I find this interesting to think about sometimes...for how many dives that you typically go on do you actually need your computer?
I'm not talking about the school of thought that says you never need one...use the one between your ears...
I'm talking about how often it turns out that it's just not needed period. I have one on all the time but many times after the dive it's obvious that it just wasn't needed. It's interesting that we all spend so much money and effort picking out just the perfect computer but really for much of the time it's just a fun gadget to play with.
(I wanted a Nikonos underwater camera before I learned to dive and it was one of the first things I bought. It's flooded now and sits on my mantle as I still like to look at it...I didn't need it however...I just wanted it! Computers are like that sometimes I think.)
In many cases depending on location (and gas) it's hard to ever reach the NDL's.
With a smaller tank you are gas limited in many cases, with a little larger tank but using nitrox you may still be gas limited, in a location that's not especially deep you can stay there until you are bored. There are many locations that if you think about it you don't really need your computer because you are going to get bored, tired, cold, run out of air or you just can't get deep enough to run into the NDL.
There are many dives where you do run into the NDL's of course and multiple dives per day over several days on vacation is probably a very good use for tracking nitrogen loading!
There's also the situation of being able to get deep but not having enough to look at to stay long enough to hit the NDL..go deep look at something and work your way up slope.
Areas where the predominate diving is deeper with square profiles of course are the easiest places to run into the NDL's.
In my own area I could name many dive sites where you would never get deep enough or stay long enough unless you really tried to get into trouble. There are other places that get deep quickly but where there isn't enough to look at when you get to depth for you to stay long enough to have problems.
It's easier to know ahead of time that a computer isn't needed at local dive sites (I still carry one however) but even on vacation with ever changing sites this is still common. Some places are known for their shallow depths and some for their deeper depths naturally.
I'm talking about recreational dives here of course. Looking at your own dives how much of the time was your computer actually not needed?
I'm not talking about the school of thought that says you never need one...use the one between your ears...
I'm talking about how often it turns out that it's just not needed period. I have one on all the time but many times after the dive it's obvious that it just wasn't needed. It's interesting that we all spend so much money and effort picking out just the perfect computer but really for much of the time it's just a fun gadget to play with.
(I wanted a Nikonos underwater camera before I learned to dive and it was one of the first things I bought. It's flooded now and sits on my mantle as I still like to look at it...I didn't need it however...I just wanted it! Computers are like that sometimes I think.)
In many cases depending on location (and gas) it's hard to ever reach the NDL's.
With a smaller tank you are gas limited in many cases, with a little larger tank but using nitrox you may still be gas limited, in a location that's not especially deep you can stay there until you are bored. There are many locations that if you think about it you don't really need your computer because you are going to get bored, tired, cold, run out of air or you just can't get deep enough to run into the NDL.
There are many dives where you do run into the NDL's of course and multiple dives per day over several days on vacation is probably a very good use for tracking nitrogen loading!
There's also the situation of being able to get deep but not having enough to look at to stay long enough to hit the NDL..go deep look at something and work your way up slope.
Areas where the predominate diving is deeper with square profiles of course are the easiest places to run into the NDL's.
In my own area I could name many dive sites where you would never get deep enough or stay long enough unless you really tried to get into trouble. There are other places that get deep quickly but where there isn't enough to look at when you get to depth for you to stay long enough to have problems.
It's easier to know ahead of time that a computer isn't needed at local dive sites (I still carry one however) but even on vacation with ever changing sites this is still common. Some places are known for their shallow depths and some for their deeper depths naturally.
I'm talking about recreational dives here of course. Looking at your own dives how much of the time was your computer actually not needed?