Is a Computer essential kit?

[broncobowsher]

@Boofymac

Kodak moment to celebrate!

We (ScubaBoard citizens) have gone four pages without sliding off into the bickering ditch and the spectrum of advice reflects sound, principled suggestions (IMO).

I think @boulderjohn provided a valuable illustration - how far do you want to travel? Simply around the neighborhood or might you ponder what lies beyond familiar streets?

Me? I was born with the explorer gene so it was only a matter of time before I would look beyond conventional boundaries and a PDC become essential. I have the skills to easily enjoy a shallow shore dive without a computer but I still carry one to digitally log the memories.

As @Altamira sagely pointed out, at the end of the day it will be up to you to make a decision that supports your intended dive profiles.

Learning is winning.

Best of luck in your journey.

You need a Shearwater.



Is that Scubaboard enough of an answer?
(no you don't need one.)

 

[RobPNW]

I've done all of my dives on tables. With that said, I'm sure happy I recently got a good deal on a new Teric watch. It'll make diving less stressful, not worrying about making a stupid arithmetic mistake and getting sick.

 

[Celt]

… and if you want to make those dives, you better have a computer. Otherwise you’re not boarding the boat.

If I wanted to make those dives I’d use my own boat if that’s what it takes. But the lack of a computer wouldn’t stop me.

 

[boulderjohn]

What I’d like to know is what dive can not be made without a computer. Let alone a dive to 15m inside NDL. As for the analogy that you can’t leave your neighbourhood without a car, is laughable. Are people serious.

Name the dive area and depth and I’ll explain how to dive it .

My first dives in Cozumel were multilevel dives well beyond the limits of dive tables.

I have dived to a maximum depth of 100 feet with a bottom time of well over 80 minutes, all within NDLs.

Here is a 3-tank dive I did on 5/17/2018:

1. 96 feet for 48 minutes
roughly 1 hour surface interval

2. 78 feet for 68 minutes
roughly 90 minute surface interval

3. 99 feet for 59 minutes.

 

[Stoo]

Of course not. I dove for years with a watch, depth gauge and tables. Should you? I dunno... You can buy a basic computer for a few hundred bucks and it'll give you more time in the water and potentially even a little safer. Certainly more convenient...

 

[Robert H. Diver]

T

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

No it is not necessary. If you are on standard gases and you have a bottom timer that shows average depth and current depth, then even multi-level diving can be done using ratio deco. But you will have to be formally trained to do that. Untrained people can venture into unsafe territory if they do not understand the limits and parameters of ratios.

 

[CT-Rich]

It’s fine to dive tables if you understand how tables work. However there are many places that will require you to use a dive computer and will rent you one if you don’t own one. Better to have one of your own and understand how it works and what all the indicators mean.

The reason I am not really down for diving the tables is because there are so many failure points in human decision making. We are terrible at it. That is why, I think tech divers are so into drills. It creates muscle memory so you are following reflexes rather than making choices. I remember about half of my dives as a newly minted diver I would forget to set my watch bezel. I would check my depth, then forget it later.

Can you dive without a computer? Absolutely. Should you? Not really, dive computers were a sea change in diving. They took away a lot of complexity in diving. The computer mechanized what a diver was trying to do in their head. They are more precise in recording the dive profile and the square profiles divers were using to figure out there groupings and NDL. If you enjoy reading off a little plastic card and cutting your dives short needlessly or limiting yourself to the shallows, you can. But, you will find it hard to get a seat on a charter or a dive buddy that is like minded. The reason DC became so ubiquitou was because they are so damn convenien.

 

[TMHeimer]

I haven't read all the posts, figuring it may be a "computer vs. tables" rehash (maybe not).
I haven't used my computer since the last charter I took out of Pensacola in 2015. Reason being most of my diving (all shore) rarely is deeper than 30 feet.
I will add one thing that I never hear mentioned. If you use tables your profile is a square one of course, based on you being at your deepest depth the whole time. Now, even if you are swimming over a flat bottom the whole dive, there may be only a couple (or a few ) times you are right AT the bottom (like for collecting a shell.....). Most of the time on a 90 foot dive you are really most of the time at 87-88 feet. You lose that little edge with a computer, and in rare cases that may be a factor for DCS. This is an extra little part of the "rounding off" conservative advantage that is always mentioned when using tables. Just my theory. When your DC says you have 34 minutes bottom time left it means 34 minutes to 0, not 36 minutes.

 

[inquis]

Square profiles are great with tables. For all other profiles, I view a computer as a necessity -- for me -- yielding longer dive times and safer repetitive dives (due to fewer manual computations/actions between dives).