Why no slates?

[Reg Braithwaite]

I am curious... I don't have a personal preference, so I don't mind using wet notes. Although from time to time I see someone with wrist-mounted flip-up slates and they look handy and convenient for noting turn pressures and the dive plan. But they're obviously out.

Can anyone educate me on the rationale?

 

[ucfdiver]

I am curious... I don't have a personal preference, so I don't mind using wet notes. Although from time to time I see someone with wrist-mounted flip-up slates and they look handy and convenient for noting turn pressures and the dive plan. But they're obviously out.

Can anyone educate me on the rationale?

While I have no idea what GUE teaches, I personally like the wet notes because I can hand them to my buddy so that he/she can read them easier than trying to hold my wrist out at an angle he/she can see.

 

[PerroneFord]

Turn pressure and dive plan should be a known item before the dive starts. And all involved parties should be quite familiar with them.

Wrist mounted slates are inconvenient and awkward. And they sit in the way of your other guages. I tried using one during my cave class, and ditched them after the first dive. Waste of time.

I am curious... I don't have a personal preference, so I don't mind using wet notes. Although from time to time I see someone with wrist-mounted flip-up slates and they look handy and convenient for noting turn pressures and the dive plan. But they're obviously out.

Can anyone educate me on the rationale?

 

[amascuba]

I've used wrist slates a couple times. It's handy to have pre-written information on, but if your needing to take a note they are awkward to write on while they are on your wrist. I'm a south paul (lefty) so that puts the slates on my right arm and it interfered with my bottom timer. Being able to hand them off is a PITA as well. Wet notes are very handy and serve the same purpose as a wrist slate, but they give the added benefit of being able to hand notes off to team mates easily and it's easier to write on in the water. The only down side is that you don't have the benefit of having pre-written information on your wrist.

 

[Reg Braithwaite]

Turn pressure and dive plan should be a known item before the dive starts. And all involved parties should be quite familiar with them.

Interesting. Is that a suggestion that they shouldn't be written down?

 

[HullBlister]

Interesting. Is that a suggestion that they shouldn't be written down?

No.

Just not written down underwater after the dive has started....

Blister

 

[SparticleBrane]

If you can't remember your turn pressure...

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Wrist slates don't work well in DIR config because your gauges are worn on your wrists, and as someone mentioned, putting the slate up on your forearm is OK for reading (for you, not your buddy) but is awkward for writing.

Wet notes are preferred because they're easier to use, more versatile, and you can hand what you've just written to a team mate.

I don't think slates are proscribed, exactly ... wet notes are just a better tool for the job.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[D_B]

I've examined a friends slate and it had contingency deco tables written on it (not that they are DIR mind you)

 

[TSandM]

One of the ideas is that there should be very few occasions to use written communication underwater. The dive planning, and the pre-trained knowledge of how to operate as a team, should cover the vast majority of situations. I don't do deco diving, but my guess is that if the schedule is not going to be done on the fly, it's been written in the wetnotes before the dive (just as our cave maps are). Pulling wetnotes out to look at them is not a big deal.

When I used a wrist slate in my first cave class (non DIR), I found it to be a nuisance. There was no comfortable place for it on my arm, and the pencil kept coming loose and hanging off me (an entanglement possibility, and aggravating to boot). I did think maybe one would have a place if you were taking down data continuously, like for survey, but they don't hold a lot of data at the size I can write underwater.