Challenge?

[skip]

You and a buddy are cave diving and you look at your wrist computer and it is blank. Now what? Base your answer on the gear/buddy/location you normally dive with, at what depth/penetration you normally do. And what if your plan is to dive two more days yet?

-skip

[IowaCaveDiver]

I've had this happen... thankfully I wear two computers. but if i didn't I'd wait 12hrs (probably just overnight) and plan very conservative dives with tables and increase my hang time by 25%... diving tables is pretty conservative anyway. In regards to the dive where the computer is blank... I usually end up with 20-30 minutes deco at JB and it drops to 13-15 on oxygen... so I'd switch to oxygen and do a 20 minute hang. Will I at least have a watch for this??

-Matt

[johnm]

Been there.....Just after I finished my full cave. I learned the hard way that an Ocianic Data Max computer will shut down after 2 1/2 hrs....I was past the Room of Tears, in Carwash still on the way in when I looked down and saw a BLANK SCREEN, or I should say a frozen screen. Lucky for me I was with 3 other people on the same profile. I used the longest time of the 3 computers and added to it. THEN I TRASHED THE COMPUTER AND BOUGHT 2 NITEK 3'S............I always use 2 computers and a watch from then on. FYI---------Ocianic told me that the computer was not intended for that long of a dive and was desinged to shut down.....

You and a buddy are cave diving and you look at your wrist computer and it is blank. Now what?

You look at your other wrist!

Actually, it's not always that easy. During this year's Scooter Race the rules were that you had to be cave configured, but it didn't mention computers. I didn't want to add a "six feet for three minutes" dive to my logs, so I left both computers in the trailer. Then BobK said, "Let's go diving."

When we got to the Hill 400 jump I looked at one wrist, then the other. Not a huge deal, because I knew what kind of profile we were doing. I figured it was a No Deco dive, so I did ten minutes.

Then kicked myself.

[ARY]

You and a buddy are cave diving and you look at your wrist computer and it is blank. Now what? Base your answer on the gear/buddy/location you normally dive with, at what depth/penetration you normally do. And what if your plan is to dive two more days yet?

http://www.5thd-x.com/xducation/pdf/ratiodeco.pdf

very simple explanation. see four pages at the end of the document. for the most of our deco diving there are only 4 base tables (actualy methods) we can get away with. It also requires nice watch with good glow large hands and a bottom timer but no VR3

[FW]

You and a buddy are cave diving and you look at your wrist computer and it is blank. Now what?

You look at your other wrist!

Actually, it's not always that easy. During this year's Scooter Race the rules were that you had to be cave configured, but it didn't mention computers. I didn't want to add a "six feet for three minutes" dive to my logs, so I left both computers in the trailer. Then BobK said, "Let's go diving."

When we got to the Hill 400 jump I looked at one wrist, then the other. Not a huge deal, because I knew what kind of profile we were doing. I figured it was a No Deco dive, so I did ten minutes.

Then kicked myself.

I take it you don't have to set PPO2 before every dive? What computers do you use?

I think the "blank" in this case was probably your stare

[FW]

And what if your plan is to dive two more days yet?

-skip

If you log your dives at the end of each day, you can go to the tables and re-create all your dives there, and get a pretty good idea what group you would be in for the next day's dives.

FWIW, I not only use 2 computers, but different brands. Identical computers might have identical problems, like shutting off after a 2.5 hour dive.

I take it you don't have to set PPO2 before every dive? What computers do you use?

Nitek Plus and Nitek HE. Set them for the first dive of the day, and as long as the mix is the same you don't have to reset them.

Besides, the only thing on my mind at the time was that I would have won the scooter race if I hadn't stopped to help that child that was drowning.

[akcaver]

If my computer was blank or wasent working, I wouldnt freak out and just bust out the air tables i carry and look at my watch to see how long i had been down. Id know the max depth from my backup depth gauge (the one on my spg), so i would probably not turn the dive jsut cause my computer failed, i would just know i had a long deco ahead of me. Now when i got to deco, i would jsut do the air deco for that dive, and most likely waste my time trying to figure out my EAD for that mix i was diving to shorten my deco time (its happened before)

[DR2K]

You should always carefully plan your dives. The computer should be the back-up for the diving plan. Always carry on some kind of pre-printed waterproof dive tables ( you can buy them or create at home, there is a huge selection on the market).