"I'm so conservative..."

[Tribal]

Maybe he did calculate the decotime into his dive? I Guess he should have talked about it before the dive so that you both did know the plan and you where eachothers redundant air supply.

 

[JohnnyC]

Maybe he did calculate the decotime into his dive? I Guess he should have talked about it before the dive so that you both did know the plan and you where eachothers redundant air supply.

You don't calculate your deco based on being able to get gas from your buddy. And you shouldn't be calculating deco time unless you've got some form of redundant air supply. Doesn't have to be accelerated deco, just have to make sure you have a redundant source of gas available if you find yourself with a decompression obligation and also out of gas.

If he did calculate deco into his run time, and he only had a single tank, he's most definitely not diving conservatively.

 

[Wookie]

This type of scenario begs the question, is it wise to put advanced tec computers in the hands of beginning recreational divers that don’t necessarily have the experience and knowledge to understand what they’re their using and getting in to?
As an aside, I see a lot of hyping of the Shearwater products on this site to beginning divers. Maybe a little more thought needs to be put into what is being constantly recommended.

By the same token, is it wise to put the most basic recreational computer in the hands of those who don't get it.

We can talk about the dumbing down of diving, but whatever method you use to calculate your nitrogen load, you should understand it if you're going to load nitrogen.

I ran a liveaboard for 20 years. I would venture a guess that 60% of our divers had no idea what their computer was telling them. I had to add to the dive briefings that if their computer was beeping at them, they needed to look at it and do what it was telling them. I would venture a guess that 25% ignored the beeping for the entire dive (when their computer reset itself to 50% O2 and 79% N2).

 

[Dogbowl]

I ran a liveaboard for 20 years. I would venture a guess that 60% of our divers had no idea what their computer was telling them. I had to add to the dive briefings that if their computer was beeping at them, they needed to look at it and do what it was telling them. I would venture a guess that 25% ignored the beeping for the entire dive (when their computer reset itself to 50% O2 and 79% N2).

 

[CuzzA]

I would venture a guess that 25% ignored the beeping for the entire dive

If you don't read the manual, you won't learn how to turn the beeping off.

 

[Wookie]

That's why I dive a shearwater...

 

[boulderjohn]

I wish PADI had much more on using computers and less on the tables and the glorified pocket calculator. Has anyone ever seen a diver outside of a training course using an eRDPml?

The PADI course I taught for the last 6 years focuses completely on using computers and does not teach tables or the eRDPml at all.

 

[tursiops]

The PADI course I taught for the last 6 years focuses completely on using computers and does not teach tables or the eRDPml at all.

That's because you chose to teach it that way. PADI doesn't require that.

 

[boulderjohn]

From my perspective as a newly certified PADI OW diver (currently 7 dives in), I can't really agree with this.
...
That said, my training certainly did not prepare me to use a computer in a sensible way. I was taught how to use dive tables, then finished up with a brief comment along the lines of "of course in practice you will never use this - computers are much easier and safer so you should get one of those instead".

Amazing. I did not realize that people were still teaching the old tables course. It has been nearly 10 years since PADi came out with the computer version of its course, so it is surprising to see that there are shops that still refuse to teach it.

 

[boulderjohn]

That's because you chose to teach it that way. PADI doesn't require that.

The wording is tricky. I did not say that PADI requires that. I said that the course I taught (the computer version) was as I described. Yes, there are still shops that do not do it that way, but I did not teach for those shops.

Yes, there are people who say, "I am going to teach people to dive the way no one ever dives any more, and I will absolutely not teach them the way everyone dives today." I am not one of them. I admit it.