Should I have a backup computer?

[PfcAJ]

As you have learned in a ow class, if one person in a buddy team has a computer and the other does not , then both are on the tables. Any reputable operator would insist on this.

Why is that the case?

Same dive, same gas...

 

[Steelyeyes]

This problem can be avoided by carrying an analog SPG. It can be a mini (the size of a half dollar) on an extra thin hose routed behind the BCD and clipped off to a D ring since it won't be used much if at all. Also makes the pre-dive check easier when you open the tank valve to check the pressure- you don't have to wait for the AI computer to fire up and synch with the transmitter.

We carry a primary air integrated wrist computer, the identical computer as a backup on a retractor inside a BCD pocket and a mini spg. Plus an extra computer and transmitter should any of the 3 of us lose a computer on a long dive trip, we have a backup to our backup.



Every open water scuba diving manual says you're wrong.

Very close to my next move. My current backup is a console mounted computer. I'm going with two AI wrist mounts and an SPG to replace the console computer that's paired with my compass.

 

[oly5050user]

Why is that the case?

Same dive, same gas...

Computer does not know if diver without computer made a dive earlier in day, maybe went a bit deeper. Some resorts actually lend computers at no charge to those that do not have one.

 

[dmaziuk]

Why is that the case?

Same dive, same gas...

If you're on multi-day trip and you're all alone and it's a new boat and a new DM and all new people every day... and if you were close or at the no-stop limit when your computer croaked, and the dive's just started... then I would argue a backup computer is not the problem you ought to address first.

Edit: to spell it out: this is the sort of scenario in which on a benign no-stop reef dive it may be "too unsafe" to fly by your buddy's computer. It could conceivably happen... and then you'd just need to get to the safety stop without blowing your ascent rate.

 

[PfcAJ]

Computer does not know if diver without computer made a dive earlier in day, maybe went a bit deeper. Some resorts actually lend computers at no charge to those that do not have one.

Ask. Your. Buddy.

Talk to them. Make a friend. Stick with them during th dive.

Normal human/ diver stuff.

 

[scubafanatic]

Check the bottom of your dive booties maybe you stepped in something?

...well, there's so much BS on scubaboard it's hard to blame this smell on any particular individual troll.

 

[Joneill]

Ask. Your. Buddy.

Talk to them. Make a friend. Stick with them during th dive.

Normal human/ diver stuff.

 

[scubafanatic]

...does remind me of some of the divers I've seen at the Belize Blue Hole.

 

[Joneill]

...does remind me of some of the divers I've seen at the Belize Blue Hole.

I have not gotten there yet - is it worth it?

 

[scubafanatic]

I have not gotten there yet - is it worth it?

I enjoy deep, wall diving locations, so I enjoyed it. It's not a 'critters' dive, it's a grandeur, geology/history lesson dive, makes humans seem small in the vast scale of time and space type dive. I really like diving into infinity, nature's infinite variety of places! Some people are into it just for the 'narc', but I wouldn't know anything 'bout that.