Is a Dive Computer necessary?

[rhwestfall]

No, not a necessity, but, especially with a new diver, one feature that could be of significant benefit is the ascent rate monitor......

If a <$300 item is stressing your budget, scuba might not be your thing.....

 

[Carter21]

Thanks for all the replies everyone. My plan was to buy everything after I got certified and now I'm just trying to figure out if renting is a better option especially if I don't know how often I'll be doing it. Knowing that I don't need to worry about deco times on guided tours is nice, I shall just rent a computer for 8.50 instead. Part of me just wanted a shiny new toy but I don't want to have any regrets.

 

[Dive Right In Scuba 2]

Computers aren't 100% necessary, however are quite helpful if you dive regularly and plan to do so for a while. Of course, be sure to keep fresh on the use of tables and continue to use them for general dive planning. While dependable, computers aren't quite 100% failsafe.

 

[Rich Keller]

Do a poll on scubaboard if you may. Ask all these guys who dive frequently, how many of them do not own a dive computer and I bet you you will be hard pressed to find anyone.

I will save you the trouble, I am one of the few who does not use a computer. I have also dove frequently over the past 44 years and in all that time the batteries on my tables have never failed. The dive computer started out as a good backup to diving the tables but quickly became the norm as it was easier then learning the tables. Everyone is taught how to use the tables but once you have passed the written test for your OW certification that is quickly forgotten. The tables are a fail proof method of saving your a$$, keeping up with that training is easy or you could just go the lazy route and hope for the best. If you ever see a guy on a dive boat with the no decompression limits written on the arm of his wet suit say hello, that will be me.

 

[Craig66]

A computer will never give you a safer dive than a table. A square profile dive on tables will always give you a safer dive than a computer. A square profile will also build in conservatism for a multi level dive. What a computer can do is make it easier to compute multilevel dives and also multiple dives per day.

You absolutely do not need to have a computer to dive and as long as you obey tables you will be better than fine.

Renting a computer that you are not familiar with can add in a danger factor.

Spending your first few dives on table so that you fully understand dive physiology will help you transition to a computer in the future.

When I started diving I initially dived tables alone, then tables and computers where I dived my tables but watched the info my computer was giving me and helped correlate the info and then finally changed to computers only but with a good understanding of what my computer was doing and calculating.




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[diver 85]

No---but you'll gain more bt with one.....

 

[drrich2]

A table assumes you are diving a square profile, the whole thing spent at max. depth. On some wreck dives, or reef dives over a flat plain, that may be true. But a lot of diving is multi-level, and computers give you credit for time spent more shallow, and tables don't.

Most people you dive with will likely use computers. If you do repetitive diving and/or your gas consumption rate improves, NDL's may become important, and your tables use could cut your computer-using buddy's bottom time short. Some buddies may not like that. It can also cut your time short. You may not like that.

Tables don't have an ascent rate monitor and alarm to warn your you're going up too fast.

Some computers can log your dive and download it to your PC, helping you get not only max. depth but average depth, and perhaps calculate a surface air consumption rate, which can be nice to know. Tables don't do that.

I trained with tables and went to computers. For both air & nitrox diving. I still keep my air & EAN32 tables, and may check them occasionally if I want to see a conservative NDL for a given max. depth at a glance.

If you keep diving, and especially if you go to a high repetitive dive destination like Bonaire or a live-aboard, you're going to want a computer.

You don't have to have one. But it can be a nice thing to have.

Richard.

 

[skippy11v2]

Ascent rate monitor = invaluable.

fixed bottom depth, computer not really necessary other then the ascent rate. 2000+ foot wall, definitely want a computer that screams at you, especially with 200 ft plus vislll

 

[KeithG]

Hi guys, I recently just got certified and was wondering how necessary a computer is. Should I just rent? I plan on visiting Hawaii, hoping to get at least 6 dives in. I don't know if I'll be diving regularly or just on vacay. I was looking at the Oceanic Geo 2.0, it's so pretty but a bit too expensive. Any thoughts?

how much is a computer rental for your 6+ dives?
does your dive op require a computer?
if not, do you have and know how to use tables?

 

[boulderjohn]

Thanks for all the replies everyone. My plan was to buy everything after I got certified and now I'm just trying to figure out if renting is a better option especially if I don't know how often I'll be doing it. Knowing that I don't need to worry about deco times on guided tours is nice, I shall just rent a computer for 8.50 instead. Part of me just wanted a shiny new toy but I don't want to have any regrets.

I get the feeling that you took a course that taught you to use computers, but you are thinking of diving without one--and without tables as well. I have the feeling you do not have tables either, and you don't know how to use them. Your comment about not needing one on a guided dive is where I feel concern. You always need to have some way of measuring your dive so that you can ascend safely. If you are not using a computer, you need tables.

If you are doing a guided dive, you may be in trouble if you are using tables. I got certified and learned to use tables in the process. Then I took my first dive trip, which was to Cozumel. Being newly minted and not too bright, I did exactly what the DM said and followed him on a very nice, multi-level dive. Back on the boat, I whipped out my tables and saw that according to them, I should be dead. I was hoping to do what I had been taught in my class, but I was so far off the tables that I couldn't begin to use them. When the rest of the people on the boat saw me with my tables in my hand, there was general amusement. "It makes a decent Frisbee," one of them said. I bought a computer at my first opportunity after that.

That was back in the last millennium, and computers are even more the norm today. I have no qualms about using tables for certain dives, but they will be useless to you if you are following a DM on a multi-level dive. You will violate the NDL every time.

So you are just planning to follow the DM, are you? Why not? After all, the DM has a computer. You might do just fine doing that. I suspect a number of people do it.

On the other hand, you might not. The DM is not doing exactly the same dive as you, and if he or she goes close to NDLs, you might be over them. In my observation, many and possibly most new divers following a DM swim deeper than the DM because the new divers swim in a head up position and can see the DM easier that way. That can make a big difference. I have also on several occasions had guided dives where we had a different DM for the second dive, and in every one of those occasions, the second DM would have taken us into deco if we had not used our computers to override his guidance and ascend when we started getting close to deco. I once outright vetoed the DM's guidance and left him completely for that reason. You may also have a DM who just plain screws up, and when that happens, you have to take responsibility.