Those of you who are using tables and comparing it with total dive time may be forgetting that the bottom time as measured by the tables ends when you begin the ascent to the surface. It does not include safety stops, etc. That would be at about 35 minutes, from a depth of about 55 feet. It could also be argued that they actually started the ascent much earlier and included a 3-5 minute deep stop. In the most well known study on this, that approach was shown to be the most effective in preventing bubbling. Of course, neither the tables nor the wheel include that in their calculations.
There is a big difference between the PADI tables (the wheel) and the U.S. Navy tables. The PADI algorithm has more conservative times for first dives than the Navy tables because they were purposely designed to set up dive profiles that allowed for multiple dive days with shorter surface intervals.
It really doesn't matter, though, because they were using computers for these dives, and that included the Suunto algorithm, which has been clearly shown to be the most conservative of all the computer algorithms. It does not matter what model of Suunto was used--with the exception of its new tech computer, they all use the same algorithm. The one difference is that some models will give credit for a deep stop, while most of them will penalize for a deep stop.
There is a big difference between the PADI tables (the wheel) and the U.S. Navy tables. The PADI algorithm has more conservative times for first dives than the Navy tables because they were purposely designed to set up dive profiles that allowed for multiple dive days with shorter surface intervals.
It really doesn't matter, though, because they were using computers for these dives, and that included the Suunto algorithm, which has been clearly shown to be the most conservative of all the computer algorithms. It does not matter what model of Suunto was used--with the exception of its new tech computer, they all use the same algorithm. The one difference is that some models will give credit for a deep stop, while most of them will penalize for a deep stop.