oldschoolto
Contributor
SELF RELIANCE.... SELF RELIANCE.... Self Reliance... Believe it... Live it.... Do it... And your chances of living are much better....
Jim....
Jim....
Depth watch
- Thread starter Rebelmarine62
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Karloss
Contributor
I have not had good luck with WallyWorld watches so I purchased an Oceanic B.U.D. for $200.00. I figure a good UW watch will cost that PLUS if my computer craps out I'll be going back to the dive tables, with the B.U.D. I'm still good to go on a computer.
fnfalman
Contributor
There aren't that many dive watches featuring the depth gauge function. The cheapest one I know of is the Citizen Aqualand and it's more expensive than a dive computer nowadays.
If you're that worried about backup, then get a cheap dive computer like the Oceanic Veo.
If you're that worried about backup, then get a cheap dive computer like the Oceanic Veo.
boarderX47
Registered
I have the watch below as a depth watch/temp/bottom timer in adition to my computer. Works perfectly, everytime. For what it's worth, my buddies gear is his or hers only. I do not rely on them for anything except an air source if I'm ooa. Having redundancy, even on a "basic" open water dive is never a bad thing.
http://www.leisurepro.com/Catalog.a...oductID=PLESMWOR&Page=1&Term=pyle watch&Hit=1
Sent from my Galaxy S III
http://www.leisurepro.com/Catalog.a...oductID=PLESMWOR&Page=1&Term=pyle watch&Hit=1
Sent from my Galaxy S III
While some of the previous advice is good some of it does not seem right for NC diving.
Maybe 20-30 ft for the first bunch of dives is what you do in warm reef country but along the NC coast first dives at the coast are 50-60 ft. (Indra, Lib Ship, Stone, Dredge, Pocohontas). There is nothing shallower. What are considered good warm up dives are those like the Hyde (or Markham) which is 60 ft to the deck and 80 ft to the sand. Actually 80 plus in a couple places near the hull. I have insta-buddied with a number of new OW divers on these sites including the Hyde.
You assume your buddy is diving the same mix. Wrong. On almost all of the dives with entry level folks I was on Nitrox and they were diving air.
You assume your buddy is diving the same profile. If the viz is good it is easy for your buddy and you to differ by 10 ft for a while. Say one is hunting for some teeth along the sand and the other is hanging a little higher looking around. There can also be differences in how long we are under the water. I might watch them go safely up to the surface and then hang out at the hang bar for a while if stuff is swimming by.
If their computer dies, they cannot dive off mine. We immediately make a safe return to the boat and then I will dive with some one else or go solo depending on the circumstances if it is early in the dive. Even if they have enough data to make a second dive on tables it would probably be such a short NDL compared to mine that I would not do it. The wreck dives are almost always multilevel. Even the ledges are multilevel.
You can say all you want about choosing good buddies, etc., but I find lots of very new divers going the instabuddy route.
Computers are reasonably cheap. About one weekend of diving including motel and meals will buy you a nice basic nitrox capable computer. If you are diving in NC and don't want to risk having to thumb a dive on the day you finally get out to a place you have been wanting to dive but kept getting blown out for, then get a second computer.
Maybe 20-30 ft for the first bunch of dives is what you do in warm reef country but along the NC coast first dives at the coast are 50-60 ft. (Indra, Lib Ship, Stone, Dredge, Pocohontas). There is nothing shallower. What are considered good warm up dives are those like the Hyde (or Markham) which is 60 ft to the deck and 80 ft to the sand. Actually 80 plus in a couple places near the hull. I have insta-buddied with a number of new OW divers on these sites including the Hyde.
You assume your buddy is diving the same mix. Wrong. On almost all of the dives with entry level folks I was on Nitrox and they were diving air.
You assume your buddy is diving the same profile. If the viz is good it is easy for your buddy and you to differ by 10 ft for a while. Say one is hunting for some teeth along the sand and the other is hanging a little higher looking around. There can also be differences in how long we are under the water. I might watch them go safely up to the surface and then hang out at the hang bar for a while if stuff is swimming by.
If their computer dies, they cannot dive off mine. We immediately make a safe return to the boat and then I will dive with some one else or go solo depending on the circumstances if it is early in the dive. Even if they have enough data to make a second dive on tables it would probably be such a short NDL compared to mine that I would not do it. The wreck dives are almost always multilevel. Even the ledges are multilevel.
You can say all you want about choosing good buddies, etc., but I find lots of very new divers going the instabuddy route.
Computers are reasonably cheap. About one weekend of diving including motel and meals will buy you a nice basic nitrox capable computer. If you are diving in NC and don't want to risk having to thumb a dive on the day you finally get out to a place you have been wanting to dive but kept getting blown out for, then get a second computer.
I use my Citizen Hyper-Aqualand on every dive. It's a regular watch, tells you depth and water temp during the dive, and you can download the dive profile to your computer. I'm not sure if they still make them, since I bought mine in 1995, but if you can get one they are great.
LowDrag
Contributor
Go to wally world and get a $25 dollar hand dial watch with a second hand.... Then go on ebay and buy a hand mount depth gauge if you want... As a new diver you should be playing in the shallow sea's... getting your flippers wet... 20-30 feet is all you need to play in... Just to let you know the the dive timer gives me temp, total time, depth , deepest depth ' assent rate, and logs 9 dives... About 250 bucks... the watch was 23.99 and the depth gauge was 6 bucks on ebay...
.View attachment 154476View attachment 154475 This is all I have ever taken on a dive... And I been doing this 40 yrs....
Jim....
PS... I have put on my fire proof underwear.... Flame away...:flame:
Really!?!?!?! 20'-30'??? Hell...I was hitting 40' - 60' on dives 5, 6, & 7. Now I realize I haven't logged a bunch of dives since getting cert'd last June but that is because my wife had surgery and we have been grounded for a bit.
We are getting back to it next month though and we won't be staying at 20' - 30'.
oldschoolto
Contributor
Really!?!?!?! 20'-30'??? Hell...I was hitting 40' - 60' on dives 5, 6, & 7. Now I realize I haven't logged a bunch of dives since getting cert'd last June but that is because my wife had surgery and we have been grounded for a bit.
Yes..... 20'-30' is all the water you need to learn the skills..... If divers were no so depth "crazy" they would be better off.... The first thing divers ask is how deep did you go.... By staying shallow you are playing with a much bigger safety margin... Can you tell me what you see at 50' on a reef that you are not going to see on a reef in 30' ???? I don't think it's a great idea for some one with VERY LITTLE diving knowledge an experience to go as deep as he can,
just to go deep because it's COOL...
Read the accident reports.... Low time divers in over their head, Doing something they shouldn't be doing....
40 years in the sport and still have a blast in 10'-20' of water....
Jim....
fnfalman
Contributor
Really!?!?!?! 20'-30'??? Hell...I was hitting 40' - 60' on dives 5, 6, & 7. Now I realize I haven't logged a bunch of dives since getting cert'd last June but that is because my wife had surgery and we have been grounded for a bit.
I hit 110-ft on my 5th dive, first dive out of OW class. I bragged about it quite a bit too back then. Nowadays, I thought that it was quite stupid of myself.
Also, for the longest I avoided staying at 20-30ft and justified that it was for wussy. The fact was that my buoyancy skills weren't good enough to remain submerged and establish buoyancy at such shallow depths.
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