What do you wish was taught during your tec classes?

[San Diego Climber]

Fresh off GUE Tech 1 (last week) with the newest version of the course material, ratio is indeed taught as a way to make adjustments to a plan, (but not as a the default initial planning method)

 

[Wibble]

So much easier to look at the TTS…

 

[flymolo]

So much easier to look at the TTS…

But TTS is realtime which is not the same thing.

 

[Wibble]

Oh look, a bunny hole…

Adjusting a plan whilst in progress — implied by ratio — is pretty much real-time, based on the past ten mins/whatever.

TTS changes shows that the deco obligation has increased/decreased without needing the complex arithmetic for ratio calculations.

(Unless you mean the pre dive plan, not the whilst diving plan)

 

[seeker242]

Why do 50 minutes of deco when in reality you only need to do 40 based on the real dive profile you hit? /shrug just my thoughts.

Who actually does that?

 

[jlcnuke]

Who actually does that?

I can't say personally, but I've heard of people being taught to dive the plan and not use your computer on the dive to adjust your plan and that the planned deco schedule should be completed exactly as planned each dive. Whether they actually do, I can't say as I haven't done any dives with people trained that way to my knowledge.

 

[Wibble]

I can't say personally, but I've heard of people being taught to dive the plan and not use your computer on the dive to adjust your plan and that the planned deco schedule should be completed exactly as planned each dive. Whether they actually do, I can't say as I haven't done any dives with people trained that way to my knowledge.

Can kind of understand that in training, but when diving after that you do the deco required for that dive; maybe hanging around for a mate to finish their deco as they have a low GF-hi, or run a lower setpoint, use air as backgas, spent more time around the bottom of the wreck ...

Maybe some people didn't get the memo about following the plan for the training only, then using the plan as a guide and your computer for the specifics.

 

[boulderjohn]

I can't say personally, but I've heard of people being taught to dive the plan and not use your computer on the dive to adjust your plan and that the planned deco schedule should be completed exactly as planned each dive. Whether they actually do, I can't say as I haven't done any dives with people trained that way to my knowledge.

What is happening in tech diving is a rapid transition in methodologies caused by a significant improvement in computer capability. Here are the steps as I experienced them.

1. When I started, we planned the dive and did our best to follow that plan. We used no computers. At first I was trained to plan and execute the dive using the UTD version of Ratio Deco, because all computer-based programs were supposedly inferior to it. (We were taught that in my RD class--all algorithms used in desktop software were inferior to UTD's Ratio Deco.)
2. When I switched to a more conventional program, the only difference was that we preplanned the dive using desktop software and then followed it without a computer. We made a couple contingency plans in case the dive was deeper or longer than expected and then followed the one that was closest to the dive we actually did. Most people I know planned using V-Planner. I saw a lot of people print off their plans on computer printers and put them on slates, covered with packing tape.
3. I bought a Shearwater computer (Predator) because people were raving about it, but the first time I wore it on a dive was as a backup to the written plan. The written plan was made by a group I was tagging along with, and they did it with V-Planner, using Liquivision computers with the same settings as their desktop plan. They said they were following the written plan with the computers as backup, but they left each stop when the computer said to leave it, so which were they following?
4. For a couple years the process most people I know followed was to make the same 3 plans as before, but use the written plans as a backup to the computer.
5. Today everyone I dive with has 2 computers, with no written backup. Every student who has come to me for tech training in the past couple years has started the class owning 2 computers. The initial training calls for them to follow a pre-done schedule, so they get practice with that, but they are planning to use 2 computers for their diving. Everyone I dive with now uses Buhlmann with GFs. I don't know anyone still using V-Planner (VPM).

So, what you are seeing when people follow a written plan and use the computer for backup are roughly at stage 3 of that transition.

 

[Wibble]

Amazing how recently it was that computers were finally sorted out. Reliability, accuracy and ease of use.

For some dives I use a third standalone computer set to GF 90:90 just in case the rebreather throws a complete wobbler.

 

[rjack321]

Who actually does that?

Probably the vast majority of us at one time, before the Shearwater predator made massive inroads on the previously lame wrist computer market about 8-10 years ago.