Dive Computers - Pros and Cons

[FreediveWI]

I'm NOT trying to be argumentative

No problem. This is always a good thing to discuss.

You already bought the computer and are happy with it, fine. You are doing mostly no-deco diving, also ok.

I am a little bit worried about going into "limited" deco without a backup. You should at least carry a set of tables. What happens if your computer goes out when your not looking at it and you know your in deco? those things rack up deco really quickly on the bottom and you need to be sure that you have the right numbers.

In the late 80's and early 90's we planned out our dives on Canadian Tables, and carried them as back ups, but used our computers on the bottom- Us divers Monitor's. THe dive times were always within in a minute of the tables no matter how much we swam up and down. More than once I had a computer fail on me, I had back up computers but quickly decided that back up tables were easier to carry. With all of the money I spent on computers and back up computers over the year I could have just bought a stage bottle setup and carried the correct deco gas to get me out of the water in a LOT less time.

WHen we dove the Vienna we dove to the bottom, around 140', for 30 minutes and, according to the Canadian tables which closely mimicked my computer, I would have had 48 minutes of deco to do. I just planned out the same dive on D-plan using air as a back gas and a deco gas and I only had 40 minutes of deco- same exact dive. If I paln the same dive properly, trimix and two stages, I only have 18 minutes of deco.

My deco times, using a computer with a computer back-up were regularly 45 minutes to an hour. Once you switch to the right gases adn stages they hardly ever go over 25 minutes.

If I have an opinion on something it's usally because I have done it other ways and foud a better one. I think that it would be good to share this with others so they can learn , and save moeny, for my mistakes. If people really insisit onmaking them over again themselves that's fine, but I didn't just read this stuff on the internet and decided it was best- I actually did the dives.


My point boils down to this. If you buy the right gear to begin with you will replace less of it in the long run, saving you money; not buy as much overpriced junk, which will save you money; and you will have more cash left to acutally go diving- the most important part. Even if you decided a computer is for you I think that money spent on a $900 computer could be better spent on a $400 computer and you could use the extra $500 to pay for the difference in nitrox fills over the cost of air fills. Nitrox offers huge, real, benefits in diving over some wirst worn computer. If you figure out a dive like the Dredge # 6 on the correct nitrox mix you can do over a 3 hour dive with no deco- who needs a computer for that!

Jon