Do you think computers encourage risky diving in new/ young divers?

[myshadeofred]

@Jonn I'm not sure I understand what you mean by you " I routinely exceed my computers decompression limits, and I do not calculate my remaining air". You say you hit DECO, but does that mean the warning or have you gone past the warning?

I'm only a recreational diver, and I have always started surfaces when my alarm goes off and I do it in the very fashion you said you do yours in. I don't think I would go against my dive computers recommendations and I dive with a lot of novice divers. Unfortunately, not a lot of my friends dive but once in a blue moon.

 

[myshadeofred]

I’m in this group you’re talking about. I have not taken a decompression course, I routinely exceed my computers decompression limits, and I do not calculate my remaining air. I would probably not behave this way if I was diving square profile tables!

It seems safe-ish though. When I hit deco at depth I start heading up, and the deco goes away as I do. I slowly ride my computers warning up to the surface, do my non-mandatory safety stop with 1000#, and it and I are both happy on the surface. If I misjudged things a bit I’ve had two or three minutes of real deco at 10’, but that’s more of an extended safety stop than an underwater emergency, right? I have never been close to a situation where I did not have enough gas to make it back up, even if I can’t quantify how close.

Safety is only one of the factors to be optimized here: I dive for fun and would be much safer just staying in bed all day. It’s my (limited!) understanding that spending most of the dive slowly ascending up a wall or wreck is easier on my body than a square up-and-down profile anyway. Diving like this allows me to cover a lot of different terrain, see a lot of different things, and decide what to do based on what I see down there rather than following a fixed plan. The fun / danger ratio seems high, even if I can’t quantify the fun either. Do I just not know what I don’t know? Are there things I haven’t considered? Would I learn those things in a deco course?

I made a comment on this below.

 

[johndiver999]

What does an alarm mean/indicate on your computer?

 

[Aviyes]

I learned on and then dived a J-valve for two years before buying my own equipment, including a SPG. Since I learned and then dived a J-valve, I never thought of it as particularly risky though I would occasionally check to make sure the lever was still up. I would frequently dive until the breathing effort increased, pull my J-valve, and do my direct ascent to the surface.

I thought of the SPG as considerably safer, as I always knew how much gas I had left. I didn't have to check whether the valve was up

I was approaching it from the viewpoint of the SPG being riskier. Since you accurately know how much gas you have left, you can push your tank to its limits and surface with an empty tank.

 

[scubadada]

I was approaching it from the viewpoint of the SPG being riskier. Since you accurately know how much gas you have left, you can push your tank to its limits and surface with an empty tank.

J-valve or SPG, diving until you are OOG has never been advocated, or practiced

 

[Edward3c]

J-valve or SPG, diving until you are OOG has never been advocated, or practiced

When the SGP first appeared we would stay down until we got to 30bar, only then would we surface. Was it good practice? Possibly not. Thankfully, things have moved on since then.

I did a few ascents from 25-30m when I hit 30bar; that changed to 50bar with 207bar cylinders. Today, we expect to be on the surface with 50-70bar.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

I was approaching it from the viewpoint of the SPG being riskier. Since you accurately know how much gas you have left, you can push your tank to its limits and surface with an empty tank.

Best advice on SB! lol (yes, I know you are joking )

 

[Mark IV]

I haven't read the entire thread (and ain't gonna ), or even noticed it until just now. But assuming the conversation is still centered around the OP's question, I don't think dive computers necessarily encourage risky diving in younger divers ( at least not any more than merely being young already does that, LOL), but I would think the risk is in them putting way too much faith in what their computer is telling them. I could see them believing that being within 2 feet, or 60 seconds, of any computer limits, automatically means they must be perfectly safe, cuz, well......the computer says so.
Kids these days put way too much faith in the blasted things, but ask one of them which way north is, or if they keep any actual cash in their wallets, or keep more than 1/4 tank of gas in their car, and they look at you like you're stupid, because, you know, they got computers, GPS's, and nifty plastic cards and stuff to handle those archaic concerns.

 

[wnissen]

Potentially yes. There's a concept called risk compensation, which posits that people behave with less caution when they perceive a wider safety margin. It's generally thought that this does not completely eliminate the benefits of safety improvements, but it does mitigate them somewhat.

This quote is way back in the thread but it bears repeating. It depends on exactly how you measure things, but a significant fraction of the added safety is absolutely ceded to more aggressive behavior. Not that this is irrational; driving faster to save time in a car with an airbag makes sense if you were comfortable with the risk before. I'm sure that to a certain extent some divers will rely on their computers for safety in a way that is less safe. Heck, my computer sits on the end of my high-pressure hose and if it goes, I have no backup SPG, no depth gauge, nothing! Nothing, that is, except the knowledge that it's in conservative mode, I stick close to my buddies, and am strict about not going below 30m and always having a suitable reserve.

That said, my guess is that they still increase safety overall. For one thing, I bet that many people stop planning dives with tables at all after a certain point, and might accidentally go deeper than they mean to, etc.

 

[Jcp2]

They encourage more people who don’t dive to dive, which is riskier than not diving.