Multi-level Dives

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jiveturkey

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Scuba Instructor
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I was taught to do multi-level dives with Padi's Wheel. Do other agencies have an equivalent? How do the other agencies train their students for multi-level dives?
 
I had a new to the area diver on my boat last week who asked me if I had a Wheel he could borrow. I still had mine tucked in the pocket of my log book but it was the first time I have seen anyone use one in several years.

The Wheel runs about $50 new and a used dive computer will run about $100 used with new one costing under $300. So no surprise that dive computers are becoming quite common.

It is a little scary though for an old school diver like me to see the recent changes in training programs with a declining emphasis on tables and an increasing reliance on computers.
 
But I will continue to plan the dive with the table and the wheel before I dive.

Its actually interesting to see the results after planning on each one and how different the bottom times are!
 
Planning is a good idea, your computer can take a dump on you and if it does it's important to have a contingency plan. Many manuals advise you to do something pretty generic like go to 15' and stay there till you are almost out of air. In my opinon, this is not the ideal situation particularly on deep dives where the first stop may be greater than 15 ft.

That is I suspect one of the reasons computer manuals advise against deco diving. They don't want to get sued when the computer dies and the moron who owns it goes to 15' and skips his 30' and 20' stops. I like to know a little more exactly where I stand in terms of deco status and what I should do if the computer fails.

My Wisdom has a simulator mode and before the dive, you can run a simulated dive based on your current nitrogen loading. This is a wonderful tool for contingency planning for the 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th dive of the day. You can program the max depth and time you could encouter and then record the deco information to enable you to refer to it during the dive if the computer dies. I write the contingency depths and times on a piece of duct tape or vinyl tape stuck to my fin. It works as well as a card with the advangate that I don't have to dig it out of a pocket and it also leave the slate clean for other stuff.

You can do essentially the same thing with tables for the first dive but with multilevel diving your computer usually ends up allowing you bottom time well in excess of what your table allows. This makes the table rather useless for the rest of the dives that day. The PADI Wheel is a little better in this regard, but it has limits in terms of the amount of change required between levels.
 
I use a computer for diving too but I plan with the tables. I was just wondering what the options are for multi-level planning. I'm pretty sure that BSAC and Naui don't use the Padi Wheel. How about DIR divers? How does GUE teach multi-level diving. They don't use computers at all.
 
jiveturkey once bubbled...
How does GUE teach multi-level diving. They don't use computers at all.
That is different for different classes evidently. In some fundamentals classes they teach multilevel NDL diving sans computer while in other classes they do not. I think it depends on the instructor.

It is something that is taught in Tech 2 and has also been brought into Tech 1 as well for deco on the fly.

If you are serious about learning this then you need to take the GUE classes.

That said... you can practice right now paying attention to your time/depth profile by looking at your bottom timer/depth gauge/SPG every 5 minutes and actually thinking about what you see. Paying attention to this on a regular basis it shouldn't be long before you can guess the readings before you actually look at them. You should also find your internal clock being set to the 5 minute cycle.
 
DA Aquamaster once bubbled...
IThe Wheel runs about $50 new
Is the Wheel sold separately from the OW training materials? I haven't seen it, either at an LDS or online. I do some diving in areas where the Wheel would be very handy, particularly since I don't have a computer.
 
I would think that you could find at a PADI dive store where they do certifications. Thats where I got my spare one.
 
I really didn't trust the computer at first so I always did the plan with the wheel. Of course if you're in an interesting area it's easy to screw the plan up anyway. So the faithful computer is there to save your butt.

I dive with two computers of the same make and model.
 

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