Place of dive tables in modern diving

[cneal]

I took PADI multilevel about 15 years ago and had to learn the wheel. After that I bought a computer. But I still remember the rule of 120 for emergencies. Any varience with a table today would quickly vanish with lack of a true square profile.

I still have the wheel in the back of my logbook to scare instructors, although any recently minted instructor wouldn't have a clue what it is.

 

[boulderjohn]

You are an educator.

Is it not best practice to first take the complex and make it overly simple for the sole purpose of not overloading the student to where you just get nodding heads and sideways glances?

One then progresses by adding complexity as it can be handled. Or is it enough to just share that link?

I don't understand your point. Perhaps I am just a bit dense. Does it relate to the idea that you cannot teach decompression theory without teaching tables, something Mark Powell managed to do when he wrote the book Deco for Divers without ocne explaining how to use tables?

Students are given the simulator link ahead of time, so they can go through it to their heart's content. We had the program on our in-class computer, so I would go through it with the students in the way I thought best.

 

[agilis]

Modern diving? An interesting phrase, a fascinating conceit. We understand the physics and physiology better, and computers are useful for multilevel and repetitive dives, but things just haven't changed that much for recreational diving. Training and entry level skills have diminished, some equipment has improved, but it's still not rocket science.

 

[tursiops]

Modern diving? An interesting phrase, a fascinating conceit. We understand the physics and physiology better, and computers are useful for multilevel and repetitive dives, but things just haven't changed that much for recreational diving. Training and entry level skills have diminished, some equipment has improved, but it's still not rocket science.

?? Are you saying recreational diving is neither multilevel nor repetitive?

 

[lowviz]

...//... Students are given the simulator link ahead of time, so they can go through it to their heart's content. We had the program on our in-class computer, so I would go through it with the students in the way I thought best.

I don't have any particular love for tables other than they can be used effectively for a simple look-up value when first exposed to Depth, Time, and Loading. Tables remove the "cell phone" fascination/distraction of a DC.

Don't get me wrong, I love my DC. But it isn't what I would start with if I ever had to instruct someone from a cold start. Core ideas first.

 

[dmaziuk]

?? Are you saying recreational diving is neither multilevel nor repetitive?

I think he means under the sleek surface of Zen-like fusion of man and machine and their bubbles that is modern diving, lay outdated multiple levels, pesky Boyle's Law, and all those other antiquated exploding goats.

 

[lowviz]

I'm not choosing sides, but I just really liked that post...

 

[agilis]

?? Are you saying recreational diving is neither multilevel nor repetitive?

No. I use my computer when I do repetitive dives or extreme multilevel, though in the latter case I tend to use the deeper depths and the tables as a limiting factor. Before I had a computer, way back in the 20th Century, I limited myself to two dives in a day using the PADI tables and factoring in an extra safety margin. When I use the computer or the tables with nitrox I calculate with an air setting. At my age I have to be very conservative. Actually, I always was very conservative. Approaching limits for an extra few minutes is foolish.

 

[dmaziuk]

thank you, I'll be here all night

(these !$%#ing updates are taking forever and at the same time not long enough to switch to some other task completely)

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

As we compare diving education, I was curious to see diving curriculum in commercial and military diving programs. Even though computers are available to commercial and military divers, tables still form the basis of their dive theory. Commercial divers study air tables, nitrox tables and also decompression treatment tables. Same is true with military diving community. They spend a lot of time on tables even though computers are far easily accessible to them then they are to the recreational divers.

Why is it that professionals are spending time on something that is supposedly antiquated and amateurs are embracing what is new? It is because recreational diving industry wants to take single mothers, working dads, grand parents, great-grand parents and turn them into divers. Furthermore the recreational industry wants to achieve this great feat in far less time then what professional programs take to create divers who will be diving to the same depth. One tool that enables us to achieve this is "the dive computer!" It enables us to "teach the world how to dive!" We must also remember that education in the world of recreational scuba does not generate money. Top scuba instructors are starving. A dive shops major income will be generated not from instruction but from gear sales. This is why recreational industry will be more eager to push gadgets than a professional diving program be it commercial or military.

Progress is great but we are talking about progress driven by an industry that has always struggled to create customers.