Sharing a Dive Computer

[KeithG]

Sharing happens all the time with rental computers, although most shops I know don't actually have a system in place to assure that the computer is cleared.

Well in the old old days, all you had to do was pop the battery out...not so much anymore.

But i will also claim that any rental computer shop I have dove with made sure that the dives where so conservative (stricter than tables!) that you could safely pass the computer off to another person.

 

[Tigerman]

Sharing happens all the time with rental computers, although most shops I know don't actually have a system in place to assure that the computer is cleared.

As long as its the computer thats saturate and not the guest getting the computer, its only gonna make the diving more conservative...

 

[Scared Silly]

Oh this is too much fun.

One should not share a computer as you could contract a STD (Sea Transmitted Disease) like Sea Lice. Then you will be stuck being dry for 48 hours while it clears up.

Yuck, yuck, snicker, snicker ...

 

[Tigerman]

Not to mention that if you break it you might contract the Surface transmitted disease called "broken nose, empty wallet"...

 

[DivemasterDennis]

All bs aside, the training rule is that each diver on a given dive has their own computer. Here's a question: What if no diver has a computer? Can they do the dive? Answer: yes. Plan the dive using tables, monitor your depth with your spg and time with your watch. BUt now how about this: if you can do a dive when no diver has a computer ( pretending its 1990) and you can do a dive if each diver has a computer, why can't you d a dive if some divers have a computer and some don't? Trick question: You can do the dive! BUT the non-computer divers need to plan and execute the dive as if there were no computers in the group. That will mean a much more conservative profile. And if on buddy pair is such that one diver has a computer and the other diver does not, and the no computer buddy then figures they are at the limit of their ndl time and they signal the computer buddy that it is time to end ( or turn) the dive, computer buddy is a buddy first, and follows their buddy back ( or up). That's my analysis and I am sticking to it. Someone tell me why I am wrong, if I am ( I'm not).
DivemasterDennis

 

[DogDiver]

I would send a nice padi or NAUI dive table.


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[TMHeimer]

DivemasterDennis spells it out nicely.
Question/scenario:
On the boat it's me, the DM and 2 ladies who were very new. They had no computers, watches, OR tables ("We just followed the DM before"....). The DM said he wanted "at least one of you" to have a computer. Now of course, this is probably a breach of standards. I've always told everyone to have their own computer. But I wonder how important this really is IF: As posted before, the dives are very shallow & nowhere near NDLs...or... buddies are very experienced and stay right together during the dive as planned. Is the strict "everyone has their own" comparable to "never hold your breath"? We all know photographers do this all the time and if you're not ascending at all holding your breath is doable (though never holding your breath is the safest thing for new divers to know). I would suppose that another good reason to have your own computer would be in case of separation/emergency, etc. and you wanted to do a repetitive dive.

As a pro or very experienced diver would you dive with a buddy and one computer if you stayed right together and didn't go near the limits? I know you'd have one anyway--just hypothetical.

 

[Tigerman]

Let me be very blunt.. I have.
Both as the one with the computer and as the one without it (mine died)
THAT being said, I did not follow the buddys computer and he did not follow mine - we dove known, "safe" profiles - and I had a dive watch with depth gauge just exactly for that type of scenario...

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[TMHeimer]

Re-prhase question-- I both of you are experienced and do "safe" profiles (square, shallow, etc.), would you dive following the buddy's computer without having your own, or a watch, depth gauge, tables?

If not, if your computer died and you had no backup plan would you continue & follow your buddy's computer or would you end the dive?

 

[scagrotto]

would you dive following the buddy's computer without having your own, or a watch, depth gauge, tables?

If not, if your computer died and you had no backup plan would you continue & follow your buddy's computer or would you end the dive?

Whether it's tables or a computer, we use the tools in conjunction with our understanding of how the tools work and the requirements they impose on us in order to provide useful and correct information. What's the significance of whose wrist or hose the computer is attached to? What's the physical, mathematical, or physiological requirement for the computer to be attached to your own wrist?

The computer calculates NDL based on time, pressure and fO2, with the assumption that it won't be any shallower than the diver relying on it. As long as I'm never deeper than the computer, the computer and I start from the same baseline (whether it's clean or group D), and I'm using the fO2 the computer thinks I'm using, why would I be unable to rely on the computer's calculation of NDL? Every agency will happily teach you that it's okay to dive a different profile than what you calculate with tables, subject to the rule that you calculate a deeper profile than you dive. If you calculate a dive to 70' and then plan the dive to 65' and dive the plan you've done the dive 5' shallower than your primitive analog "computer" as it were. How it that different than diving 5' shallower than the computer your buddy is wearing?

Of course if you don't understand the concepts and you dive buddy A's computer in the morning and then dive buddy B's computer in the afternoon, or you're diving air and buddy A is using 32% nitrox things could turn out poorly, but it won't be because the computer did the wrong dive.