Guy Alcala
Contributor
BTW, there is nothing shameful or "newby-ish" about checking your gauge. I was taught to do it every five minutes in my cave class, and to make mental notes of time, depth, prominent cave features and GAS at regular intervals.
I admit that, after some time, you have a good sense of how much gas you use at any given depth, and a good sense of whether you are diving normally or under increased stress. And I'll also admit to having gotten into very sloppy habits as a result of that, combined with the fact that I usually dive with stupid amounts of gas for the dive I'm doing (rarely go below a half tank anywhere). But it is still good practice to check one's gauge regularly.
While I always predict my gas, I also look at the gauge fairly frequently. Depending on the nature of the dive, the interval may be anywhere from every 15-20 minutes to every minute or two, the interval shortening as I approach turn around pressure.
On another subject, just how 'buried' is the SPG when you're using stage/deco bottles? One of the things I can never understand is the whole 'unclip it to look at it' shtick. I use a mask (Atomic Frameless) with a 50 degree downward look angle that eliminates any need for me to waste the time and effort to unclip my SPG to read it, then re-clip it; I can do it if I have to, but why make work for myself? There are plenty of other masks out there now with downward look angles that approach or equal that, so (never having used stage/deco bottles) how hard is it to keep the back gas SPG exposed to view in that situation?
Guy