Diving with a computer/watch

[Doby45]

Compass use is a requirement to become open water certified. There is a surface compass swim and a underwater compass swim requirement during open water certification dives. What are you to do if you surface and fog came in during a shore dive?

A snorkel is also "required" for open water certification.

 

[oly5050user]

I have to say I'm surprised that the instructor did not require each student to have their own timing device. That's not very good instruction; it's important to learn to time your own dives. I use a dive watch with a bezel on every dive, even ones that are shallow enough to not warrant a computer.

But, to try to answer your question, lets say you're on a dive and your computer is your only timing device, and it goes belly-up during the dive. In this case, you time your safety stop by using your buddy's timing device, as long as your buddy isn't olyuser, in which case apparently you'll have to 'compensate him for the liability'. If by some chance your buddy is missing or a jerk that won't give you the time of day, you could as a last resort start counting. A nice slow count to 200 ought to do it.

Edit: Oh yeah, you don't need a compass on every dive. Only dives where there is some navigation involved that requires one.

If my buddy's computer failed during a dive I certainly would complete a 3 minute safety stop with them. No need to be compensated. But to dive with someone that does not use a computer and I happen to be using one, I would not dive with them. I paid to dive and my time to go diving has value to me.
Why should I restrict my time in the water and be limited to dive table limited bottom time? Safe dive practices state if one diver is on a table and other on a computer , both are limited by table . Same if I was on nitrox and other diver on air. Why should I limit my bottom time by diving with someone when I paid a premium to have a longer NDL time ?
I would dive with someone that plans to have same NDL time as myself.
as to being compensated , it costs thousands of $$$$$ for myself to become an instructor and maintain it. As such if I was simply diving with someone and an incident occurs, don't you think that I can be held at a higher standard and be sued by some bottom feeder lawyer?
Yes it happens. I was sued by a deceased divers family many years ago, and I was not his instructor, not his buddy, only on the same boat that day. Not even a crew member. I was just a diver that paid to go on a charter like everyone else. Lawyers took a shot at everyone on the boat that day who was either a dive pro or who had deep pockets. I take liability very seriously.

---------- Post added November 16th, 2015 at 10:50 AM ----------

A snorkel is also "required" for open water certification.

Yes it is. What you use or how you dive once certified usually is up to the individual diver.
Certification only means that on a certain day the diver demonstrated to the instructor that he/she meet the requirements. What they do afterwards is up to that individual diver.

 

[Neilwood]

Compass use is a requirement to become open water certified. There is a surface compass swim and a underwater compass swim requirement during open water certification dives. What are you to do if you surface and fog came in during a shore dive?

Yes it is a requirement for OW certification but in my experience it appears normal practise for the instructor to provide it.

As for what I would do if I surfaced in Fog? Put my face back in the water and follow the contours in - I know the profile of the shoreline because I was just down there!

 

[Storker]

Same if I was on nitrox and other diver on air. Why should I limit my bottom time by diving with someone when I paid a premium to have a longer NDL time ?

So your bottom time is always NDL limited and never gas limited? At least on the first dive of the day, my NDL and my min gas time are pretty much the same if I'm on air. And since I usually don't do more than two dives per day, with a decent SI, the second dive isn't far from that either.


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[Byron_01]

Compass use is a requirement to become open water certified. There is a surface compass swim and a underwater compass swim requirement during open water certification dives. What are you to do if you surface and fog came in during a shore dive?

I'm not sure who you did your OW qualification through, but I did it through CMAS who DO NOT require any form of compass use during training.

 

[Hawkwood]

I'm not sure who you did your OW qualification through, but I did it through CMAS who DO NOT require any form of compass use during training.

It is my understanding that the CMAS One Star level does not cover UW compass use.

UW compass use is introduced at the CMAS Two Star level and is a requirement in the training for that level.

 

[Byron_01]

It is my understanding that the CMAS One Star level does not cover UW compass use.

UW compass use is introduced at the CMAS Two Star level and is a requirement in the training for that level.

Yes that's correct

 

[Storker]

Hm. I was PADI certified, and I can't remember that compass use was covered during my OW class. OTOH, it wouldn't make much difference to me, since I was proficient in the use of a compass topside many years before I took my OW cert. So I might have slept through that part...

While common CMAS standards for a 1* cert may or may not require teaching compass use, our national Association's syllabus for a CMAS 1* says that compass use is a part of the curriculum. So there obviously are national differences, which is logical since CMAS is an association of national certification organizations, while e.g. PADI is a centralized, commercial organization. Up here, even the PADI syllabus is somewhat more comprehensive than the international syllabus since there are national standards to follow as well at the certifying organization's standards.

 

[oly5050user]

I'm not sure who you did your OW qualification through, but I did it through CMAS who DO NOT require any form of compass use during training.

My original ow certification was 48 years ago thru NASDS..then I was an NASDS instr,SSI owsi instructor,now PADI IDCS instructor. To EARN a PADI ow certification compass use is required.
If only 2 training dive completed then student gets "scuba diver" certification, which limits them to 40' and they must only dive with a divemaster or instructor. Perhaps that is what you have with a 1 star CMAS certification.

---------- Post added November 16th, 2015 at 02:06 PM ----------

So your bottom time is always NDL limited and never gas limited? At least on the first dive of the day, my NDL and my min gas time are pretty much the same if I'm on air. And since I usually don't do more than two dives per day, with a decent SI, the second dive isn't far from that either.


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Typos are a feature, not a bug

yes, my bottom time is usually limited by NDL when on Caribbean trips. Usually get in 4 to 5 dives a day or more when at Bonaire.

 

[Storker]

If only 2 training dive completed then student gets "scuba diver" certification, which limits them to 40' and they must only dive with a divemasters or instructor. Perhaps that is what have with a 1 star CMAS certification.

That's not the CMAS* cert I know. The one I know is more or less similar to a PADI OW cert. I wouldn't have more reservations about diving with a freshly certed CMAS* diver than I'd have about diving with a freshly certed PADI OW diver. Around here, both CMAS* and PADI OW requires six OW training dives, the last to be planned and executed by the student in cooperation with their buddy; the instructor is only supposed to oversee the dives.