ShoalDiverSA
Contributor
Finally got my fins wet after a 3.5 month break. We dived on Saturday, Sunday and yesterday at Sodwana Bay. The sea conditions have not been very good lately on the KZN coast (there was a cyclone 3000kms offshore a few weeks ago - not sure if there is anything around still).
But anyway, I experienced something interesting with my Cobra. The surface swells were up to 2.5m high, which resulted in a lot of surge at the bottom.
Each time a large swell passed overhead, the depth display would first decrease and then increase rapidly and then return to "actual" depth. Of course, when this happened, the ascent rate indicator bar graph would grow until the SLOW indicator came on and the alarm would sound.
Naturally, after 10 minutes of this, the Cobra was rather "upset" with me and the STOP indicator came on. Once we completed the dive (I still had 30 minutes of No-Deco time left when the STOP indicator came on), we ascended to the safety stop (or in my case Mandatory Stop). I was given a CEILING of 3m for 4 minutes. I advised the DM of this and he signalled that it would be no problem to hang around for the extra minute.
Naturally, the safety stop was challenging with large swells passing overhead - keeping your depth between 3 and 6m is, shall I say, interesting.
The CEILING indicator cleared after one minute and the normal 3 minute countdown commenced. The timer timed out and the group ascended to the surface. Once we managed to get back into the RIB, I told the group about it and two other divers in the group had the same 4 minute indication (Gekko and Vyper respectively).
I would not expect Suunto to add an option to damp the response of the ascent rate graph, as this would make the tool pretty useless for its intended function. Anyway, it makes sense that I was effectively diving a sawtooth profile (in terms of the effective depth that I was diving at during the dive), so it makes sense that I be "penalised" during the stop.
I found this experience interesting and thought I would share it. The only midly irritating part was the beeping every now and again on the dive.
Cheers,
Andrew
But anyway, I experienced something interesting with my Cobra. The surface swells were up to 2.5m high, which resulted in a lot of surge at the bottom.
Each time a large swell passed overhead, the depth display would first decrease and then increase rapidly and then return to "actual" depth. Of course, when this happened, the ascent rate indicator bar graph would grow until the SLOW indicator came on and the alarm would sound.
Naturally, after 10 minutes of this, the Cobra was rather "upset" with me and the STOP indicator came on. Once we completed the dive (I still had 30 minutes of No-Deco time left when the STOP indicator came on), we ascended to the safety stop (or in my case Mandatory Stop). I was given a CEILING of 3m for 4 minutes. I advised the DM of this and he signalled that it would be no problem to hang around for the extra minute.
Naturally, the safety stop was challenging with large swells passing overhead - keeping your depth between 3 and 6m is, shall I say, interesting.
The CEILING indicator cleared after one minute and the normal 3 minute countdown commenced. The timer timed out and the group ascended to the surface. Once we managed to get back into the RIB, I told the group about it and two other divers in the group had the same 4 minute indication (Gekko and Vyper respectively).
I would not expect Suunto to add an option to damp the response of the ascent rate graph, as this would make the tool pretty useless for its intended function. Anyway, it makes sense that I was effectively diving a sawtooth profile (in terms of the effective depth that I was diving at during the dive), so it makes sense that I be "penalised" during the stop.
I found this experience interesting and thought I would share it. The only midly irritating part was the beeping every now and again on the dive.
Cheers,
Andrew
