How often do you "Plan your dive, dive your plan"? Preliminary Survey Results

[Storker]

Sometimes your computer tells you you can do 110 feet for 40 minutes? I want one of those!

I'd recommend a personal chamber with that

 

[Dhboner]

So now we're talking specifically about instabuddies? That's a very specific case, and not applicable to most divers on most dives.
Sue and I have a bit over 500 dives together. Kim has been with us on a bit over 100 of those. We all know the lost buddy procedures, we are intimately familiar with each others gear configuration, and the hand signals for "go this way", "look at that!", "how much air do you have left?" and "was that you touching my butt?"
Why would we go over them against before every dive? What plan would we need other than "stay within rec limits and be back on the boat with 500 PSI?"

Fair point! I have done hundreds of dives with my two sons but we still begin every dive with a brief discussion about what we intend to do (training or just mud diving), what to do if the vis goes crap (tighter team formation), where the turn around will be (based on air, NDL's or cold tolerance). We also do a planned stop at 10' or so to do a bubble check (although since moving to sidemount this past year a bubble is a wee bit redundant). I here you loud and clear that most recreational dives require a minimum of planning but we like to make sure we have good habits ingrained by repetition so we don't get complacent and take shortcuts on dives that are not so benign.

 

[RJP]

I'd recommend a personal chamber with that

Or correct gas mix and proper training to safely conduct what is essentially a very benign dive... albeit maybe not in the "Basic Scuba Discussions" forum.

 

[Storker]

Or correct gas mix

Are you thinking about something like 21/35?

albeit maybe not in the "Basic Scuba Discussions" forum.

Agreed.

 

[Nasser]

Speaking of "Basic Scuba Discussions"... RJP either that's a really cool photo on your avatar or you really need to work on your buoyancy

 

[RJP]

Are you thinking about something like 21/35?

Good ol' fashioned vanilla-flavored EANx (I wouldn't waste He on a 110fsw dive.)

 

[BRT]

Good ol' fashioned vanilla-flavored EANx (I wouldn't waste He on a 110fsw dive.)

Hmmm. I show a no stop time for 36% at 1.56PP as 29 minutes. Are you going to take 2 AL80's and hang a bit or just breath slow and do your deco on the single?

 

[RJP]

Hmmm. I show a no stop time for 36% at 1.56PP as 29 minutes. Are you going to take 2 AL80's and hang a bit or just breath slow and do your deco on the single?

Who said anything about no-stop, or 36%, or diving a single tank, much less an 80? But, as mentioned, I didn't want to stray outside of Basic Scuba Discussions. (Though V-Planner says I could do the full 58min dive on a 130)

 

[AfterDark]

For the most part in recreational diving, dive computers have replaced dive tables, even to the point I don't think they are even required teaching in some courses anymore. Taking that a step further, from my perspective, they have pretty much replaced the idea of needing to "Plan your dive and dive your plan".

The sites I dive require planning with the tides to avoid strong even dangerous currents. Wind and waves can reduce vis to zero, boat traffic is a factor also. Often the turn around time isn't gas dependent but time/tide dependent. When the tide turns the dive better be done. My computer doesn't do any of this planning for me.

 

[DKL]

Every time I dive no matter the site....I plan my dive and dive my plan. I use my tables and obey the NDLs. That's the way I was trained to dive. I can think of no reason to push my luck, you only have so much luck, and at some point it may run out. You can read about divers that run out of luck quite frequently, unfortunately.