Dan
Contributor
So If I get a Shearwater I can skip those boring Deco stops?
Nope. Something is strange with my SUUNTO D4 calculation. My dive buddy has much less DECO (2 minutes) with the same dive profile, while I have 6 minutes. SUUNTO algorithm is way too conservative. It forces me to stay longer and when I clear it and ascend, the D10 (DECO with 10’ ceiling) pops up again and forces me to descend and stay for another couple minutes. I was up & down like a yo-yo in 8-16’ range. Once Teric clears my DECO stop & safety stop, it’s done.
In my normal diving, Teric clears my safety stop 1-2 minutes sooner than D4. That is with GF Conservative Medium 40/85 set on Teric. So SUUNTO D4 RGBM is just way conservative for my diving style.
I put my D4 on left wrist & Teric on my right wrist and compare them next to each other during the entire dive.
In safety stop, whenever I go deeper than 27’, Teric pauses the safety stop countdown, (say I still have 2 more minutes remaining to be in that safety stop) and when I’m back to shallower than 20’, it will resume the countdown from 2 minutes to zero. If I use D4, it would reset (instead of pause) the safety stop countdown back to 3 minutes and I need to stay for another 3 minutes, instead of for the remaining 2 minutes.
If you have ever been diving in area that have surging, upwelling & down current like in Roca Partida, Socorro, Mexico, you know what I’m talking about. It’s not easy stay in safety stop (7-20’ range). Sometime the down current sucks you down, you have to fin up like mad + inflating your BCD. Sometime the upwelling pushes you to the surface so you have to head down & deflate your BCD to stay in safety stop.
This page in Teric Manual explains my problem better than my poor English: