Teaching Dive Tables (including Nitrox)

[boulderjohn]

Or, for example, how tables can exist separately from physiology.

Tables do exist separately from physiology.

When you teach scuba, you teach physiology, and you teach decompression theory.

Then you teach how to manage decompression. It could be with tables. It could be with computers. It could be with both.

In many cases, instructors taught decompression theory along with how to use tables, so many people mistakenly believe that that are the same thing, but they are not. Mark Powell wrote an entire book (Deco for Divers) on decompression theory without once teaching how to use tables for NDL dives.

 

[Valeriy_Kulaha]

Tables do exist separately from physiology.

When you teach scuba, you teach physiology, and you teach decompression theory.

Then you teach how to manage decompression. It could be with tables. It could be with computers. It could be with both.

In many cases, instructors taught decompression theory along with how to use tables, so many people mistakenly believe that that are the same thing, but they are not. Mark Powell wrote an entire book (Deco for Divers) on decompression theory without once teaching how to use tables for NDL dives.

My brain is dead! Goodbye!

 

[GreggS]

My brain is dead! Goodbye!

Yeah, we had that figured out on page 3.

 

[The Chairman]

How to stay alive during a dive and not get decompression sickness

The rule of 120 worked for 20 plus years before I learned about tables. I really didn't need tables with such an easy solution.

 

[inquis]

No computer can plan an upcoming dive.

There are numerous ones that can plan an upcoming dive. I'm actually hard pressed to think of any that cannot! Even my long-retired Mosquito (from the late '90s) could do it.

 

[The Chairman]

There are numerous ones that can plan an upcoming dive. I'm actually hard pressed to think of any that cannot! Even my long-retired Mosquito (from the late '90s) could do it.

Indeed. I can't think of any PDC that can't plan the next dive, including surface intervals. There are also a number of apps that can do the same.

 

[Edward3c]

Yeah, we had that figured out on page 3.

I clocked a troll on page 1.

 

[The Chairman]

Tables have been a contentious issue for almost as long as they've been taught. Even when PDCs were rare, tables were rarely seen on dive boats. I know I relied on the rule of 120 since I first learned it in 1969. I've never been bent. Like tables, or even the rule, PDCs are simply a tool to facilitate diving. Luddites can't or won't get it. As with any tool, it's best to understand the principles that they are predicated on. If you don't, you won't know when you are pushing your tool past its limits. It's critical not only to know your limits but to also honor them.

 

[tursiops]

The rule of 120 worked for 20 plus years before I learned about tables. I really didn't need tables with such an easy solution.

LOL. He was using the Rule of 130...and even 120 is only good for the first dive of the day.

 

[Valeriy_Kulaha]

Wow! I'm already a troll.
But I just wanted to point out that you can't dive without understanding the dangers that await you. And one of them is the DСS.
And the safe depth of 40 meters is not so safe - it's all a question of time. Therefore, a recreational diver should also know about tables, and not leave this issue to the discretion of the instructor.