Dive Computer Alarms: should we even have them?

[ChuckP]

MOD EDIT: Comments related to the thread derailment have been deleted after the second topic was split off.

Vibrating alarms - I didn't know the Teric vibrated and I didn't really know of any that did other than DiveSofts - I've never seen it or used it but in reading about their CCR, they mention their computers have vibrating alarms. I couldn't hear my beeping alarms either!

The thought that someone gets chidded for wanting to dive "their" way as long as it's safe is absurd. If I wanna dive in rainbow colored split fins while wearing purple tights, how does that effect you?

 

[OTF]

Someone with good knowledge of dive computers should make some recommendations for OP's needs (Teric might fit the bill?), and we should split off a new thread debating the merits of sound/vibration alarms. Clearly it's a topic with some interest, and a discussion worthy of having its own thread, perhaps with parallel arguments to the mCCR vs. eCCR debate.

For what it's worth, I think it's natural and okay for conversations to evolve and "go off topic".

 

[tursiops]

Clearly it's a topic with some interest

Perhaps, but also demonstrably full of unfounded opinion. Put it in the pub.

 

[lowwall]

I would prefer not to make it public because this trip was several years ago and I don't know if the policy is still in effect and I don't want to possibly misrepresent the current policies.

Hoag PM'd me with the name. In light of the above I won't repeat it. However, I will say that it was on a Socorro Islands trip.

There is nothing in the boats current FAQ about this policy. But if you are planning one of these trips, I would suggest checking with the boat about any similar policies before booking.

Note that the stated reason for the policy was to reduce the odds of the entire trip being cut short to in order to evac an injured diver. I think there are better ways to accomplish this.

 

[Hoag]

... For what it's worth, I think it's natural and okay for conversations to evolve and "go off topic".

Going off topic as the flow of a naturally evolving conversation is one thing, however, when somebody asks the community for advice, do we not owe it to them to give that advice. When someone is asking for help, then it reflects best on all of us if we try to keep the discussion focused on the help that was asked for. There is no reason why a parallel thread can not be started to allow a related topic to flow though wherever the conversation takes it.

(... and yes, I do recognize the irony of this response itself being off topic.)

 

[doctormike]

Going off topic as the flow of a naturally evolving conversation is one thing, however, when somebody asks the community for advice, do we not owe it to them to give that advice.

We ARE giving advice.

Think about it in generic terms. Someone asked about how to do X. Other people feel that X is unsafe. Are you saying that it should be a scubaboard rule that you can't give the OP reasons why you think that? That you can only tell them how to do X or keep quiet?

It's a conversation, not a legal deposition.

 

[doctormike]

The thought that someone gets chidded for wanting to dive "their" way as long as it's safe is absurd. If I wanna dive in rainbow colored split fins while wearing purple tights, how does that effect you?

It doesn't affect me at all. I doesn't affect me if you want to dive the Doria with a SpareAir.

But the issue here is that some people don't think that audible DC alarms for OC divers are safe. That they have an overall negative effect on diver safety. So that's why there is a discussion about that.

Now, you may feel that's totally wrong and that anyone making that point is mistaken. Fine, make your case. Maybe you are right.

But that "dive and let dive" stuff is not helpful at all.

 

[tursiops]

There is nothing in the boats current FAQ about this policy. But if you are planning one of these trips, I would suggest checking with the boat about any similar policies before booking.

The same was true of Spoil Sport some years ago; a restriction that was not in the pre-trip materials. They logged your computer depth after each dive, and if you did a reverse profile (defined as your dive was more than 10 feet deeper than any previous dive that day) then you got to sit out until the next day. Showing them the DAN report on reverse profiles being OK did not help.

Buddy Dive also has a boat policy of 100 ft max unless under training with an instructor, they say because so many people are diving the free 32% Nitrox and they want a buffer on the 1.4 MOD (especially since many of those folks are using Suuntos which calculate the MOD for 32% as if you were using 33%, to add some conservatism. This bumps the 111 ft MOD shallower to 107 ft, so I suppose they actually have some rationale.

 

[tursiops]

But the issue here is that some people don't think that audible DC alarms for OC divers are safe. That they have an overall negative effect on diver safety. So that's why there is a discussion about that.

Now, you may feel that's totally wrong and that anyone making that point is mistaken. Fine, make your case. Maybe you are right.

I don't think anyone has actually made that point; they have only made that assertion. If they can find some evidence/facts, then the useful discussion can begin.

 

[Hoag]

Perhaps this should be split off to a thread of its own, because it is off topic, but leaving out the name of the boat, here is what I said in the PMs about the 100 foot hard deck:

Their reasoning was that on the Socorro Islands trip, they did not want to risk ANYONE getting a DCS hit because it is roughly a 24 hour transit out to the islands. If someone did, and they needed a chamber run, it would be a 24hour ride back to the mainland and a 24 hour ride back the the islands. Even to do a ship to helicopter transfer of the person who had the DCS hit, it would be 12-18 hours each way to get within range of a helicopter from shore. Depending on when it happened during the week, there may not be time to get back to the islands and then home again before the trip would be over so it would, for all practical purposes end the trip for everyone right then. Instead of potentially ruining everybody's trip, they would simply require the person who went below 100 feet to sit out a day to off gas rather than to keep diving. That way, it had little to no impact on the rest of the group.

The thought was that if a trip runs Saturday to Saturday and if someone went below 100 feet on say Tuesday and then went deep again on Wednesday, that if that person had a DCS hit Wednesday, it would be Thursday by the time they got back to shore and since the trip ends Saturday, for all practical purposes, it would be over for everyone when they got to shore since there wouldn't be time to go back out to the islands again. The easiest, safest, and in many ways the least inconvenient way is to just have that one person sit out for 24 hours.

Imagine paying for a week long trip and the diving started Sunday and had to end on Wednesday.

Most of us were diving NITROX, so we had an MOD of 111 feet anyway. All that the boat was doing is having us build in a 10% safety buffer.

______________________________________

Most of the dives tended to be in the 70-80 foot range anyway, so the Hard Deck really wasn't that much of a factor, but setting a Max Depth Alarm to remind you if you are getting close is not, in my opinion, a bad thing.