Place of dive tables in modern diving

[oldschoolto]

Again... I and I think the others are not saying PDC are not needed or should not be used.. Knowing tables and some basic Deco numbers is something that every diver should know.. It makes you a safer diver if you have a clue what is going on during the dive and your body... Most of us old timers can dive without looking at tables or a DC.. it's just burned into our brains... This is not a bad tool to have in your tool box...

Jim...

 

[tridacna]

I would contend that there is a direct correlation between dive tables being taught and computer sales. In my limited experience, the more the dive tables are taught, the more computers my LDS sells to those who had to learn them.

I would contend that there is a direct correlation between COMPUTERS being taught and computer sales. I would further contend that there is an even greater correlation between Nitrox students being taught with a computer and computer sales.

Further, for some unknown reasons, our eLearners do not buy computers. Is it because they are taught table theory?

 

[boulderjohn]

This autumn my wife and I (through bumbling carelessness) lost a camera on a trip, so we replaced it. Even though the model we bought is by no means upper end, it has a dizzying array of functions and a terrible manual. No problem. The shop offers free instruction on the cameras it sells. We sat down with someone for over an hour while he want over all the features we might ever use, including personal advice on things we should ignore.

I don't ever hear of dive shops doing this sort of thing with the computers they sell. It would not be such a big deal to have someone sit down and go over the mere handful of critical functions (like dive planning, emergency decompression, setting O2 percentages, and logging dives). Neither of the shops for which I worked did that. I suggested it to the management of one of the shops, and they said "What a great idea!" and then never did anything.

 

[tridacna]

www.divecomputertraining.com

Why reinvent the wheel? We include the cost of the course with a purchase.

 

[CT-Rich]

I would contend that there is a direct correlation between COMPUTERS being taught and computer sales. I would further contend that there is an even greater correlation between Nitrox students being taught with a computer and computer sales.

Further, for some unknown reasons, our eLearners do not buy computers. Is it because they are taught table theory?

There is a correlation between what is being taught and and what you buy. If you showed the students how to adjust for neutral buoyancy on their rig and gave them tanks with harnesses, how many BCDs would you sell? Don’t get me wrong, a BCD greatly enhances the dive experience... that it cost hundreds of dollars is just nice bonus for the shop. Most people taking classes are never going tec or logging a hundred dives a year. Computers enhance what is a fun realatively safe activity.

Your e-learners are shopping online....

 

[dmaziuk]

I don't know if Aqualung's PZ+ has a conservatism setting like Oceanic's PZ+, but it probably does since the same guy wrote both implementations. With conservatism, it is in between Shearwater's Medium and High settings.

Don't care: what I need to know as a pragmatic modern diver is whether my computer is lying to me. In theory it requires predicting the numbers and comparing them to actual; if I can only probably predict them, then I can only probably tell. In practice tables are a poor sanity check for all the reasons listed upthread, and so rules like "60+60" are not significantly less accurate while easier to remember and apply.

The other thing I need to know is what do when my computer goes HAL on me. That is covered on pp. 218-219 of my PADI OW diver manual.

 

[The Chairman]

Knowing tables and some basic Deco numbers is something that every diver should know.

Again, I disagree. I've met tooooo many divers when tables were "it" that never understood the correlation. You can do the same thing with a PDC in regards to planning that you can do with tables and more. Moreover, there are plenty of online deco calculators that will help you gain familiarity with what you're doing far more quickly than any table. I dive with two PDCs on every dive. They are all set to the same gradient factor that I'm comfortable with. I was comfortable with Oceanic's PDCs before I started sweating about gradient factors. Neither tables nor PDCs will stop an idiot from being bent. Nothing replaces having a conservative mindset.

 

[tursiops]

Using the Recreational Diver Planner for multi-level diving.

Yes, thanks for bringing this up. I think we are having a semantic problem: I think of "tables" and the "RDP" as the little pieces of plastic that you can carry with you on a dive boat. I don't consider that link as being the RDP, but rather a complicated protocol based on the RDP. It, and The Wheel, both validly allow you to do monotonic multi-level dives, with a lot of restrictions. The PDC allows you to do any kind of multi-level dive, with no real restrictions (other than Suunto [and maybe others] penalties after the fact if your profiles were yo-yo or sawtooth).

 

[lowviz]

Don't care: what I need to know as a pragmatic modern diver is whether my computer is lying to me. ..//... if I can only probably predict them, then I can only probably tell. ...

But isn't that probably good enough? Is for me...

 

[Storker]

I think of "tables" and the "RDP" as the little pieces of plastic that you can carry with you on a dive boat.

So do I. And that link showed how it's possible to use those little pieces of plastic to successfully and validly plan a multi-level dive. As opposed to your blanket statement that "the tables can't be validly used for multi-level dives".

Of course there will be limitations. Tables come with limitations. AFAIK no-one has claimed that tables can be used to plan any type of multi-level dive.