Zept
Contributor
Originally posted by Shaun
Is there a world beyond metric?
'Fraid so. It's full of annoying imperial divers who use stupid big numbers for everything and then stay down until they reach 500psi, which is a miserable 35bar. Makes it hard to match the air consumption of an imperial diver... mutter, grumble, moan .
Useful things to know:
- 3 metres = 10 feet
- 1 bar = 15 psi (approx)
Dea, the more recent Suunto computers (Mosquito, Vyper, Stinger, Cobra and probably the Vytec) can be switched between metric and imperial units. Most of the people I've dived with in Asia used metric gear, although I've dived with a couple of North Americans who wear using imperial gauges. It's worth knowing how to convert from one to the other so you can tell whether your buddy is running out of air.
Example: An imperial diver might hold up one finger to indicate 1,000psi (70bar). To a metric diver, one finger means 10bar (150psi). Yikes! It isn't so bad if both divers are using analogue pressure gauges -- you can see where the needle is relative to the red zone -- but if you have an air-integrated computer with a digital readout, it can look as if the imperial diver has loads of air (b/c the computer is still showing a big number) even when their tank is practically empty.
Zept