Necessity of Dive Computer for new diver

[BoltSnap]

While you SHOULD always consult your tables BEFORE a dive so you know what your bottom time can be, a computer is useful for many other things. water temp. depth, rate of accent, and so forth.

Having and diving a dive computer make the dive tables irrelevant and not very usable especially if making multi-level diving or when the dive table and the computer have different NDL's for different depths based on their different implementation of deco. algorithms. It is either tables or computers. A dive computer has a planning function that shows you your NDL's for different depths based on square profiles you can use to get a "feeling" of how long you can stay at depth but are not very representative of the "truth" underwater since you most likely won't be making square profiles in your diving.

 

[kelemvor]

I'm surprised that the instructor is going to certify you without teaching tables at all. Our dive shop included computers in the gear they "rented" to students for free, but they still taught tables. You should be able to easily take class without a computer if you want.

That said, I agree with pretty much everyone else in this thread. Get a computer. Mares puck goes for $150 all over the place. Cheaper computers than that can be had used (ebay, facebook marketplace, scubaboard market section etc). The puck isn't the best computer out there but there also isn't anything terrible about it.
Amazon.com : Mares Puck Wrist Dive Computer : Diving Equipment : Sports & Outdoors $150 and free one day shipping if you've got Amazon Prime.

 

[rsingler]

I think the best post so far, among us all, is @stuartv.

Your shop should not be requiring any purchase beyond mask, snorkel and fins. The rest they should rent (or include at least through confined water training, as our shop does), until you're certified.

There should be NO required purchases beyond the ones above to get certified (in addition to training materials, of course).

 

[stuartv]

I think the best post so far, among us all, is @stuartv.

Your shop should not be requiring any purchase beyond mask, snorkel and fins. The rest they should rent (or include at least through confined water training, as our shop does), until you're certified.

There should be NO required purchases beyond the ones above to get certified (in adoring to training materials, of course).

Thanks!

In my opinion, training materials should be built into the course price also. That should not be an "additional" purchase. I HATE places the advertise a price that does not ALL the required bits. You have to have the course materials. Your whole purpose is getting the card at the end. Why would the materials, the agency registration fee, the card fee, etc.., not be included in the advertised price? This isn't a used car sales lot. [/pet peeve]

 

[jonhall]

You will want to dive with a DC, but the question for you now is do you buy/rent/borrow one.

My advice is rent one. Being new to the sport you might well become an avid diver for the next 40-50 years, but then again maybe not. Also there are different choices and you dont have enough information about what you might ultimately want. Starting out, learn the basics enjoy the sport and don't stress out your bank account. There's plenty of time to get lots of expensive gear when you have more dives and certs under your belt.

But you should dive with a DC. Just about anyplace you go to dive will require you to use one. You should understand tables and the theory behind the info on the DC, but the display on any DC makes it easy to check your depth, bottom time, nitrogen consumption, etc

I like this advice. As a "new" diver in 1998, I had no idea how much I was going to dive. My family (wife and son) took the course with friends as we taking our first trip ever to a Caribbean location, Grand Cayman, and wanted to be able to dive as an activity while we were there. My only purchase at that point was mask (prescription), fin, and snorkel. In hindsight, I'm glad I didn't purchase anything else as we didn't dive again for 7 years.

As fate would have it, my aunt-in-law retired and moved to St. Croix, V.I. and diving again became a possibility.Did 2 dives on my first visit there and 4 more two years later at which time I realized I was getting to travel and dive once a year, so I purchased a wetsuit to 1) prevent paying a rental fee and 2) give me something with a proper fit. Renting everything else and using the analog gauges (although I had my own dive watch) was fine as all my diving was with a DM.

Finding that I was a vacation diver (still haven't dove in continental U.S. yet) and lucky that I was, and have been, able to travel to warm Caribbean type places every year, I eliminated the other rental costs by getting the rest of my gear, less a computer. Didn't get the computer until 4 years ago. My thinking at the time was that I was tired of the dive op giving me one to put on my wrist (some dive ops were starting to require computers so they provided them) that worked some of the time or that I didn't understand and from hearing the DM's tell divers with computers to dive their plan and everyone else with analog that they would be coming up earlier.

