Dive Computer or Tables - which is safer for a newer diver?
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Why? I don't use a computer, and I know a lot of people who don't use them. And, fwiw, I have more than 100 dives
Computers aren't needed, I think its more worthwhile spend your $$ on diving rather than a trinket.
I don't understand why there seems to be such a big push on Scuba Board for everyone to buy a computer!?!?
Every time there's a thread having anything to do with dive computers, we hear the party line about how you just have to have a computer....as if it's impossible to dive without one.
Before anyone stomps on my statement....
1.) I don't care what you dive with.
2.) I'm not trying to sell you a bottom timer.
3.) Newcastle Brown Ale is a pretty good beer.
-Mitch
3.) Newcastle Brown Ale is a pretty good beer.
-Mitch
Adnam's Broadside is much better, but that is my opinion
and diving with or without a computer is up to the diver in question, if they don't use one then I agree who cares.I used tables for well over 10 years then a PADI wheel before I bought my first computer. PADI might have made some extra cash by producing a Nitrox Wheel
General shore diving profiles around Jeddah at that point were
20 mins at 20M
20 mins at 16M
remainder of dive at 10M or less until I hit 50 bar then surface
fnfalman
Contributor
No, you don't need a computer to dive with. However, it is convenient.
Nor do you need a bottom timer to dive with either. However, it is a convenient.
People have dived with nothing but depth gauge, pressure gauge and a dive watch for ages. Hell, some of the old timers didn't even need pressure gauges.
Nor do you need a bottom timer to dive with either. However, it is a convenient.
People have dived with nothing but depth gauge, pressure gauge and a dive watch for ages. Hell, some of the old timers didn't even need pressure gauges.
PfcAJ
Contributor
A bottom timer is just a watch and a depth gauge combined.
I wouldn't recommend someone dive without a pressure gauge now-a-days. Hard to maintain Minimum Gas if you don't know what's in your tank.
I wouldn't recommend someone dive without a pressure gauge now-a-days. Hard to maintain Minimum Gas if you don't know what's in your tank.
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Personally I think when starting out a new diver should be using tables.
Learn to plan dives properly before relying on a computer.
Learn to plan dives properly before relying on a computer.
DevonDiver
N/A
To be fair, I've never seen a thread, or post, that stated it was impossible to dive without one. All I've seen is a fairly rational discussion on pros and cons... of which different opinions exist.
The pros might make a lot of sense to a novice diver, who'd been trained on PADI RDP or Navy tables...and wanted to maximize their dive times through multi-level profiles.. some people have offered advice (where asked for) on that basis.
Just to be clear...
1.) I don't care what you dive with either
2.) I'm not trying to sell you a bottom timer...or anything else... or even promote a specific diving dogma..
3.) I'd kill for a Newcastle Brown Ale
Can I get six people knocked off for a six-pack of Newcastle?
I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned that you pretty much HAVE to have a depth gauge, anyway. (The exception would be if your only diving was in a setting where the max depth was so shallow it didn't matter how long you stayed down.) It's kind of hard to find a Bourdon tube depth gauge nowadays, so you're going to be buying something with a battery, and if you're going to do that, you may as well buy something that has computer functions as well. The two commonly purchased bottom timers nowadays (devices that give nothing but depth and time) are both expensive enough that you could easily buy a computer for the same cost.
For the vast majority of recreational dives, tables will be more conservative than a computer, simply because tables (unless you are using something fancy like the PADI wheel) don't give you credit for multi-leveling the dive. They assume you are accumulating nitrogen at the rate that you are doing at the deepest point in your dive, throughout your whole bottom time (which is generally not the case). So they calculate allowable time based on that idea. Computers, on the other hand, are doing an iterative calculation of nitrogen loading, and some even start to give you credit for offloading nitrogen as you shallow up the dive, so your allowable bottom time can be far longer.
When I first learned to dive, I got a computer, and I immediately found myself baffled by some of the shore dives we did. They simply wouldn't fit into the tables -- according to the tables, I was going into deco repeatedly!
Now, I'm one of the folks today who doesn't use a computer any more (as a computer), but it took me quite a while to get there, and I think most new divers are well-served by having something which can keep them from -- through distraction or miscalculation or any other cause -- exceeding their no-deco limits. This is especially true for repetitive dives.
Ascent rate is not that hard to track on your own, though. A ten foot per minute ascent rate is simply noting that your depth has changed 10 feet when your timer clicks over a minute -- if you've gone up ten feet and it hasn't, you should stop for a little while until it does. Not too complicated a concept, and you don't need an ascent rate alarm to figure it out.
For the vast majority of recreational dives, tables will be more conservative than a computer, simply because tables (unless you are using something fancy like the PADI wheel) don't give you credit for multi-leveling the dive. They assume you are accumulating nitrogen at the rate that you are doing at the deepest point in your dive, throughout your whole bottom time (which is generally not the case). So they calculate allowable time based on that idea. Computers, on the other hand, are doing an iterative calculation of nitrogen loading, and some even start to give you credit for offloading nitrogen as you shallow up the dive, so your allowable bottom time can be far longer.
When I first learned to dive, I got a computer, and I immediately found myself baffled by some of the shore dives we did. They simply wouldn't fit into the tables -- according to the tables, I was going into deco repeatedly!
Now, I'm one of the folks today who doesn't use a computer any more (as a computer), but it took me quite a while to get there, and I think most new divers are well-served by having something which can keep them from -- through distraction or miscalculation or any other cause -- exceeding their no-deco limits. This is especially true for repetitive dives.
Ascent rate is not that hard to track on your own, though. A ten foot per minute ascent rate is simply noting that your depth has changed 10 feet when your timer clicks over a minute -- if you've gone up ten feet and it hasn't, you should stop for a little while until it does. Not too complicated a concept, and you don't need an ascent rate alarm to figure it out.
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