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From: pfeiffer@uwvax.UUCP (Phil Pfeiffer)
Newsgroups: net.rec.scuba,net.consumers
Subject: Re: Casio depth rating followup
Message-ID: <254@uwvax.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 1-Aug-85 19:34:54 EDT
Article-I.D.: uwvax.254
Posted: Thu Aug  1 19:34:54 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 3-Aug-85 05:27:54 EDT
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Organization: U of Wisconsin CS Dept
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Xref: watmath net.rec.scuba:160 net.consumers:2750

> > ... but I can see the day coming when NOT diving with a decompression
> > meter will be also viewed as a false economy.
> 
> Third, WHAT ARE YOU, NUTS OR SOME THING!?!?!?!
> Sorry, but if you are planing to get a decompression meter, save your
> money for the chamber ride you WILL need if you rely on that trash.
> Read these TRUE horror stories about them.   ( ... )

... (the stories are horrible, but lengthy, so I won't reprint them here )

Muchas gracias, Rich, for the followup, and for your comments.  If we continue
to get this sort of cross-talk on the net, we may yet save net.rec.scuba.

Re decompression meters:  If you reread my followup, you'll notice my reference
to "second generation" decompression meters and an article in _Underwater USA_.
I'm sorry if that didn't explain what I meant well enough.  Let's try again.

The 1st generation meters, as you indicate, were *bad* products  -- real
"bend-o-matics", according to _Undercurrent_, which ran a series of horror
stories on early decompression meters a few years ago (reprinted in their 
_Best of Undercurrent_, still in print).  Their are NEWER meters, however
-- e.g., the Edge, which supposedly works and is in use by more than 1000
professional divers at this time, according to the article in the most
recent _Underwater USA_ (I can't recall who wrote that article off the top
of my head, but he seemed to have good credentials -- one of his references
that comes to mind is Dr. Bruce Basset, who's famous for the articles which
argue for more conservative dive tables than the US Navy's, based on
the amount of bubbling that he observed in divers who'd "pushed" the tables
in controlled experiments).  The article didn't mention the Deco-Brain, 
another of the newer decompression meters, but that also may be a good product:
Hans Hass, a reputed European diving pioneer who was into rebreather diving
in the late 30's, endorses the Deco-Brain, and has written about it at length.

I'm not suggesting giving up the watch and tables -- only that good, automatic
devices are coming out on the market to supplement such calculations.  I'd
guess the microprocessor revolution is making this possible.

--- Phil Pfeiffer