As I am reading these posts I am more and more convinced of the possible negative consequences of relying 100% on a computer to calculate your dive profiles. We are litterally placing our lives in the hands of a piece of equipment whose inner workings (software) are not even understood by most people. I am struck by the fact that discussions revolving around computers almost invariably lead to a "I trust my computer but I wouldn't trust another makers computer" without even understanding what the various deco models even do. To be honest, it scares the crap out of me that I used to blindly follow the advice of my computer (mostly Suuntos) when I didn't even know what a Reduced Gradient Bubble Model even was. I always felt that the more conservative computer was better and safer, but that usually ended up in an argument about how Suunto's were too conservative etc. Again, my impression on reading most of these posts is that the average diver just buys a computer that suits their level of conservatism and even though they might not understand it, they are happy with it and just follow the computer prompts. This scares the bejezzus out of me as I have some pretty fancy equipment in my business that regularly breaks down for want of a 3$ part. I for one do not want to trust my life to a piece of equipment with parts made by the lowest bidder and assembled by somebody who will never use it. Bob, like you, the more I learn about Deco, the more Ratio Deco done by me before a dive and then adjusted if necessary by me with my bottom timer/depth gauge and back up bottom time/depth gauge makes me feel safer.
As far as somebody telling somebody else not to do deco without the proper training, my comment to this is that there is no such thing as a non deco dive. Every dive makes bubbles and every dive involves decompression. How is one minute of deco that much different from 1 minute short of the "NDL" time? There are no black and whites here, just various shades of grey. If you are going to use a computer then I think it behooves you to learn how to interpret what your computer is saying to you at all times. It scares me that there are things going on inside the software that we are only trying to guess after the fact are happening for a particular reason. Yes, these software guys are smart, but they are not the ones taking a series of schedule 6's in the chamber after things didn't work out right. Just my 2 cents here and not intended to be critical of anyone in particular. I am taking a vacation with a lot of diving over the next 10 days and I plan on running a Vytec in computer mode at the same time as I do manual minimum deco calculations and see what transpires after several days. Should be interesting.
