Dive Tables - anyone have digital copies?

[inquis]

Computers are more capable, but how many people -- on dive boats and ScubaBoard -- have no clue how to use their computer?

I'd argue those clueless divers also have no clue how to use a table. At a basic level, they have the same "user interface":

• Tables: find the number telling you how long you can stay, and ascend before your timer increments past that number.
• Computer: find the number telling you how much longer you can stay and ascend before it gets to 0.

 

[lizardland]

The wheel was created at the same time as the RDP, and the impetus for both was the same. An average diver was frustrated by the limits the US Navy tables put on his diving--the inability to plan for multilevel dives and the extremely long surface intervals for a 2-tank dive. The wheel would have been a very welcome and useful tool if it were not for the fact that it was created about the same time as the introduction of dive computers.

I did hate the wheel and the fact that I had to learn it when I became a professional. I had bought my first computer years before, after my first dive trip showed me how worthless the tables were. (Fellow divers told me they made a reasonably good Frisbee.)

I'm not so certain the Wheel would've been successful without computers. I think there was so much potential for getting it wrong that the amount of accidents down to diver error would probably have killed it. It was good luck that dive computers rendered it redundant and it was never widely used. I suspect there would've been a lot of bent divers who cocked up something and didn't realise. It was a really clever idea but the execution had so much scope for uncaught mistakes that would snowball into repetitive dives that I think it would have damaged its reputation irreperably.

The only time I ever used it was on courses for DM and above. I would hazard a guess that most Wheel users were people doing professional level training. I don't recall ever seeing one in the field other than that.

how many people -- on dive boats and ScubaBoard -- have no clue how to use their computer?

The obvious question is: is that important? Most recreational computers are very idiot-tolerant. My first computer was a Suunto Companion and you could literally strap it to your wrist and go diving straight out the box without reading the manual or touching the settings. You'd have to be a complete half-wit to not understand what the display was telling you underwater.

You cannot do that with tables. Either you understand how to use them or you need to be very happy at playing "guess how to avoid being in a wheelchair". There's not really much scope for sloppiness.

And to answer your question, I have no idea what about 80% of my Hammerhead computer does and I've never once read the manual in 15 years. I don't care beyond the basic functions.

 

[tursiops]

I'm not so certain the Wheel would've been successful without computers.
<snip>
The only time I ever used it was on courses for DM and above. I would hazard a guess that most Wheel users were people doing professional level training. I don't recall ever seeing one in the field other than that.

The first Wheel I ever saw (c.2000) was on a dive boat in Hawaii where the DM used it to determine our Surface Interval before the next dive.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

I bought The Wheel for the IDC/IE I decided not to take at Dixie Divers in Ft. Pierce. My version lined up, but just barely to the point where I didn't trust it.

 

[boulderjohn]

I'm not so certain the Wheel would've been successful without computers. I think there was so much potential for getting it wrong that the amount of accidents down to diver error would probably have killed it.

When I did a wheel problem on my instructor exam, I came up with an answer that was not one of the multiple choice answers. I did it over and over again. My answer was halfway between two choices, and, as I would expect, I opted for the wrong one. The examiner had to go over the answer with me, and he showed me on his wheel, doing it exactly as I did, and getting the correct choice. I gave him my wheel and had him do it, and he got the same wrong answer I did.

But in reality, the correct answer was "it really doesn't matter." The difference between what I got and the correct answer was negligible. It only mattered because it had to be perfect on a multiple choice test. The wheel was more aggressive then the RDP, but it was still pretty conservative. I doubt there would have been any deaths by people being a shade off in their computations.

The only time I ever used it was on courses for DM and above. I would hazard a guess that most Wheel users were people doing professional level training. I don't recall ever seeing one in the field other than that.

I have never seen either the wheel or any kind of table used in NDL diving (outside of training) since I made my first and only attempt decades ago.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I don't understand why the wheel lasted so long into DM training even after computers became the go to standard for years. One instructor I talked to said it was because PADI had boxes of them they couldn't sell because computers stole their wind, so they made all the DM's buy them to get rid of them.
I just remember the alignment glitch when the center rivet was off it would throw off all the numbers and I would get all wrong answers, until I tried another one that wasn't a lemon.

 

[rhwestfall]

I was certified in 1988 through the YMCA, using The New Science... as our text. We learned on the paper tables (Navy) in the book. When I then started diving, I had to get tables. I bought and learned the Wheel because the dive shop I stopped in to get something was a PADI shop. Used the Wheel until I could afford a pdc in the mid-90's. It worked... I in fact picked up 1 or 2 more. I still play with it occasionally. Fast forward to like 10 years ago when my daughter was obtaining her certification. Her agency was NAUI, and at the time, tables were a requirement at that shop. She is dyslexic, and prone to math and transcription errors. NAUI at that time had a version of their tables that was a "wheel" but not for multi-level dives. It is the only way she could pass the dive planning portion of the exam.

Yes, she dives with a pdc now...