SW Peregrine TX vs Garmin G1 for occasional diver

[Belzelbub]

It was still nice to be doing an open water dive for the first time in 5 years, but I was wondering if GPS would have allowed me to swim on the surface to an exact drop point before descending. I spoke with the rental gear shop staff, who told me that I don't need GPS to find a specific dive site, that just diving more and becoming familiar with a specific site is sufficient. But I was wondering if anyone uses the GPS on their watch to navigate to a waypoint before descending. That functionality would be one pro of the G1 over the Peregrine that I can see.

In theory, that could help. I thought about loading some sites on my Garmin, but decided against it. I have way more sites than my watch could hold, so decided not to do it. It could be useful more on shore dives. If boat diving, the captain should be able to put you on the site. Even if you swim out to a specific point, current may have you off the site unless you descend very quickly, or drop a marker.

For the sites I dive, there is enough around even if I’m not right on the spot I dove last. Unless…

Having GPS marking start and end helped me out today. Back in early May, I dove a spot that I hadn’t dove before. Unfortunately after our dives, my anchor rode broke on retrieval. I immediately marked the spot on my boat GPS as I didn’t have enough gas to go after it. I went back to that spot over Memorial Day weekend. Had a great couple dives, but no anchor.

Went back out today with a different game plan. I decided to add the end dive locations from my Garmin to my boat GPS. Toward the end of our first dive, I spotted my anchor. Moved it a bit so it wouldn’t get hung up, then tied a line and shot up a DSMB. We were able to retrieve it. Before today, GPS enabled computer was a nice to have. Today, it really paid off as that anchor would have cost over $600 to replace. But, this was a very specific use case.

Unless you need pinpoint accuracy, I think you’ll be quite happy with your Peregrine.

 

[SD_Trojan]

In theory, that could help. I thought about loading some sites on my Garmin, but decided against it. I have way more sites than my watch could hold, so decided not to do it. It could be useful more on shore dives. If boat diving, the captain should be able to put you on the site. Even if you swim out to a specific point, current may have you off the site unless you descend very quickly, or drop a marker.

For the sites I dive, there is enough around even if I’m not right on the spot I dove last. Unless…

Having GPS marking start and end helped me out today. Back in early May, I dove a spot that I hadn’t dove before. Unfortunately after our dives, my anchor rode broke on retrieval. I immediately marked the spot on my boat GPS as I didn’t have enough gas to go after it. I went back to that spot over Memorial Day weekend. Had a great couple dives, but no anchor.

Went back out today with a different game plan. I decided to add the end dive locations from my Garmin to my boat GPS. Toward the end of our first dive, I spotted my anchor. Moved it a bi so it wouldn’t get hung up, then tied a line and shot up a DSMB. We were able to retrieve it. Before today, GPS enabled computer was a nice to have. Today, it really paid off as that anchor would have cost over $600 to replace. But, this was a very specific use case.

Unless you need pinpoint accuracy, I think you’ll be quite happy with your Peregrine.

Man, that is awesome! It must have felt so good to find it.
Like you said, I don't think I'd need that kind of accuracy 99% of the time, and it would only come in use for shore swims, so I think I'll just get the Peregrine and call it a day.

 

[KeelsonGraham]

Good decision Trojan. The other factor not mentioned here is intuitive ease of use. For an infrequent diver, the Peregrine is so easy to use, without having to revert to the manual.