If I were starting today, I would like to think I would have the patience to wait and see if scuba was going to be something I would have the opportunity to continue with before putting a lot of money into it. And to answer your question, if diving where I have and with the good dive ops and DM's I've been lucky to have, I could easily get away with using rental gear and a watch. But if you continue, you will find there are advantages to the computer as everyone has stated already.

 

[Rred]

Vuk-
Everyone who was certified before maybe 1995, could not afford a dive computer, even if they existed at the time. And yet, somehow, we survived. The number of decompression sickness incidents remains about the same.
Now, "the tables" have changed slightly over the years, and the "no decompression limits" have become more conservative due to more research, so safety is up some. But the botton line is as simple as this:

For a new basic diver, you can make a list of "xx feet, xx minutes, no decompression". And if you are making just one dive a day, that's all you need to know. No computer needed. My first Casio waterproof $50 wristwatch (they've also dropped in price!) was a backup to my expensive mechanical bottom timer. Same thing either way. You watch your depth, you watch your time, if you're doing a single tank dive you'll probably run out of air before you reach the safe time limit anyway.

If you are doing two dives in the same day, i.e. on a dive boat? It still ain't rocket science. Using "the tables" or using an app on a smartphone or tablet is EASY. You just put in the gas you are using (nitrox or air, etc.), the depth and time from your first dive, the surface interval, and the app will tell you what your limits are for the second dive.

No need to spend $200+++ for a piece of electronics that you now need to learn, and operate, while you're in the middle of everything else.

If you go on to more complicated diving, i.e. a week of twin tank twice a day resort diving? Or high altitudes, or decompression dives? Yeah, sure, there's a good reason that a computer will simplify life.

But for a new diver? Eh, kinda like using a car navigation system to get out of your own driveway.

What the computer will do, is give you the ability to monitor your ascent rate, and that's definitely a good thing. Whether you really need to use it for that, or whether you learn to do that the old fashioned way (without electronics) is a slim, but real, argument.

I'd really love some hard numbers on how many divers have had to throw out their computers in less than five years, because of water leaks and other problems. All I hear from every shop is "Oh, we don't sell that brand, they're crap, they leak." And only the brand names change. (Even in some expensive brands.)

Relying (RELYING) on electronics and o-ring seals and batteries in waterproof housings, under pressure? Nuh-uh, you'll need a backup plan with or without them.

 

[Clayton122]

... or check the dive planner on your computer, if it has one.

PADI no longer requires even teaching tables, and SDI never required teaching tables.

Thats odd. I did my PADI cert not that long ago, and I was required to know how to use the dive tables, and I was tested on them. This was only a year ago.

 

[Saniflush]

Thats odd. I did my PADI cert not that long ago, and I was required to know how to use the dive tables, and I was tested on them. This was only a year ago.

Did you have a computer? This was the difference at my LDS. I went through with a father and son who did not have one while I did. They were taught the tables in detail while I was not. (although being a nerd I went back and got coaching on them)

 

[stuartv]

If you are doing two dives in the same day, i.e. on a dive boat? It still ain't rocket science. Using "the tables" or using an app on a smartphone or tablet is EASY. You just put in the gas you are using (nitrox or air, etc.), the depth and time from your first dive, the surface interval, and the app will tell you what your limits are for the second dive.

No need to spend $200+++ for a piece of electronics that you now need to learn, and operate, while you're in the middle of everything else.

But, it might kinda suck when you're diving based on tables and you're sitting out while everyone else is getting in for their second dive because the tables are based on MAX depth and are telling you that getting back in after 1 hour surface interval means you only get 5 minutes of bottom time on the 2nd dive, if you get in. Everyone else is getting in because the first dive had a max and then they spent a lot of the dive much shallower, so their computers are telling them they will have 30 minutes of bottom time on the next dive. I mean, you COULD splash for 5 minutes, but why bother?

Agreed on no need to spend $200, though. Rent a computer (and regs) until you are ready to buy.

A computer only tells you one extra piece of information beyond what a bottom timer does (which is the minimum gear you'd need). The computer tells you your NDL. Everything else is the same as what a bottom timer would tell you. Using a dive computer is not rocket surgery.

 

[Clayton122]

Did you have a computer? This was the difference at my LDS. I went through with a father and son who did not have one while I did. They were taught the tables in detail while I was not. (although being a nerd I went back and got coaching on them)

Yes, I had a computer even then, though they still made me learn the dive tables, for which I am glad they did honestly.