Risks of Diving

Diving has exposed the public to the many underwater wonders of the world. The beauty of the various kinds of life that is in the deep blue hides the biggest danger of diving. It isn't sharks or boats or anything else that may exist on or in the water. The real danger to divers is Caisson disease, or decompression sickness.

Also known as the bends, the disease can afflict anyone who goes from a high pressure to low pressure environment. The illness results from Henry's law, which says in short that when the pressure goes down, gas will form bubbles in a fluid. In the case of the bends, the fluid is the blood and the gas is typically nitrogen.

When the process occurs slowly, such as in an airplane cabin, the lungs can remove the gas before bubbles form. When it occurs quickly, such as a diver coming up too fast, it can result in itching skin and rashes, pain in the joints, paralysis and potentially death.

Prevention of Bends

To prevent the bends, the diver must give the gas a chance to naturally de-gas by ascending slowly. Calculating the time required to come up can be very difficult due to the number of variables that need to be taken into consideration. This is the primary reason as to why dive computers were developed. Timers and sensors are used by dive computers to determine the depth of a diver and the exact duration of the time the diver was at that depth. Calculations are performed by the diving computers in real time and determine the correct process for the diver to ascend without causing the bends.

Just about every brand and model of dive computer possesses the capability to sense the time that a diver has been at the varied depths. From this, the diving computer can estimate the divers blood-gas level and figure out: the time interval within which the diver can surface without worry about the bends; when and how long a diver should stay at each depth in order to safely surface; how deep the diver can go; and so on.

Integrated Diver Display

The display interface for various forms of divers computer have varying designs, however for the display to be practical it must be clearly read and visible while diving. It should not be cluttered, so the diver does not experience information overload. Further to this, better models of diving computers will be able to give useful information like water temperature, the required decompression time at each depth and dive resurface rate. The top ranging models are able to transmit the entire dive data to a computer for later analysis.

Certain defining features can really set a dive computer ahead of the pack. By the time a diver has surfaced, high end dive watches will display the time before a diver can board an airplane. One of the quickest ways to get the bends is to board an airplane too soon. High end models are also able to keep track of the air supply in the scuba tanks.

When it comes to shopping for a dive computer, the consumer should identify how much information is provided on the display and if the display is clear and readable. They should also see what other features there are and what is being kept track of in terms of diving quantities. An excellent example of a quality divig computer would be the Suunto D9.