PADI and the RDP

[neilh]

PADI's position on Egyptian jails is not clear...

...but I'm sure they would welcome a new specialty if you feel like knocking something up for them

[Kev]

not really if I'm reading the training bulletin correctly

from the training bulletin:
"PADI Enriched Air Diver Course Now Dive Computer-Based
As announced in the Second Quarter 2009 The Undersea Journal, the PADI Enriched Air Diver course is now based on using a dive computer, with use of the tables optional. Instead of planning dives using the RDP, the DSAT Equivalent Air Depth and Oxygen Exposure Tables and Enriched Air RDPs, divers taking the revised specialty course learn how to properly set an enriched air capable dive computer and use it to plan their dives.
The new Enriched Air Diver Manual, video and exam have been simplified to fully support this dive computer option.

If you are a PADI Enriched Air Diver Specialty Instructor, you may begin teaching this option as soon as you acquire the revised diver materials, which are scheduled for release in July (in English). During the required predive planning (or simulation) and practical application, have divers use their dive computers to plan enriched air dives based on the depths, times, gas supply and surface intervals you provide and the analyzed content of the two scuba cylinders filled with enriched air.
You may continue to use existing materials except for the instructor guide, to teach the new option. For instructors who wish to teach table use, the tables will be available as a set (metric or imperial) that includes the Equivalent Air Depth Table, Oxygen Exposure Table, EANx32 RDP, EANx36 RDP and an illustrated study guide that shows the student diver how to use them."

I like PADI. They trained me when I was a beginner and I still believe they have some very good things about them. This is not one of them. This is a big mistake.

[scuba_angel]

I like PADI. They trained me when I was a beginner and I still believe they have some very good things about them. This is not one of them. This is a big mistake.

I certainly dont see most schools taking up the kind offer PADI have made of allowing them to send noobie divers out with no idea of the rudiments of dive planning - but the one or two that do I can see causing alot of issues in the not too distant future with people who when trying to do something like EANx with a school who do still teach using the RDP/eRDP/MLeRDP etc not to mention the panic'y divers hurtling in to dive shops because the battery isnt 100% on their now essential dive computer...or the students who learned having borrowed a schools computer (coz they all have the money to spend in computers dont they!!) and cant afford their own finds that they cant hire a school one or that the dive centre theyre hiring kit from for their holiday dip dont have them.....

*scuba looks out the tin foil hat and crawls under the fishtank stand before anyone else finds that safe spot*

[Philelmer]

I've been on a surprising number of dive boats in the tropics with the once-or-twice-a-year brigade where divers just dive with the rented depth gauge and a watch. This is not because they're hardcore or old school, or even because they are diving tables, it's because they have no input into dive planning and blindly follow the guide. Taking table use out of the syllabus for people who like looking at fish for an hour once or twice a year will make no difference at all to anyone other than allowing dive schools to certify people faster.

HOWEVER

The minority certified by those same dive schools (and i'm talking mainly holiday destinations, not capernwray/NDAC here) may wish to go on to further training, whether up to DM level or over to tech diving - so at some point someobody has to teach table use and basic decompression theory to them. Unless of course PADI will introduce a tables speciality?

The thought of a zero-to-hero 100 dives instructor who's never seen a set of tables teaching your kids to dive is pretty scary, no?

[dry suit diver]

I still use the RDP.


its great for scraping Ice off the windscreen in the winter.









sorry.

back on topic- I learnt to use tables by using the RDP- I think its a good dive planning tool for those at the start of their diving .

[darthmoll]

I think its a great idea, the vast majority of divers i meet dive according to what i plan and do no planning what so ever at least if the had a computer on they would have a better idea of whats going on during the dive.

[ratcliffe]

...but I'm sure they would welcome a new specialty if you feel like knocking something up for them

Isn't the knocking up a different thing in jails ?

[ScuBen]

I can see a couple of sides to this:

1. not all students can cope easily with the tables, especaily those who's maths isn't all that great. going back to what someone said about checking RPD NDL's even when using a computer, most computers have a planning function and on the whole, (suunto and uwatec from experience) they tend to be more conservative than the RDP and would as such give a larger safety margin if depth and time limits were taken from them.

2. This optimistic view falls flat on it's face when it's considered that many dive schools use the relatively inexpensive aladin one, which has no buttons and therefore can't be used for planning.

[sleaford_diver]

I enjoyed the tables part of the course.. And I enjoyed the lecture on using the BSAC '88 tables as well....does that make me a sad git..

[nigelH]

My MOD3 course was based on everybody having two computers (normally one built into the rebreather) and we dived on that.

Hence the "Bail out to OC" drill was a reg switch followed by two sets of frantic button pushing.

Who uses tables and slates these days? Even DIR uses ratio deco.