in unusual events, especially in emergency when you and your buddy are holding together (also not sure whos going to have weights at all) and you are not accustomed to this position (most of your dives you are horizontal?) that you need the computer on the same hand with the inflator. You put it facing *inwards* (the opposite direction that most people put the watch), so you don't have to twist anything in order to see your computer- it is always facing towards you so you can continuosly monitor your depth either while ascending and holding the inflator (or navigating). Plus, the screen (or screen protector) gets less scratched since the computer is allways facing towards your body, not to the outside.
Of coure, as some people don't look at their SPGs and know the accurate pressure, one can look at the small bubbles and know their accurate ascent rate, but I prefer to do it while looking at the computer rather than bubbles
For this type of cases that you need to end your dive in unusual events, especially in emergency when you and your buddy are holding together (also not sure whos going to have weights at all) and you are not accustomed to this position (most of your dives you are horizontal?) that you need the computer on the same hand with the inflator. You put it facing *inwards* (the opposite direction that most people put the watch), so you don't have to twist anything in order to see your computer- it is always facing towards you so you can continuosly monitor your depth either while ascending and holding the inflator (or navigating). Plus, the screen (or screen protector) gets less scratched since the computer is allways facing towards your body, not to the outside.
Of coure, as some people don't look at their SPGs and know the accurate pressure, one can look at the small bubbles and know their accurate ascent rate, but I prefer to do it while looking at the computer rather than bubbles
In an emergency in OW, it's possible we'd get vertical...though not if we could prevent it. Also, my buddy would be at the end of a 7' hose, so there may be no physical contact.
In an overhead environment, the only reason I can think to be vertical would be because the egress dictated it.
Dead scooter? I don't scooter yet, but my first instinct would be to send it up on an SMB or leave it behind in an overhead, if practical.
Even if I wore my computer on the inside of my left forearm, it would still not be readable while dumping gas, either from the inflator hose or the rear dump valve. Trust me, I'd see only my hand and the inflator hose in the first case, nothing in the second. YMMV, and I suspect it does.
In an overhead environment, the only reason I can think to be vertical would be because the egress dictated it.
Dead scooter? I don't scooter yet, but my first instinct would be to send it up on an SMB or leave it behind in an overhead, if practical.
Even if I wore my computer on the inside of my left forearm, it would still not be readable while dumping gas, either from the inflator hose or the rear dump valve. Trust me, I'd see only my hand and the inflator hose in the first case, nothing in the second. YMMV, and I suspect it does.
Penguin
Guest
This discussie is GREAT. All my buddies use consoles, I'm the only one with an AI wrist computer (Aladin Air Z Nitrox). Now I know I'm not the only lunatic
The only drawback is my wrist compass. Trying to it right in front of me is hard (especialy when it comes down to precision navigation). However I'm now experimenting with rotating the compass in its house. Now I don't have to keep it right in front of me, bending my arm slightly is enough for navigation. Seems to be working, but I have to experiment a little more.
The only drawback is my wrist compass. Trying to it right in front of me is hard (especialy when it comes down to precision navigation). However I'm now experimenting with rotating the compass in its house. Now I don't have to keep it right in front of me, bending my arm slightly is enough for navigation. Seems to be working, but I have to experiment a little more.
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