Nowadays, dive computers have become essential pieces of kit, with dive tables rendered almost obsolete in the recreational world as training agencies modified their courses to focus on computer usage. The advent of air integration, first via the high-pressure hose and later by wireless transmitter, gave divers a complete source of information in a single device. In 1997, wristwatch-sized computers, as at home in the office as they are underwater, became available. By continuously re-calculating no-decompression limits throughout the dive, computers significantly extended bottom time over the maximum depth-based calculations of tables. Using algorithms based on the work of Albert Bühlmann – the godfather of decompression theory – the chunky, grey, wrist-strapped box remains a nostalgic favourite of divers around the world.ĭuring the 1990s, as technology rapidly advanced and scuba diving became a more affordable leisure activity, divers started to ditch their watches and dive tables in favour of computers. In 1987, UWATEC’s iconic Aladin Pro took the market by storm. It was in 1983 though, that Swiss manufacturer Divetronic AG released the Hans Hass DecoBrain, widely credited as the first digital dive computer capable of displaying the information in the form with which we are familiar today. Mark ‘Crowley’ Russell helps you pick the right one for your diving and inclinations.ĭive computer history dates back to the 1950s when the first analogue ‘decompression calculators’ were tested by the US Navy. Photo: Alfred Minnaar Dive computers in today’s scuba diving world are as ubiquitous as smartphones at the surface.
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