Nitrox tables going too?

[explorer08]

I don't think they are in the minority any more. PDCs have come WAY down in price and have made huge strides in terms of reliability and ease of use. It's pretty normal to see almost every diver on the boat having (or sharing) a PDC.

You are true in so far as they are very common today, but IMHO it's still a minority using them, however a growing minority. And if it's normal to see almost every diver on the boat having a PDC depends very much on where you are. For example in Turkey, where I am living, or in Thailand, they are quite rare. If you are on a liveaboard in the Red Sea or the Carribean you are absolutely true.

 

[beertiki]

On one boat here in Key West, every diver must have a computer to dive the Vandenberg. If you do not have one, they will let you use one of theirs.

Most new divers now, have grown up with computers, cellphones, gps, and ipods. They have been using and trusting these electronics all their lives. A dive computer makes sense to them, the tables do not. Paying $300 for a computer for them is normal, they have been spending that much on all their other electronics, some of which get replaced in 2 years by a newer model.

 

[explorer08]

On one boat here in Key West, every diver must have a computer to dive the Vandenberg. If you do not have one, they will let you use one of theirs.

Most new divers now, have grown up with computers, cellphones, gps, and ipods. They have been using and trusting these electronics all their lives. A dive computer makes sense to them, the tables do not. Paying $300 for a computer for them is normal, they have been spending that much on all their other electronics, some of which get replaced in 2 years by a newer model.

I agree with you, but that is not the point. What you are talking about are the ambitious divers. But they are not the majority. The majority are the occasional divers who may do up to a maximum of ten dives a year, or probably two or three dives every vacation. And this group doesn't buy any equipment, may be except fins, mask and snorkel.

 

[beertiki]

If I ever end up on a liveaboard for a vacation, I will buy a 2nd computer as a back up. I guess it would depend on how much money I had at the time as to weather I would be buying a cheap on sale one or a duplicate of the one I currently use. The risk of sitting out for 24 hours is enough that the $300 or less expense makes sense to me.

 

[explorer08]

If I ever end up on a liveaboard for a vacation, I will buy a 2nd computer as a back up. I guess it would depend on how much money I had at the time as to weather I would be buying a cheap on sale one or a duplicate of the one I currently use. The risk of sitting out for 24 hours is enough that the $300 or less expense makes sense to me.

Absolutely! The price of a PDC is no indicator for quality.
I had to deal with the question of buying a new one last year. As I mentioned before, I use PDC's since 1985. The first one has been the "legendary" HansHass Decobrain, followed by an Aladin Pro (from the old series where you can change the batteries yourself) which I have been using as backup until last year. Later on I "needed" an Aladin Air and later, when I started with NItrox, it had to be a SmartCom. Now in the last three years, when I went fulltime Pro and the number of my dives per year increased dramatically, I had a lot of trouble with the Aladin Air and the SmartCom and I had to send them to the manufactory more than once. At one point I decided that it doesn't make sense to invest any more money in old stuff and that it might be time for a new one. So I started looking around and first I liked to get a Galileo Luna or Sol, but what I didn't like was their price.
And than I started thinking, what for do I need a new PDC? Even the algorithms of the latest modells are based on assumptions and theories only. Some of these theories contradict others, but anyway they all work quite successfull. But yet nobody really knows what is going on in our body during compression and decompression. So what do I want from a PDC? Do I need a coloured display? No. Do I need my saturation status shown in graphics? No. Do I need to check my email via my PDC? No. Even the nitrox mode of my SmartCom I never used, because always when I've been diving nitrox, I did it in the air mode. What I need is a PDC which brings me back to the surface save, without any occurence of DCI and without spending unnecessary long time on decompression stops. And suddenly I recognized that my old Aladin Pro was doing that for more than two decades without any problem. And even the latest PDC can't do more. Since than he is my primary PDC again and I am looking for a second one as backup and my current backup is an Aladin Sport form the same time, which is using the same algorithm, but displaying less detailed information.

 

[The Chairman]

Even the algorithms of the latest modells are based on assumptions and theories only.

Technically, that's called a "SWAG" (Scientific Wild Arse Guess).

 

[herbdb]

I carry one of my older computers in a BC pocket rather than leaving it on shore somewhere. It just makes sense to have the backup doing its job. I had a malfunction on my primary during my last trip to the keys and the backup was ready to go.

I use the wrist style computer so all I have to do is secure it to the ring in my BC pocket.

 

[explorer08]

Technically, that's called a "SWAG" (Scientific Wild Arse Guess).

I carry one of my older computers in a BC pocket rather than leaving it on shore somewhere. It just makes sense to have the backup doing its job. I had a malfunction on my primary during my last trip to the keys and the backup was ready to go.

I use the wrist style computer so all I have to do is secure it to the ring in my BC pocket.

That's it! The primary on my arm, the backup in my BCD.

 

[Charlie99]

I had a malfunction on my primary during my last trip to the keys and the backup was ready to go.

For most reef dives in the Keys, the only thing I looked at on my computer was the time-of-day.

"Please be back on the boat by xx time" was the limiting factor for most dives other than the wrecks. And for those dives, the limiting factor was usually air. The only dives where NDL really played a factor is when doing 2 dives in a row on the wrecks.

 

[TMHeimer]

Charlie99, This has been my experience also. I use it for depth and bottom time and also check my watch for the latter. If doing two really deep dives in a day I'll be even more aware of bottom time. The surface intervals on two tank charter dives have always seemed way long enough.