Teaching Dive Tables (including Nitrox)

[DiveLvr]

Do training agencies (including SSI) still teach how to use dive tables or has teaching tables gone the way of the slide rule?

 

[Edward3c]

Do training agencies (including SSI) still teach how to use dive tables or has teaching tables gone the way of the slide rule?

Yes, BSAC teach the BSAC 88 Nitrox Tables, and BSAC 4 Level (Altitude) tables.

 

[The Chairman]

Do training agencies (including SSI) still teach how to use dive tables or has teaching tables gone the way of the slide rule?

Interesting question. Extended range used to include tables, but I doubt they do anymore. The sliderule comparison is spot on.

 

[RIHappyDiver]

Do training agencies (including SSI) still teach how to use dive tables or has teaching tables gone the way of the slide rule?

My wife was taught tables in her OW course this past winter, and the Nitrox course I took a few years ago did. Both were PADI, different LDS’s.

Erik

 

[Dan G]

SSI does not teach tables in OW. I recently completed SSI AI and the only mention of tables in the OW materials that I recall is in the section about using dive computers. The main point is that a properly used computer is safer than tables and calculates multilevel dives better than tables, allowing for more bottom time and more accurate NDL. I incorporated this point into one of my classroom presentations for the AI course and the feedback I was given after a practice presentation was to completely eliminate any reference to tables. The students will have no idea what I'm talking about, so don't mention them. He wasn't wrong.

If there's time during OW, an SSI instructor may incorporate tables into the course if they wish.

Last year when I took Dive Guide I had three classmates, all of whom had fewer than 100 dives and had been certified within the last 5 years, IIRC. Only one had ever looked at a table before. Two didn't know they existed before we used them for about 30 mins during a classroom session.

The SSI Enriched Air course focuses on using a computer with a reference to tables, noting that the tables can be taught at the instructor discretion. Slide rules are one comparison. So are trig tables with the ratios for sine, cosine, and tangent. We just push the button on a calculator when we use those.

 

[danpass]

My recent ReActivate course included a refresher on using dive table calculations.

I find it a very good idea, even if only used to illustrate what a dive computer is doing, real-time continuous loop calculation of a dive table.

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[GreggS]

SDI does not teach tables in OW, AOW, or Nitrox. I was OW certified in 2014, AOW and Nitrox in 2015, and the only mention of them was the printed table card in the OW packet. Why they even put it in there if they're not going to teach it is rather perplexing.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I taught tables in my SDI OW course until I retired last year. I also taught it in the TDI Nitrox class. I did not offer the SDI computer class because I didn't feel right doing it.
There is nothing preventing an instructor from teaching it.

 

[DiveProKoko]

I'm an SSI OWSI and I only show how to use them as a "familiarization" when discussing dive computers and dive planning. That is to say, I show them how to figure a multi-dive plan using tables, then immediately show them how to understand the exact same dive profile using a computers and how they are better in every way. LOL!

 

[Ranga]

During my PADI open water in January this year, tables weren't taught, but were mentioned along the lines of "Before computers became common place, tables were used and look like this. While you're unlikely to ever need to use them, they can be useful for understanding what your computer is doing. We recommend having a look at them and trying to plan a dive in your own time."

I think that's a reasonable way to treat it in this day and age.