Dive tables take a back seat in SSI training

[scubawheels]

Tables may not be MANDATORY, but if it were me teaching they would be thouroghly covered. If nothing else i've never seen rental gear in the tropics come with a computer......Students need to know the theory behind the tables and have a basic understanding of how to use them.

I teach tables, and even when a student has his/her own gear with a computer they log their cert dives using a table.

I agree completely. I use a computer but I still use the tables to log and find my group designation at the end of the day. Maybe its just personal preference, but I like knowing that information at the end of the day.

Too much knowledge cannot be a bad thing when entering an environment that we are not meant to live in.


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[mitsuguy]

I use a computer but I still use the tables to log and find my group designation at the end of the day.

That is just not possible with 80% of the dives I do... The only reason it is possible with the other 20% is because they are training or Discover Scuba dives and less than 40 or 60 feet...

That first 80% is leading divers and fun diving on my own...

Here is a typical fun dive for me, let me know how well you could use the tables, the RDP, eRPD, wheel, etc...

 

[scubawheels]

I agree it is not always possible. There are occasions that the computer has taken me off the tables but I was still safely in the no-deco limits.

My reality is, I mostly dive inland lakes in Michigan and rarely hit deep water (60 feet) there. It is on the Great Lakes where I go off the tables and have no group desiganation at the end of the day.

I dive by the computer and if it fails, I have my buddy to get me back safely. (I have the luxury of doing most of my dives with an AOW Instructor as my buddy. This makes the case for diving with a buddy that you know and trust to not put you in a dangerous situaton.) I basically use the tables as a check after the dive. The point is, knowing to use the tables gives a new diver an understanding of the concepts involving time, depth, and the no-deco limits. I feel like not knowing the tables and the concepts behind them would make me a more ignorant diver. The certifying organizations don't need to help create more ignorant divers, there are enough of them already.

 

[drbill]

Although I haven't used tables while diving in years, I think it is a good thing to teach them as a form of redundancy... or an alternate... to using a single computer. I dive with redundant computers, but would resort to the tables in the unlikely event both of them failed on a day of diving. I've had way too many problems with my office computers (Dells) to have 100% faith in ANY computer, including dive computers.

 

[Sharkbait2005]

This may have been mentioned earlier, but the dive tables offer a square profile whereas the computer is constantly adjusting for your depth. As long as you stick with your safe diving plan inside the no-deco limits, you should be fine, barring anything unusal.
If a dive computer fails, your dive is over, your going to the surface, if your guages fail same thing. That is why I've started going with redundancy including a duplicate computer set the same way as the primary.
I do teach the tables also, and I agree that knowledge is a good thing. It gives the students a basis of why the computer does what it does. They are based on the theory of the tables.

 

[smellzlikefish]

The tables are often all a new diver has until they pony up to buy a dive computer of their own. Plus, as new divers, they are also a great way to learn the principles behind decompression theory which forms the very basis around much of what we do.

 

[shake-and-bake]

I just completed SSI training. The "study at home" materials include a DVD which teaches the tables. The book does not teach the tables, but they are in the appendix. The instructor thoroughly covered the tables in the classroom, but there were no questions about them on the final exam. Bottom line: I understand them and could use them, although who knows whether I ever will (I purchased a good computer).

 

[NAM001]

I just completed SSI training. The "study at home" materials include a DVD which teaches the tables. The book does not teach the tables, but they are in the appendix. The instructor thoroughly covered the tables in the classroom, but there were no questions about them on the final exam. Bottom line: I understand them and could use them, although who knows whether I ever will (I purchased a good computer).

good to hear. now you should have an idea ho w to manage you depth and remainng time and verify it on the computer. oh yea also when and if your puter starts to lie to you.

a quick sea story. i had a computer with the wrong date on it it was a day ahead . in the middle of a flower gardens trip i corrented the day from that point it gave me all bad data. to fix i had to change the date back. my second day of diving was being stamped the same day as the day before. had the opposite happened i would have had no residual calculated and would have been by the computer making a dive after a 30 hour si.

 

[ZenDiver.3D]

Except for the fact that PADI has been advocating this since mid 2009... They even changed some quizzes and knowledge reviews to reflect the change...


I teach computers to those that have them, go over the basics with those that don't, but everyone learns the tables...

Except for the fact that SDI was begun in 1999, and has been mandating the use of computers from the very beginning of it's birth out of TDI.

 

[DiveNav]

I like this thread

BTW, so far we have coded 72 dive computers models in our Dive Computer Research Tool ..... and I estimate there are another ~20 to go before we are done :depressed:

Alberto (aka eDiver)