Multi Level Diver course ??????

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I would tend to agree that the course was not an inportant course. Then i thought. Heck am I saying this cause i learned and can use a table???? Perhaps so and if that is the case then this is a course to teach the table use as it applies to multi level dives to those that dont uase tables or were never taught tables. Hmmmm I still like computers, Planning software may be more usefull untill you are dymanically updatying your NDL knowing you have enough gas to exceed it.

Ohter than that,,,, am I missing something?
 
While the original course content was designed around the Wheel, then later adapted for the eRDPML and now it includes dive computer use, the performance requirements for the dives really haven't changed from the original outline and IMO are weak.
The course materials have some descent content and and if you're a first time computer user it could be a course that helps you understand how one works if it was not covered in detail during previous courses.
I used to teach it frequently before computers were common place. I may conduct the course once or twice a year now and it is the new computer owner that mine is geared towards. It really should be called something else like New Computer Diver.
One exercise I'll conduct is a simulated deco since emergency deco is part of the curriculum. I'll take a spare computer and make it as liberal as possible by changing the altitude and personal settings and intentionally send it into deco. I then have the student make the required stops.
 
So one can say it is then for people that don't understand what the DC does or just want to have an added experience if they don't feel confortable diving after they did thier OW and or AOW.
 
I can see, at one time or another, many people (including my self) that the dc dive planner either scares them, or is to difficult to use of find in the menu system. Many old folks like my self have reasoned that when you use tables you continually build a safety zone in your computations by rounding to longer time or deeper depths. Doing so negates the issues of doing musti dives with no SI times used. Dive industry has abandoned the tables in favor of using computers and we are surprised that we have no tool to plan with when it comes to more than one dive a day? Is this not one of the very reasons so many spoke against droping tables from OW training. Any way the single dive war was lost but now comes the multi diving and multilevel aspects of diving. I have read peole's position about tables take into account going to the surface between levels nad therfore can get you into trouble. No one talks about a 41 foot dive is treated as 50 foot dive on the table or a 18 minute dive on a table with 17 and 25 min columns is treated as a 25 min dive. We continually create safety buffers into the results and yet argue about the micro details (however true) that have no inpact on the result when compared to the designed proceedural errors that are injected into the process for SAFETY. Yes you could get a shortcut ndl of 50 min when by ignoring the surfaceing by using 0 si's it should be 48, but that was an ndl using depths 9' too deep and dimes 8 min too long to reflect the true dive. All the while the computer is telling you you have 58 min for ndl. Once again this the world of using a square device vs dynamic device. so long as your shortcuts do not extend the true dynamic values then there is Little harm. The only harm comes in the concept that if your computer cuts navy times by say 15% for safety and you rounding makes another 20% errors on the side of safety, then who will take the ndl times seriously other than 55 min is a suggested time and the time is really much longer and is something not to be comcerned with.
Understanding of tables still have value. Ndl's are not linear to depth or time, and untill you use a table and study it for a while you dont know it. Many think the ndl of 40 ft is twice that of the ndl for 80 ft. 2:1 ratio.... right? It kinda works with air comsumption but not NDL. They dont even realize it doesnt work with air comsumption. That darn extra atmosphere. Hmmm
 
I'm not familiar with PADI, but what will you get out of this course, that your DC will not tell you, and that you already know from the dive tables.

Am I breacking any rules, when I change levels when I dive, I always changing from levels 3 or 2 on my way down and 3 or 2 on my way up plus of course the slow ascent and the safety stops that my DC tell me to do.
If you are diving with a dive computer the dc will do the math for you. The multi level specialty is about using a analog device to alow you to make multi level dives. You are not breaking any rules.

Essentially any dive is a multi level dive. For simplicity, tables are designed for profiles where you hit your max depth stay there and then ascend. A multi level analog device called the wheel in the padi course will allow you to extend your bottom time compared to tables by recalculating your new ndl at the new shallower depth. That is exactly what a dc does continously.
 
If you are diving with a dive computer the dc will do the math for you. The multi level specialty is about using a analog device to alow you to make multi level dives. You are not breaking any rules.

Essentially any dive is a multi level dive. For simplicity, tables are designed for profiles where you hit your max depth stay there and then ascend. A multi level analog device called the wheel in the padi course will allow you to extend your bottom time compared to tables by recalculating your new ndl at the new shallower depth. That is exactly what a dc does continously.

That is what I understood the computer was doing as well, that is way I see that course like "Put Another Dollar In" course or for people that just don't want to embrace new technology like a DC, the course it self cost the same or more depending were you take it than a DC, that give you a lot more added futures and safety plus diving time.

Thanks for your replies guys, just wanted to be sure it was pointless if you have a DC.
 
That is what I understood the computer was doing as well, that is way I see that course like "Put Another Dollar In" course or for people that just don't want to embrace new technology like a DC, the course it self cost the same or more depending were you take it than a DC, that give you a lot more added futures and safety plus diving time.

Thanks for your replies guys, just wanted to be sure it was pointless if you have a DC.
The course is a very old one, it was very useful before dc became cheap and commonplace. So 20 years ago or so it was quite a useful course.
Now it is not much more than useful as a tool in understanding the concept behind tables and multilevel diving.

There are much more useful specialties than this one nowadays.
 
This is where the rule of 120/140 makes estimation (guestimations???) so freakin easy when it comes to your NDL. Once you splash, your PDC will track your actual saturation far more accurately with little error from fat fingers and/or narcosis. Don't discount surface narcosis either. In my experience, human errors outpace PDC failures a thousand to one.

More significant for most divers, is do they have the gas to match their NDL? A basic dive plan always includes these three limits: time, depth and gas supply. What good is planning a multi-level dive if you're bailing during the deep portion? Unfortunately, gas management is not a common subject in OW classes. An OW student should know their SAC, how to track it and be able to roughly calculate the amount of gas needed for a dive by the end of their class. Like time and depth, it's a ball park figure and it is verified by your SPG. If it wasn't adequately covered in your OW class, then avail yourself of any number of threads on the subject here.
 
Don't forget the vaunted PADI Color Coordinated Diver specialty certification. You wouldn't want your dive buddy dying of embarrassment as you exit the water like a stroke, with yellow fins combined dangerously with orange gloves.
 

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