The Essential Backup Computer: Part 1: Undercurrent 01/2022

The Essential Backup Computer: Part 1

oh, are there stories to tell

from the January, 2022 issue of Undercurrent

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These days, a preponderance of divers recognize that having a backup computer is essential to continue your dive safely. If your primary were to fail, that second computer would let you get back into the water and continue with follow-up dives.

Undercurrent recently asked readers for details about their diving with backup computers, and we were inundated with interesting replies, many of which were quite telling.

The price of a backup computer equals the cost of one day of liveaboard diving.

Dive trips are awfully expensive these days. Each dive has a value that cannot be replaced if you need to sit out for 24 hours and subsequently lose three or four dives because your computer went into SOS mode, blocking you from further use.

Sometimes, this means a diver used his computer incorrectly, inadvertently or intentionally, and missed mandated deco stops, jeopardizing his health. Other times, it means the computer malfunctioned. As Laurel Fulton (Denver, CO) asks, "How many of you have been on liveaboards where someone had their main computer crap?" It happens more frequently than we'd like to believe.

Redundancy Does Rule

We've known divers who pay a hefty price to journey halfway around the world to dive but don't want to spring for a backup computer. Of course, that's ridiculous. As Mary McCombie (New Haven, CT) points out, "The price of a backup computer equals the cost of one day of liveaboard diving - cheap insurance in my book."...

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