Place of dive tables in modern diving

[oldschoolto]

For years I ran tables in my head without owning a PDC.. Just my bottom timer/depth gauge.. My wife has always had a PDC... I never made her DC beep or buzz or flash silly lights.. We now have matching DC and I still wear my bottom timer and run the dive in my head and use the computer as a check to my brain running tables.. Maybe one day I'll finally stop doing math in my head .. but I don't think it'll happen..

Jim..

 

[lowviz]

...//... My wife has always had a PDC... I never made her DC beep or buzz or flash silly lights.. ...

Because the proper use of tables is more conservative.

Up, down, turn around... She gets more downtime as her DC is on it.

As for basic understanding, (to paraphrase an old Clairol commercial) "Only her DC knows for sure."

 

[oldschoolto]

You say that like it's a bad thing to dive safe !!!!! I've been doing this for 45 years... I'll stick with whatever worked this long.. deep air and Deco in my head...

Jim..

 

[rongoodman]

Most especially in simplified form. That is the beauty of tables, they are a first-order approximation to your dive. Easy to commit to memory. Rongoodman and Kevrumbo have serious deco tables committed to memory. I'm sure that they are amused by all this as they have serious insight as to how long to stay at a given depth.

Where did you get the idea I memorized any of this stuff? That's what dive notes are for.

 

[CT-Rich]

I find that statement shocking, most especially as it is coming from you.

How do I resolve needing a more liberal computer? I need more downtime, I'll find a DC that will give it to me. One crosses the horizon, one doesn't.

Somehow this reminds me of a pot-boiler I unintentionally started last year. Give me a sec, I'll find it...

Found it: "Riding your Computer Up" vs. "Lite Deco"

I am not saying the computer needs to blindly trusted, but I don’t have spidey senses to tell me where the line is or what my nitrogen load is. I can probably sense when I am getting narced, but that will almost certainly be after my basic math skills have been butchered and judgement has been impaired. That is why you plan the dive and dive the plan, ‘cause changes to the plan may include bad math and flawed logic. A PDC can track it ten times better than I can and it won’t get narc’d.

Back to the OP, I think learning the tables is important to understand what is happening inside the dive computer and inside your tissues. Tables are fine for planning, too.

 

[cburgert]

I was certified in 1997, I never owned a computer, but I do use computers and prefer them over the tables. Just my preference.

 

[AfterDark]

I am not saying the computer needs to blindly trusted, but I don’t have spidey senses to tell me where the line is or what my nitrogen load is. I can probably sense when I am getting narced, but that will almost certainly be after my basic math skills have been butchered and judgement has been impaired. That is why you plan the dive and dive the plan, ‘cause changes to the plan may include bad math and flawed logic. A PDC can track it ten times better than I can and it won’t get narc’d.

Back to the OP, I think learning the tables is important to understand what is happening inside the dive computer and inside your tissues. Tables are fine for planning, too.

Really Rich? You can't tell by your depth / air remaining how close you are to NDL? Really?

 

[lowviz]

Where did you get the idea I memorized any of this stuff? That's what dive notes are for.

You threw me off when you mentioned Rato Deco.

 

[CT-Rich]

Really Rich? You can't tell by your depth / air remaining how close you are to NDL? Really?

If we were talking the third or fourth dive? First dive is easy, more surface intervals second dive.... you need to track your dives, computer or old school. Set computer in gauge mode and it will work like a bottom timer depth gauge. Collects exact same data, you don’t get any handy dandy calculations. Of course if you are running tables in your head you never set off your spouses computer, you are going to massively over compensate. Round to the next highest everything. What you will do is have much longer SI and much shorter bottom times

 

[lowviz]

...//... Of course if you are running tables in your head you never set off your spouses computer, you are going to massively over compensate. Round to the next highest everything. What you will do is have much longer SI and much shorter bottom times

You say that like it is a bad thing.

In my current medically compromised (temporary) state, I find that I have been diving less but enjoying it much more.

Forces one to really plan a "cookie" dive and enjoy it. I am surprised at how much I now enjoy those. If I live long enough, I think that I will finally figure out this 'diving thing'.