New dive computer for Divemaster internship

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Cald

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Hi guys,

I'm going to start my DM internship and I need a new dive computer. I usually wear a cressi Leonardo but it's time to change . By the way I find this computer a little bit conservative. I was thinking to buy the new Cressi newton but honestly I can't find a serious review on line. Which is your favourite dive computer and why would you racomend it to me? Thanks in advance to shearing your knowledge and experience with me.
 
What you may want to consider is what computers the dive shop you are interning with sells. If you are working with them, most likely they will want you promoting the gear they sell, unless they have told you otherwise. Depending on your arrangement with them, you may even get a discount as a DM.

In reference to your question about conservatism, that doesn't matter much if you are working as a DM. You will find your dives will typically be shorter than usual guiding other divers.
 
You should also state your price point as well - lots of variation between a $200 Mares Puck/ Hollis DG-03and a $750 Shearwater Petrel.

The Cressi Newton is around $550?

Are you diving in clear tropical waters? Cold water quarries with low vis?

Do you think you will want to take up Technical diving in the future?


If you want to spend an few extra hundred - then I recommend the Shearwater Petrel.

Easy to read.
Easy to navigate the menus.
Easy to change the battery, the battery is a AA
You can set three levels of conservatism in the recreational nitrox mode.
You can set what ever gradient factor you want in the technical mode to customize your level of conservatism.

Comes with an onboard compass now.
Excellent customer service.
 
You should also state your price point as well - lots of variation between a $200 Mares Puck/ Hollis DG-03and a $750 Shearwater Petrel.

The Cressi Newton is around $550?

Are you diving in clear tropical waters? Cold water quarries with low vis?

Do you think you will want to take up Technical diving in the future?


If you want to spend an few extra hundred - then I recommend the Shearwater Petrel.

Easy to read.
Easy to navigate the menus.
Easy to change the battery, the battery is a AA
You can set three levels of conservatism in the recreational nitrox mode.
You can set what ever gradient factor you want in the technical mode to customize your level of conservatism.

Comes with an onboard compass now.
Excellent customer service.

Something around 700-800 Bucks
Yes the price of the new Cressi newton is around 500 dollar.
I'm going to dive in clear tropical water but i would like to buy a computer easy to read in every situation. And yes i'm thinking about technical diving and in particular (Tec 50 course or deeper) .

Ty for your reply.
 
You know, I'm a big fan of doing your own decompression calculation -- I've been diving in gauge mode for about nine years. But I sat back and thought about what this guy might be doing as a DM. If he's just assisting with classes, staying within no-deco limits is pretty trivial, since the dives are shallow and pretty short. But if he intends to do guiding, that's a different kettle of fish. Guided dives aren't always shallow and aren't always short and involve multiple divers whose experience and skills are unknown and sometimes dubious. We all have finite situational awareness, and in the case of someone guiding, my guess is that they are taxed with the requirements of navigation, keeping a group together and monitoring everybody's position, comfort and gas, and trying to find fun stuff to point out to the clients. Although a guide ought to have a good visceral sense of profile, using a computer in that situation is far from reprehensible.

So what computer? It really depends, as always, on budget, and a little bit also on the functionalities you NEED. As an older diver, I NEED a display I can easily read. OLED screens, especially where you can vary the size of the numbers, are well worth the price premium to me, especially since I dive primarily in low light or at night. For a young guide in the tropics, who rarely gets into dark water, that might not be high on the priority list at all. I would think that, with the increasing popularity of "geezer gas", having a Nitrox-capable computer would be a good thing, and it might be nice to have one where you can adjust the conservativism, so that if you are guiding an entire group of Suunto users, you can match their readouts :). Having a user-replaceable battery would be very important to a working guide, as well as having a unit with a low incidence of reported failures.

From everything I have read, the Petrel is a fantastic computer that meets all of the above criteria within the OP's price point. It also has the possibility of moving into technical diving with the owner, who has indicated some interest in doing that. I think the resistance to computer use in technical diving is waning, with the proliferation of units with technical capability -- but I think that is exactly where a user needs to know precisely what the algorithm is that the device has, what the assumptions underlying it are, and what is known (and what is not known but repeated as gospel) about decompression from deeper and longer dives.
 
.....I'm going to start my DM internship and I need a new dive computer......
Why?

.....I'm going to start my DM internship ........... I find this computer a little bit conservative. ....
BTW, if you become a DM and maybe later on even an Instructor you might want to dive conservatively.

Whatever new dive computer brand/model you end up purchasing, make sure to learn how to properly use it.
 
It might be hard to figure out what key words to use to find the discussions, but there have been many on this board about using a modified 120 rule and depth averaging for decompression calculations. It's what I was taught when I took Fundamentals, years ago, although GUE doesn't teach it that way any more, but uses their own tables. I think UTD is still teaching what I learned. It works -- at least I know an awful lot of people who dive that way and don't get bent -- and it's not particularly difficult to do. But the environment in which it is promulgated and envisioned as being used, is one where your buddies are reliable and self-reliant, where a good dive plan has been made and is being followed, and therefore the other demands on your situational awareness are not extreme.

I honestly don't think anybody teaching this method of decompression has imagined trying to do it while chasing students, or wrangling less-than-adept clients in groups. There, your profile might be crazy and your mind might well be highly occupied with anything other than your depth and time. I know that, when I DM open water classes, I'm happy that our depths are shallow and our dive times are short, because half the time, I don't even have a chance to check my own pressure, let alone watch my depth and time at precise five minute intervals. And some of the profiles would make a dive computer violently ill :)
 


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GUE now teaches the 130 rule for 32% nitrox and 30/30 recreational trimix. The same principle can be used as the 120 rule on air. The use of such a simple formula in recreational depths could save you $500-700. If you're dead set on purchasing a computer, get a Petrel and do research to understand what it's calculating and how aggressive/ conservative the settings are. It is a very powerful tool, but can also get you in trouble if set wrong.

Happy diving!
 
Get a cheap computer that you do not mind being trashed while working, especially if at a resort. Also consider battery life. The big colour displays cost at the pump. The little LCD ones will last hundreds of dives before a battery change.
 

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