Posted by TDI_2 on May 23, 2002 at 16:21:31:
In Reply to: Excellent summary posted by Ken Kurtis on May 23, 2002 at 14:55:23:
Does anyone actually USE the RDP to plan dives with? I found it to be a fascinating tool to analyze and book dives to my dive log with, and I passed the test on the RDP in the DM course. But I have never used my RDP to actually plan a dive. I let the dive computer do all that.
I can see where it is useful to bring the RDP along on a diving trip/vacation as a backup to my dive computer. But the RDP is just as likely to get broken in the suitcase, if not moreso, than my dive computer is, so its not even a very good back up, for that matter.
The instructor who showed me how to use the RDP handed me a booklet and told me to read about it, so I could pass the exam, and also mentioned in passing that in reality I would virtually never use the RDP in real life. He was right. The store would rather sell dive computers than RDPs, no big surprise there.
If you trapse down to the oceanside with your RDP in hand, isnt that a little bit geekish, sort of like carrying around a slide rule, in this modern era of electronics and nitrox?
If you still havent purchased a dive computer by the time you have become certified, and your playing with dive tables outside of the classroom, isnt that a little bit poor-boy or poor-girl geekish as well? How many nickels and dimes do you have to save up to afford a cheap, simple air-only dive computer? About $75 bucks?
More significantly, I know that PADI and SSI have their own customized conservative dive tables, and that the RDP is an application of the PADI DSAT parameters adapted to multi-level diving, in theory.
NAUI on the other hand uses the Navy tables, as far as I know, unless I am mistaken about that. Using the Navy tables seems like a fairly realistic acknowledgement that most people are going to use dive computers and not tables anyway, so why even bother coming up with new non-Navy dive tables, if no one is ever likely to use them, in this modern era of electronics?
Outside of the classroom, a dive table or an RDP is a total dinosaur fossil, it seems like. I cant believe Kendall invested any of his valuable time in this paper tiger issue. I also cant believe Ken took the trouble to comment as well.
There will always be geeks of all ages here and there who will flame other people for whatever reason. The most efficient thing to do is IGNOR IT rather than invest valuable personal time in rebuttal.
Now, having said that, WHY did I even invest my own valuable time??
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