Yeoh Chee Weng
Registered
Hi fellow divers,
I returned from a trip to Layang-Layang Island in Sabah, East Malaysia after a 5d/4n vacation. I was using a Suunto Cobra while my buddy had an Oceanic Veo. In one wall dive in the morning we went down to 44 m. and stayed there for just a min. before doing a slow ascend and multi-levelled the rest of the dive. In my second dive to 35 m. after a surface interval of 2 hr. 15 min. my dive computer went into deco mode and I had to do a safety stop for 17 mins. The optimal ceiling zone went up to 3 m. and I had a hard time staying at that level because of 2 m. swell which swept me upwards. I was careless earlier in my dive when I ignore the blinking ascending time signal to start my ascent immediately. Instead I moved up gradually preferring to keep close to my buddy who was concentrating on his photography.
At the safety stop I could not complete the decompression because I ran out of air. I only managed a 12 min. decompression and still had 5 more mins. to go when the pressure went down to zero bars! From a previous experience and confirmed by checking the Suunto reference manual I knew that even though the computer showed the air time to be zero, there is still about 35 bar pressure left. I was still able to inflate my BC at the surface. However, the Cobra went into Error mode and locked out for 48 hrs.
What was surprising was that my buddy's Oceanic dive computer was more forgiving and he did a 5 min. safety stop at 5 m. without any penalty. I was diving close to my buddy, we were never more that 1-2 m. below or above each other at all times. How was it that the deco time varied so greatly? I did not add any extra level of conservatism to my Personal Adjustment.
There is an unwritten policy by the dive operator in Layang-Layang Island that divers whose dive computers are locked out in Error mode would be barred for 24 hours from diving. My appeal to reduce my surface interval rest to 12 hrs. was refused even though I reasoned that Suunto's Reduced Gradient Bubble Model is ultra conservative. I lost 3 dives which cost me 270 dollars. So divers who use Suunto Dive computers be extra careful if you come to Layang-Layang Island.
Can any owners of Suunto dive computer care to comment on whether this "extra" level of conservatism is really necessary? Is there any study to compare the deco requirements of bottom time versus depth levels of the various brands of dive computers?
I returned from a trip to Layang-Layang Island in Sabah, East Malaysia after a 5d/4n vacation. I was using a Suunto Cobra while my buddy had an Oceanic Veo. In one wall dive in the morning we went down to 44 m. and stayed there for just a min. before doing a slow ascend and multi-levelled the rest of the dive. In my second dive to 35 m. after a surface interval of 2 hr. 15 min. my dive computer went into deco mode and I had to do a safety stop for 17 mins. The optimal ceiling zone went up to 3 m. and I had a hard time staying at that level because of 2 m. swell which swept me upwards. I was careless earlier in my dive when I ignore the blinking ascending time signal to start my ascent immediately. Instead I moved up gradually preferring to keep close to my buddy who was concentrating on his photography.
At the safety stop I could not complete the decompression because I ran out of air. I only managed a 12 min. decompression and still had 5 more mins. to go when the pressure went down to zero bars! From a previous experience and confirmed by checking the Suunto reference manual I knew that even though the computer showed the air time to be zero, there is still about 35 bar pressure left. I was still able to inflate my BC at the surface. However, the Cobra went into Error mode and locked out for 48 hrs.
What was surprising was that my buddy's Oceanic dive computer was more forgiving and he did a 5 min. safety stop at 5 m. without any penalty. I was diving close to my buddy, we were never more that 1-2 m. below or above each other at all times. How was it that the deco time varied so greatly? I did not add any extra level of conservatism to my Personal Adjustment.
There is an unwritten policy by the dive operator in Layang-Layang Island that divers whose dive computers are locked out in Error mode would be barred for 24 hours from diving. My appeal to reduce my surface interval rest to 12 hrs. was refused even though I reasoned that Suunto's Reduced Gradient Bubble Model is ultra conservative. I lost 3 dives which cost me 270 dollars. So divers who use Suunto Dive computers be extra careful if you come to Layang-Layang Island.
Can any owners of Suunto dive computer care to comment on whether this "extra" level of conservatism is really necessary? Is there any study to compare the deco requirements of bottom time versus depth levels of the various brands of dive computers?
