PADI not teaching dive tables anymore?

[Pullmyfinger]

now you are batiting me. But it was quite nicely done. :d

:d

 

[TMHeimer]

Just do exactly as your OW instructor taught you, and you will be OK.

I always thought that. Is that what they did in the '60s? Knowing a lot of stuff is great but just do what she said. Then assist her and do what she asks. If you're tongue and cheek I understand, but I'm serious.

 

[victorzamora]

Just do exactly as your OW instructor taught you, and you will be OK.

I always thought that. Is that what they did in the '60s? Knowing a lot of stuff is great but just do what she said. Then assist her and do what she asks. If you're tongue and cheek I understand, but I'm serious.

I hope and pray you're kidding. I've dealt with/been around a LOT of instructors, but most of them were completely and unequivocally wrong in at least one major aspect in my time with them. A great instructor took a while before I started noticing faults. If nothing else, instructors quickly become complacent. I believe that instructors are a great place to start....but but do NOT just do as your OW instructor taught you. I have only found one instructor that WASN'T complacent and/or full of logical contradictions.

 

[Pullmyfinger]

I hope and pray you're kidding.

See post #137 from Lowviz. And my reply in post #141.

Although, as TMHeimer pointed out. That is a good way to go about it, depending on the instructor. For example, what I was taught in my YMCA OW2 class was legit!

My post was meant as a tongue in cheek statement.........but Lowviz saw me coming!:cool2:

 

[Fish-R-Man]

When I took my OW class, the computer hadn't been invented yet. We learned to use tables. Fast forward to today and I still review tables on a fairly regular basis. My Cave instructor also had me using tables to insure that we did not enter into a deco obligation. I agree with a number of posters that said that they use compturers, but also have the knowledge of table use to mentally verify what the computer is telling them.

As far as computers being almost totally reliable, my younger brother got badly bent using one commercial diving. The cause was a time problem with the computer. He was at depth way longer than the computer said he was. I was recently doing a survey of the underside of the boat I work on. I was diving with two computers (mostly out of habit) one Suunto Stinger on my wrist and a Nitek Trio on my console. The Trio started to give me a slow ascent warning signal in about 25' of water. I was not ascending as I was underneath the ship. I watched the depth range from around 15' to over 40'. This could have been a real problem if the depth would have locked up or gave a false reading on a close to NDL dive. Trio's aren't an overly priced unit, but they aren't cheap either.

It's still sitting out of the console on my desk at home. I haven't decided if it's worth spending the money to have it repaired. I don't believe I would trust it if it was......

 

[Pullmyfinger]

I used to have a Nitek Duo that would give erroneous ascent warnings whenever the battery was near the end of it's life.

 

[shoredivr]

They don't. And in fact they're a lot more prone to failure than many people might think.

A good habit to get into is to compare your computer to your buddy's computer during the dive and/or to take a redundant gauge, like a bottom timer, so you can get an early warning if the computer is showing incorrect depth.

R..

I've had a computer fail once on me at depth, fortunately I have a redundant bottom timer with me every dive.

I've posted about this before, but about 8 years ago a group of us rented time in recompression chamber that was capable of taking us to 200 ft. It was an educational experience to see how 200 ft felt re: nacosis. That was interesting for sure. We spent 10 minutes at that depth IIRC

We also put a bucket of water in the chamber with us, and put in six different brands of recreational computers. My task was to record what the computers were reading at the various depths. By the time we got down to 200 ft, only one was accurate. The shallowest reading computer had us at 186 ft, and the deepest reading had us at 207 ft. The others were a foot or two out. The were all set for fresh water, or corrected for that afterwards.

Incidentally, these recreational computers all got bent on the way up, lol. We were on a DCIEM table (Canadian Forces version of US Navy recompression table) which was very conservative. We all felt fine, especially with the higher O2 at the 20 ft and 10 ft stop.

 

[Erin Leavey]

As I have just completed my open water cert in November, I can tell you that the class was taught tables, complete with basic math and the inherent mistakes that happen when students are overwhelmed with information. After we completed our 4 dives and filled in the log book manually, they offered to show us how to use the computers. I guess which version is taught depends on what the instructor prefers. We were told to learn the manual tables so that we could enjoy our dives if our computers failed. I hope this helps.

 

[TMHeimer]

I hope and pray you're kidding. I've dealt with/been around a LOT of instructors, but most of them were completely and unequivocally wrong in at least one major aspect in my time with them. A great instructor took a while before I started noticing faults. If nothing else, instructors quickly become complacent. I believe that instructors are a great place to start....but but do NOT just do as your OW instructor taught you. I have only found one instructor that WASN'T complacent and/or full of logical contradictions.

Well, as a Band Teacher I sure had a lot of faults when I was 23! Did I become GREAT? No, but pretty darn good. And our instructors here are really good IMHO. And I can say the same for the shop where I took courses on the FL panhandle.You say you had only ONE instructor that wasn't complacent?
How high are your standards? Where is your LDS? Have I had reason to question the instructors here that I have taken courses from and assisted as a DM?--yes. But are they all good teachers--you bet.

 

[lowviz]

As I have just completed my open water cert in November, ...//...

Welcome!

...//... the class was taught tables, complete with basic math and the inherent mistakes that happen when students are overwhelmed with information. ...//...

That, in itself, is a very good lesson.

...//... We were told to learn the manual tables so that we could enjoy our dives if our computers failed. ...//...

Semi bogus. Switching from a DC to tables is pretty challenging for the typical OW student.