I died because of my slate - looking for articles/info on slate abbrev.

[Flightlead]

That won't help if you don't know which bottle you're supposed to be switching to...



I say screw the slate. Protocol can make it irrelevant.

IMO, rather that coming up with symbols, learning a system a standardized switches seems preferable. If you always go to a certain gas at a certain depth, you don't have to learn a new profile for each dive.

"I'm at 84 feet. Let's check the slate. Hmm, it's smudged. That could say 45%, but I'm not sure. Crap."

Or,

"I'm at 20 feet, so my switch is to O₂. I'm at 70 feet, so my switch is to 50%. I'm at 120 feet, so my switch is to 35/25. I'm at 190 feet, so my switch is to 21/35." Simple, routine, easily learned. No need to look at a slate.



Note, this isn't a pro/anti "DIR" statement. Standardization just makes sense to me.

well, I agree with you in philosophy. And typically I would be using 50% and 100% and what you say makes sense. of course you still need your slate for your hang times.

 

[Flightlead]

What makes you think it was the slate that killed you? Seems low on the list of suspects.

because I had all the necessary data on the slate to complete the dive correctly. It was just confusing to me during the dive with all the task loading etc. heck, it was confusing to me yesterday when I was sitting in the living room

 

[Rainer]

because I had all the necessary data on the slate to complete the dive correctly. It was just confusing to me during the dive with all the task loading etc. heck, it was confusing to me yesterday when I was sitting in the living room

Right, and it didn't help. I'm just saying, having the info on a slate (using ANY notation) isn't going to keep you and your buddy from doing the switch incorrectly. Contributing factor in this case? Maybe, so definitely worth asking about.

 

[jagfish]

What does your instructor suggest?

 

[Blackwood]

Are you referring just to yourself, or is it your opinion that anyone who refers to a slate (i.e. looks at the slate for the deco schedule) is not prepared for the dive?

Me. I wouldn't do a dive I needed an in-dive reference for.

 

[battles2a5]

If I need to look at a slate or in my wetnotes or whatever, I'm not prepared for the dive. Further, by relying on written notes, I am (A) cornering myself and (B) giving up the opportunity of establishing good habits and muscle memory.

So are you telling me that you have committed to memory every dive profile with every conceivable gas along with the requisite contingency plans? Or are you relying on deco on the fly or ratio deco? And are you suggesting that a NEW technical diver should do the same? Are you confident that your team has the same confidence that you do and if the s*** hits the fan that you will both come to the same conclusion for contingency? Writing out a plan, planning for contingencies, confirming said plans with team, etc. is not an "unprepared" diver in my book, especially for new tech divers. And I don't see how using these tools skirts the opportunity to establish good habits and muscle memory.

 

[Jason B]

So are you telling me that you have committed to memory every dive profile with every conceivable gas along with the requisite contingency plans?

Battles, he's diving standard gases which makes it easy.

"I'm at 20 feet, so my switch is to O₂. I'm at 70 feet, so my switch is to 50%. I'm at 120 feet, so my switch is to 35/25. I'm at 190 feet, so my switch is to 21/35." Simple, routine, easily learned. No need to look at a slate.



Note, this isn't a pro/anti "DIR" statement. Standardization just makes sense to me.

 

[Blackwood]

So are you telling me that you have committed to memory every dive profile with every conceivable gas along with the requisite contingency plans?

Clearly not. No need to know the profile for a 15 minutes at 400 feet when I'm doing 20 at 180. I'll learn my profile for 20 at 180. And if I'm doing 60 at 90, I'll learn my profile for 60 at 90.

That said, there is a lot of similarity between the profiles I do, as a consequence of the standardization Jason mentioned above. Not relying on written notes ingrains these patterns in my mind.

Are you confident that your team has the same confidence that you do and if the s*** hits the fan that you will both come to the same conclusion for contingency?

Yes, and if you asked them, they'd say the same.

Writing out a plan, planning for contingencies, confirming said plans with team, etc. is not an "unprepared" diver in my book

Nor mine. We individually plan, write out, compare and agree before hand.

Unprepared is not being able to complete the dive I've planned without relying upon instructions.




[snip]...are you suggesting that a NEW technical diver should do the same?[/snip]

No, I'm not suggesting that anyone but me and my team do anything. I'm simply adding another perspective to the thread.

 

[battles2a5]

I picked up the standard gases thing from the other posts, but that doesn't mean you should toss out the slate. That makes MODs and gas switching depths easy. But the actual schedule is a whole different ball game. We'll take Blackwood's example of 180 for 20. I'll assume you're using 18/45, 50, and 100 for the sake of argument. If you dive this plan (on V-planner, not sure what you use), you have stops from 100 up to 20 (or 10, depending on your config) at times ranging from 1 to 13 minutes, total deco time of 26 minutes. Let's say you get entangled or for some other reason you overstay your plan by 10 minutes. Your 26 minute deco just turned into 43 minutes. Gas requirements have gone up by over 75cf (total of BG and deco). Let's say that you stick to your 20 min BT but the depth is wrong, its now 190 (due to tides, bad info, etc.). Stops start deeper, deco is longer, etc. etc. etc. Same thinking behind omitted deco, bail out plan, etc. Gas switching depths have nothing to do with this, but you need to know the schedule. So how are you guys planning for gas, cutting schedules, etc. if you aren't using a slate (or some alternate form of underwater written information).

 

[grazie42]

So how are you guys planning for gas, cutting schedules, etc. if you aren't using a slate (or some alternate form of underwater written information).

I´m not blackwood (obviously) but once you know your deco obligation it´s not hard at all to distribute that time across stops...you may be a minute or two off from a v-planner plan (for example) but in the grand scheme of things it´s not going to make much of a difference...so you only need to know that staying longer/going deeper means +x mins of deco...

Having said all of that, I still bring a slate and wouldn´t argue that there´s anything wrong with relying on your slate (as long as you then bring a backup schedule...2 of everything you need and so on...)