Dive Tables - anyone have digital copies?

[lizardland]

People keep pointing out that the tables he asked for are not in the public domain and suggesting alternatives which are.

That's why I never posted a link. I don't know what policy is here but most other forums I'm on the owners don't take kindly to posting links to sites that may be breaching someone else's copyright for liability reasons. It wasn't hard to find anyway, the metric RDP tables were literally the first hit when I did an image search on Google.

 

[TravisD]

At this point, dive tables are something that if you walk into your LDS and mention you're looking for a copy of the tables, they'll probably shrug, look at you funny, dig out a dusty slate, and say "here, have fun".

 

[Saffadiver]

Im trying to build a reference system and want to manually calculate to check if my reference tables online are correct. However, I am workign with the PADI number as thats where the majority of recreational users are.

What I dont understand as a sidenote is that this is a very important part of training and understanding yet its not something which is commonly available, even to those who did the course with the specific provider.

 

[lizardland]

What I dont understand as a sidenote is that this is a very important part of training and understanding yet its not something which is commonly available, even to those who did the course with the specific provider.

On every course I've ever done, including outside of diving, if you lose the course materials after the course then that is your problem in most cases. I don't think it is unreasonable that PADI doesn't just hand out a replacement set every time an ex-student loses theirs. The number of courses I've done where materials were freely available to the public I think is probably zero. I don't really get what you're moaning about. When you do a course you are buying a package of products. Tesco won't give me a new pint of milk for free when I've used the old one. I can't have my tea without milk but I'm not blaming Tesco for that.

 

[LFMarm]

Im trying to build a reference system and want to manually calculate to check if my reference tables online are correct. However, I am workign with the PADI number as thats where the majority of recreational users are.

What I dont understand as a sidenote is that this is a very important part of training and understanding yet its not something which is commonly available, even to those who did the course with the specific provider.

They are hard to find because nobody has used tables for the past 15 years. I don't understand what you are trying to do but I would try to reframe it and use planning software instead.

 

[Maolli]

I suggest you check the copyright law and not trust what your friends tell you or what you "read somewhere."
IANAL but I'm married to a professional librarian, and they deal with this stuff all the time.

I have always held a theory that a person's annual salary is directly proportional to the number of syllables in their job description. I'm gonna have to scrap that one.

 

[PNWet]

On every course I've ever done, including outside of diving, if you lose the course materials after the course then that is your problem in most cases. I don't think it is unreasonable that PADI doesn't just hand out a replacement set every time an ex-student loses theirs. The number of courses I've done where materials were freely available to the public I think is probably zero. I don't really get what you're moaning about. When you do a course you are buying a package of products. Tesco won't give me a new pint of milk for free when I've used the old one. I can't have my tea without milk but I'm not blaming Tesco for that.

It's not even a matter of losing them. PADI's e-learning app for Open Water certification has education segments and exams for using dive tables.

The weird thing is, they do not provide any obvious way for (a mobile learner at least) to reference their dive tables while doing the calculations for the exams. They warn that if you exit prematurely that you'll get a zero on the attempt but only provide the tables in different section of the app.

A catch-22 that made me go searching for bootlegged PADI tables too.

 

[Norwegian Cave Diver]

As a cave diver a have a dive table from a different agency then PADI (can’t remember what organization) that is printed in a soft plastic sheet that is folded up and in the back of my wet notes book. Been there for perhaps 10 years, and I have never taken it out for use underwater. Good for me to have it incase my Shearwater failed and I could reference it. I’m not sure why a recreational diver would need one?

 

[tursiops]

As a cave diver a have a dive table from a different agency then PADI (can’t remember what organization) that is printed in a soft plastic sheet that is folded up and in the back of my wet notes book. Been there for perhaps 10 years, and I have never taken it out for use underwater. Good for me to have it incase my Shearwater failed and I could reference it. I’m not sure why a recreational diver would need one?

Do you plan your dives, and/or do repetitive dives? Tables allow that, as do some computers. That is how they are useful, not during a dive. Nothing to do with recreational or not.

 

[boulderjohn]

What I dont understand as a sidenote is that this is a very important part of training and understanding yet its not something which is commonly available, even to those who did the course with the specific provider.

1. this is a very important part of training: It is very possible to get OW certification without any training in tables. The focus today is more on the use of computers to plan and execute dives.

2. and understanding: Understanding what? Decompression theory? Because tables were traditionally taught along with decompression theory, many people have the mistaken impression that understanding tables is an essential part of understanding decompression theory. In reality, in instruction, OW students need to understand two different concepts:

a. How nitrogen builds in the body during the dive, and why it needs to be released during ascent.​

b. How to plan dives and ascents to make sure nitrogen is properly released. This can be taught using tables or computers or both.​