"Riding your Computer Up" vs. "Lite Deco"

[Patoux01]

So how is a newbie to pick the correct DC/algorithm?

Is there any wrong algorithm in sales?

 

[KenGordon]

I have become enamored with the BSAC approach to OW diving. Those guys/gals are cool with altitude and reasonable amounts of deco. In some ways restrictive, in some ways aggressive. But always clearly defined.

Keep in mind that a BSAC Sports Diver has had more training and probably more dives than a new AOW. The OW and Ocean Diver are very similar and Ocean Diver is not allowed deco and has a 20m limit. Although AOW and SD are often regarded as equivalent due to the 30m vs 35m limit there is more rescue, planning and management in Sport Diver. Ocean Diver is very much a stepping stone grade. Where I dive we have to go out of our way to find sites which are suitable, so we encourage students to get to Sport Diver.

The key thing is that the training matches the local conditions.

 

[scubadada]

Hasn't it become clear that different algorithms have different NDLs? When PADI created the RDP, its NDLs were different from the old U.S. Navy NDLs. PADI taught the PADI RDP, so it taught the PADI RDP NDLs. PADI does not make or market a computer, so it has no idea in its computer-based course what computer and what NDL the students will use, even in the class itself. Consequently, it can't specify NDLs. The NDLs are determined by the computer's algorithm and are only up to the student to the degree the choice of the computer is up to the student.

Deco for Divers, Mark Powell, 2014, p 176:
The DSAT Recreational Dive Planner (PADI) model (1987)
The M-values used for the RDP were adopted from the Doppler bubble testing and tested by Dr Merrill Spencer and tested by Dr Raymond E Rogers, Dr Michael R Powell, and the colleagues with Diving Science and Technology Corp, a corporate affiliate of PADI. The DSAT M-values were empirically verified with extensive hyperbaric chamber and in water diver testing and Doppler monitoring.

The DSAT dive computer algorithm was launched at about the same time by Pelagic Pressure Systems and has been implemented in Oceanic, Aeris, Sherwood, Genesis, and, perhaps, other brands. The DSAT computer algorithm matches the PADI RDP quite closely.

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

So how is a newbie to pick the correct DC/algorithm?

For me the one that gave me the longest bottom time. Oceanic with DSAT - just happens to have PZ+ as well.

Other than being conservative - I am not sure why anyone would pick anything less. You can always scale back your bottom time if you so choose. But you can't elongate it because if the crew find out you went into deco (even Lite Deco) - they will on a recreational boat sit your butt down and you will not get a second dive in as well as possibly blacklisting you from diving with them again...

 

[lowviz]

Explain how they could do it differently.

You are fishing just to see if I trip myself up.

You know the answer as well as I. PADI faced the same issue with tables. It isn't like there weren't a choice of tables out there, they picked/adjusted one to suit their training needs. Standardized on it and continued onward from there.

We go electronic. It isn't like there aren't a choice of DC's/algorithms out there, PICK 0NE AND CALL IT YOUR STANDARD. Put a stake in the ground and claim it. Are you saying that by going electronic PADI has lost all control and must just deal with what the market offers?

Let's just suppose that PADI defined an OW/AOW DC implementation. It has to work the same on all platforms.
Child's play.

Now conservative/aggressive has some meaning. A major agency (PADI) defined a DC standard. Yeah, all DC's now need to have a PADI setting to sell, take the course and then reset your DC to aggressive...

For me the one that gave me the longest bottom time. Oceanic with DSAT - just happens to have PZ+ as well.
...//...

Don't bait me, Carl...

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Why would PADI want to assume more liability? If they simply say follow a "modern" computer, that keeps them agnostic, allows the shops to sell all brands of computers and everyone should be happy?

 

[lowviz]

That is their choice and the consequences of that choice so intrigue me. It appears that they have chosen to drop the reins when it comes to dive computers.

NDL is now the private domain of the student. I get to pick mine, you get to pick yours. Full circle back to my OP.

It is a new world....

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

It is a new world....

More like a new year - Happy New Year! Hope it is a safe one...

 

[uncfnp]

For me the one that gave me the longest bottom time. Oceanic with DSAT - just happens to have PZ+ as well.

Other than being conservative - I am not sure why anyone would pick anything less. You can always scale back your bottom time if you so choose. But you can't elongate it because if the crew find out you went into deco (even Lite Deco) - they will on a recreational boat sit your butt down and you will not get a second dive in as well as possibly blacklisting you from diving with them again...

Is this your local dive boats? I have noticed over the years that the Florida boats seem to have loosened the no deco rule. Its still part of the predive briefing but not enforced as long as you meet the time requirement. Also possibly a bit of don't ask, don't tell. Its also possible that the increase in the number of divers with "conservative" algorithms as brought an adjustment in boat attitudes.

I have also had "lite deco" dives in Grand Cayman and Cozumel and was not asked to sit out any dives or blacklisted. And I admit those are done without a deco bottle or typically redundancy but are more traditional buddy dives.

 

[lowviz]

You too, pal!

See you in the back bays and inlets. -maybe even Sunfish Pond this year, I'm diving altitude tables there. BSAC, they standardize things and I've begun to trust standardization when stepping out of my "range".