Dive Computers - Pros and Cons

[FreediveWI]

IF your at 80' on nitrox, which you could afford if you didn't buy a $900 computer, you wouldn't have too much to worry about in terms of deco- assuming your diving a single tank and look at you tables before you go.

As far as computer failiure goes when generating tables, like on Dplan, we each make our own and check them with our buddies before we jump in. We know ahead of time how it should work out- which is really important for deco! I have seen people get into real trouble with air integrated computers when they go into deco. The computer tells them they have enough air to do the dive, but they have no idea if they have enough to deco out after the dive! I have evenseen problems with limited deco, under 15 minutes, because the dive was probably done on a single tank to begin with and they doen't have the reserves to do it safely.

If your diving your computer to the knife's edge( 97' for 4 minutes) what will you do when it fails? Do you have a back-up computer, even more money, or do you use back-up tables? Do you have a back-up plan at all? If your close to 100' and close to deco I hope that you have some back-ups in place. IF you really like Uwatec I would highly recommend their bottom timer. IT is an awesomely simple, and less expensive, piece of gear.

Somone else mentioned that Halcyon wasn't cheap, but neither is OMS, or that over priced thing from Deep Outdoors. IF your looking at a BC even Zeagle's cost a lot of money these days. After I burned through a couple of Zeagles, they just seem to fall apart when you dive a lot, I finally went to backplate and wing for my single tank diving. This stuff is a whole lot more durable and you won't end up replacing it in a couple of years- depending upon how much you dive. Another bonus, for warm water divng, is that the plate and wing pack smaller than a Zeagle travel BC.



Someone also mentioned diving the Vienna. My deco times were much longer using a computer on that wreck than diving tables, mostly becasue of gas changes and deep stops. A wreck like the Vienna is starting to cross the line into tec diving where you should be on tables and using deco gas if oyu want ot get a good dive on her.

Jon