Whats happening to diving certification? Where have the standards gone?

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In this day and age teaching tables in a diving class is about the same as teaching an auto mechanics student how to set points and rebuild carburetors.

The main difference is that if my computer dies on me I can still plan and make my dives with the tables.

The kid that didn't learn the tables gets to watch my bubbles from the surface when their computer dies.


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In this day and age teaching tables in a diving class is about the same as teaching an auto mechanics student how to set points and rebuild carburetors.

In this day and age of the internet you can even get your c-card. Maybe YouTube should start their own dive agency? There is plenty of material on there.
 
Just a few reasons why computers are better than tables:
  • They are easier to use. No more error-prone, flippity-floppity, back and forthy like the tables. At the most, a few button pushes is all it takes, most of the time all you have to do to get them started is get wet.
  • They are more reliable. GIGO applies to tables as much as computers and tables rotting in a dive bag constitute a system failure every bit as much as a flooded battery compartment.
  • They are more precise. Both during planning and dive phases, computers can handle more data and calculations than the tables. By far.
  • They are more efficient. Instead of requiring divers to carry multiple sets of tables, a depth gauge, a timing device and a log, (and backups for each) everything is rolled up into one item.
  • They are easier to teach. People, especially younger people, grok computers. NOBODY groks the tables without effort.
  • People actually use them. Anything that results in fewer trust me/follow me dives is a good thing.
  • They are electronic nannies. Even if you forget or screw up, as long as you have one they have your back.

There is nothing wrong with learning and understanding the tables but it's important to remember that the tables are NOT an end in and of themselves. They are a tool, nothing more, and computers are better tools. Students don't need a table to wrap their noodles around the relationship between time/depth/nitrogen loading. Or, better stated, if they do, diving is probably more of an intellectual challenge than they are able to handle and they should consider taking up golf, instead.

Progress always discomfits the established.

Not necessarily sure I agree wholeheartedly with your statement. A computer is only as good as its programmer. If you dive air only, that may not be a great deal but I have seen folks having to resort to alternatives...like relying utterly on their buddy when they realized at depth that the mixture displayed is 21% and they carry 32% or else as backgas. I learned to dive without a dive computer over 30 years ago. Am I a dinosaur...not really as I possess two dive computers and always use as a minimum one. However, my dive trip is not solely dependent on my computer and if it fails, I will still be able to enjoy diving based on depth, watch and tables.

I work in a field that even though GPS is used more predominantly over maps, we still expect folks to be able to navigate using maps and compass when all else fails
 
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Thal, I'm wondering when you were seeing these dive computers fail for being in cold water. I dive in the great lakes and ice dive. I've never seen a computer failure on my own or any of my diving friends' computers or any of our rental gear in those conditions and the environment is certainly not hospitable. I've seen plenty of failures in cameras and other electronic gear using even "fresh" batteries, and I'm wondering if the failures you witnessed where long enough ago that those issues have largely been addressed with improvements in battery technology and energy demands of modern dive computers?
 
Tables show NDL without requiring knowledge of decompression.

Computers show NDL without requiring knowledge of decompression.

I'm not really sure anything has changed, other than the delivery method.
 
Togalive, I was trained a few months ago and I would have to say it is the decision of the LDS you are training with if they use computers or dive charts. The LDS I did my OW with used only the dive chart and said if you like you can buy the computer but you need to know how to use the charts because computers can mess up and you might not know it until it is too late. I believe that "dumbing down" the courses helps the new divers to focus more on certain things and in later courses learn more advanced techniques. I believe that I am not ready for the ocean and like to dive quarries until I feel comfortable and know my procedures forwards and backwards. I am looking to advance my knowledge, but in time.
 
Dive tables have gone the way of cursive writing, vynal records, cassettes and dial telephones. Some may call it "progress". IMHO we, as a society have become way to dependent on computers and electronics. Kids can't add or subtract without a computer or calculator so getting rid of dive tables seems like natural progression to many, to me it is just another sign of a step back towards the stone age when the power grid fails because of some computer operated system somewhere.
 
but that when asked what to do if your computer runs out of batteries between dives or during a dive the instructor replied "You should follow a backup dive plan or call the dive." never once suggesting that you pull out a table and at least get a sense for where you are in terms of nitrogen loading.

That's because you generally can't. Tables are based on a square profile, while most dives are actually multi level.

Even if you know your maximum depth and time on a computer multi-level dive, you'll usually find that it's either off the end of the table or requires a much longer surface interval than the boat will allow.

The flip side is that non-user induced computer failures are actually quite rare. Most that I've seen involved poorly done battery changes that allowed leakage, or leaving the computer someplace very hot, like in the sun all afternoon or in a closed car.

I just don't see much advantage to a method that gives less bottom time in exchange for more work.

flots.
 
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Just for the record, I was certified in November of last year and we were taught with the tables-in fact, we spent one whole theory session just going through tables and soing "sample dives", making sure everyone ended up with the same pressure groups and necessary surface intervals.

One example does not an epidemic make.

That said, I was introduced to a computer on my certification dives, and we used them during the dives, then compared that information to the tables once we got back on dry land to log our information. I have to say, while I really love the tables and will comtinue to use them, my husband has a computer and I very much appreciate that he has archived and tangible information, while I have to frantically memorize the information to myself as we're walking back to our area from the shore. It's not just once or twice where I've had to ask him if my memory of our ultimate depth was correct.

I plan on getting a dive computer of my own very soon, after which I doubt I'll ever use the tables again. I love that I know how to use them, but realistically, the computers are truly more useful, convenient, and accurate.
 
As I explain and show to my students, as long as you have been dutifully recording depths, times, surface intervals, etc. after each dive and the dives fit within the "square profile" limits of the RDP (sorry, I am an PADI instructor) you can use the tables as backup.

It is easy to show them a multi-level profile that fits with the "square profile" limits of the RDP. It is just as easy to show a dive profile that will not fit into the limits imposed by the RDP - in that case you are out of luck.

The important step is logging the dives promptly so that the information is there to use. How are you going to use the information from the computer if the computer failed and you cannot get the date from the log mode?

Yup, tables are "easy to use". It's really fun :shakehead: when you have a class of 8 students and you have to spend a significant amount of time with the one student who does not find it "easy" - lots of value there. At that point you are not teaching anything about decompression theory, instead you are teaching how to use a matrix.
 
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