What gauges do you wear on your arms?

[ScubaDawg2]

Computer on right. Compass on right... some people including me, like to have it right next to the dive computer or depth gauge. This way you can watch your depth and direction at the same time.

Then you can put backup DG/BT on left arm.

my $.02

--Dawg

 

[jfusaro]

I wear two oms bottom timers mounted on a piece of pipe on my left forearm

 

[Se7en]

How much redundant gear do you all carry?

Computer, watch, bottom timer, redundant depth guage, compass...

What sort of diving are you all doing to need all this?

Where is your buddy with their guages? If your computer dies, why not just look at your buddies depth guage or 'puter? Why do you need three ways of telling the time?

I don't know about anyone else, but the thing I really care about is how much air I have - so if I was to carry redundant anything, it would be SPG. If I don't know the depth, I'll check with my buddy. If I don't know the time, I'll check with my buddy, if they don't know it still doesn't matter much - I know my air consumption rate, and know that on a single tank in rec limits I never need more that 5 min deco... and I always do a stop at 10m and a longer one at 5m anyway.

It seems weird to me that people are so concerned to know whether they are 10 minutes or 2 minutes inside NDLs... yet aren't as worried how much air they have left to breath.

Mike

PS - If I'm doing multiple dives, either in one day or many, I'll wear a computer beause I'm too lazy to plan, track and calculate multiple multilevel dives. Then again I have also dived with a J valve and no SPG... so I'm obviously still alive by luck only.

 

[MissAmberDiva]

Just a watch!:tails:
My computer is a console

 

[WreckWriter]

Se7en once bubbled...
It seems weird to me that people are so concerned to know whether they are 10 minutes or 2 minutes inside NDLs... yet aren't as worried how much air they have left to breath.

That's because most of the people who carry these redundant instruments aren't 10 minutes inside the NDL, more often 30 minutes OUTSIDE the NDL.

Obviously the method you suggest, using your buddy for redundancy is fine for recreational diving.

SPGs are not duplicated for 2 reasons, because they are on hoses which increases snag risk and adds a point of failure and because SPGs are mechanical guages (bourdon tube usually) which have a much lower fail rate than electronic gauges (which most depth gauges/bottom timers are).

Tom

 

[metridium]

Se7en wrote...
If your computer dies, why not just look at your buddies depth guage or 'puter?

1. Because if you're diving solo, you don't have a buddy.

2. Because your buddy might have stayed at a different depth long enough to affect nitrogen loading calculations.

3. With a backup computer, you can still continue the dive(s) if one fails.

 

[nickjb]

WreckWriter once bubbled...


...

SPGs are not duplicated for 2 reasons, because they are on hoses which increases snag risk and adds a point of failure and because SPGs are mechanical guages (bourdon tube usually) which have a much lower fail rate than electronic gauges (which most depth gauges/bottom timers are).

Tom

Do you have any evidence that bourdon tube SPGs are more reliable? I have done a search and can't find much info either way. I thought the SPG was one of the most likely instruments to fail (which is why you DON'T have two).

If electronic guages have a higher failure rate then why does almost everyone use an electronic watch and an electronic depth guage? Mechanical versions of both items are readily available.

 

[WreckWriter]

Nope, I have no "evidence" of this. it's just something I've always heard in relation to all sorts of gauges, not just scuba related.

Tom

 

[pt40fathoms]

SPG's do die. But the way they die could also kill you. A few years ago a dive buddy of mine had his quit during the dive. When I was at 800, and it was time to start heading up, my dive buddy just looked at his guage and looked at me and shrugged. We compared guages and saw that he still had 2200 lbs of air, or so it seemed. At this point we looked at each other and realized somthing had to be wrong, he always uses more air than I do, so as a rule, he always calls the dive when he is low. We surfaced together and later when we connected my reg to his tank it showed he had 160 lbs walking out of the water, I still had 500.

Had we waited any longer, he would have ran out during our safety stop, or worse, during our accent. I puchased a AL30 pony bottle and spare reg that year, and have never dived without it sence.

 

[bortolani]

Usually I just carry my Spyder computer, that is more than adequate for both deco or non-deco dives.

In a few cases (dives with long deco stops) I wear two computers.

In my area compasses are not all that useful as we dive along cliffs and you just have to choose if the rock is at your left or at your right (still some people have difficulties in understanding that if you had the rock at your left when you go, you must have it at your right when you come back )

I tend to trust the pressure gauge but in fact it once happened to me to run out of air while the gauge was still showing 50 bars (that means 25% full). Luckily enough that time I was in the pool teaching a class

In general more equipment means more stress. I would rather stay 'ligth'.

Bruno