Posted by R Bear on February 26, 2001 at 12:28:17:
In Reply to: Putting the original question aside for a minute... posted by Eins on February 26, 2001 at 11:29:21:
>And, with all due respect, if you are much smarter about your deco status than your computer, why do you use one in the first place?
In all honesty I generally have the computer along for a bottom timer and a depth gage. The other thing is that when I do have a messed up (read multi-level) profile, I stick with the computer unless I am using gases other than air. When I go into a new cave I usually don't know what the profile will be so I have to depend on my computer.
>I have never been bent in the past. How am I supposed to know if I just made it coming out unbent or if I still had plenty to go before I even would have come close (which I prefer)?
The only way to know for sure is doppler testing. Yeah, I know. I don't own the equipment either.
>Whether I FEEL too conservative or too liberal is not the question for me. I think feelings are not the right basis to make such decisions.
Ok, you got me. Feel is a lousy choice of words. At one time in the past, I felt (used it again) that I could blow off deco on my computer. I felt (sorry) that I was still within NDL or felt that I had done sufficient deco although my computer disagreed. I felt that way because of info other than my computer. Dive tables have been my primary source of external information. I run custom tables for the dive I am going to do. That is why when I go to a new cave, I may end up relying on my computer (more or less). The thing is that now that I have bent my computer on so many square profiles I have a level of confidence for bending it on multi-level profiles. Fundamentally you are correct though. I did not come to the conclusion that I can "over dive" my computer by feelings. I came to that conclusion by planning my dives with PC deco software and then comparing those results to my computer during the dive.
> If never, will you post it when you are?
I probably would. I've posted all of the other dumb stuff I've done while diving.
>will you post it when you are?
Did you mean "Will you post it IF you EVER are?"
or did you actually MEAN to imply that you think I am DCS waiting to happen.
Ron