A lot of people came out of the woodwork to say they wouldn't trust a dive toy to keep them safe under water, after I wrote about Apple Watch Ultra's new Scuba diving feature. I respect their opinion, but I wanted to tell you why I trust Apple on my scuba diving adventures. You need to read an opinion piece about scuba diving. Let's go.
Scuba-diving veterans Suunto should be terrified of the Apple Watch Ultra
Scuba diving isn't without risk, and you are responsible for your own safety, so first things first. Don't use the Apple Watch Ultra if you don't feel comfortable with it to keep track of your diving safety.
I will let you know why I am doing that.
To understand why the Scuba thing is such a big deal on the Apple Watch Ultra, and why I have no qualms trusting it, I will need to nerd out for a bit. All of this is old news if you are a certified scuba diver.
Decompression sickness is also known as the bends. When you breathe in compressed air it can cause a lot of symptoms. It was first discovered when workers were working in caves. It can happen when you travel in a plane that isn't pressurized.
The air we breathe has a mixture of Nitrogen, Oxygen, and Other in it. If you breathe pure oxygen under the ocean, it can become toxic and cause a seizure. That is bad news when you are submerged.
Scuba divers don't dive with pure oxygen but with compressed air or oxygen enriched air. As you breathe in the Nitrogen in the air in the Scuba tanks, the gas is dissolved in your blood and can cause problems. There are no bubbles when the bottle is not open. You have a fountain of sticky gunk when you shake it and open it. The bubbles in your blood can come out of solution if you come up from depth too quickly.
I have a pose called "I haven't the foggiest idea" If you follow me on dives, you will see that. I wear my watch face on the inside of my wrist in order to make it easy to look at as I ascend. You can see the gauge cluster tucked into my cumberbund, which includes the compass, and on the other side, an air pressure gauge to see how much air is left in my scuba tank. Haje Kamps is the author of the image credit.
A dive computer is designed to make sure that you don't over-load your blood and tissues with Nitrogen and that you surface slowly enough that bubbles don't form. Diving is safe if you limit how long you breathe at pressure and if you surface at a reasonable rate.
If you want to know more about bubbles in liquids, start there.
There are two parts to a good dive computer. A pressure gauge and a clock are the most important features of a dive computer. The dive computer keeps track of how long you stay at a certain depth. The key thing is that it keeps track of things so you don't have to.
It's important that you don't have to. You will learn how to use dive tables when you begin scuba diving. The problem is that most divers don't keep detailed logs of how long they are in the water. You have to dive less to be conservative. A dive computer is a better solution for people who don't want to spend a lot of money on a dive trip.
I think people are wrong to doubt Apple because they don't trust it to do the right thing. Apple watches are great at recording activity and steps.
How much nitrogen is in your body is the last piece of the puzzle. Some tissues are slower in releasing nitrogen than others, and each body has its own quirks. I would be very skeptical if Apple said that it had designed its own diving programs. The company announced that it had formed a partnership with Oceanic to develop an app for that side of things.
I don't like scuba diving. The photo was taken in a Cenote, a cave.
Oceanic is a well-known brand in diving and they have a line of dive computers. The company is working on an app that will be better than Apple's maps app. It is similar to that. In today's Apple event, Oceanic mentioned that they use Bhlmann's methods. There are differing opinions on whether or not that is the right algo to use, some divers prefer the RGBM algorithm, and some dive tables are based on Haldane's work.
I trust Apple to make good equipment. I trust the creation of software by Oceanic. The nitrogen loading is calculated with the help of the algos.
There is a point to be made about Apple watches failing rarely. I hope that they are taking the same approach as most dive computers, which is to fail safe. There is a display on some dive computers that saysmalfunction. The screen is turned off for others. That can be frightening, but it doesn't mean you're going to die.
I am a PADI certified divemaster and a SSI certified rescue diver. I am able to lead dives of certified divers because of that. It means that I know what I am talking about, but it also means that dive nerds will be able to find mistakes in the article. If you spot mistakes, please forgive me. It's possible to send me a message on my phone.
Would it hugely suck to have to fall back on a backup plan? Of course. But only because it ruins your day, not because it’ll kill you. Haje Kamps
In my role as a dive master, I usually use two dive computers, a D9 and a Zoop, if you're interested. The latter could be worn frequently. The latter has a resemblance to a hockey puck. You would look silly if you wore it around. It is possible that there is a backup. As a dive master you are expected to keep an eye on your group. I wouldn't be able to dive any more that day if my dive computer failed. It would be terrible. I will take a spare. My dive computer has never failed in my hundreds of dives.
If I were to use the Apple Watch Ultra as my primary dive computer, I would probably have a backup in my buoyancy compensator. If the Apple watch fails, that isn't really a life threatening problem.
If a piece of gear fails, you have to do drills for what to do. It's important to get to the surface. Every dive setup has a depth gauge as part of the gear. You know how deep you are. You can get to the surface if you follow the smallest bubble. Go up to the surface as slowly as you can find the smallest air bubble you can find. It's slow enough to avoid the sickness.
Underwater navigation is included in scuba dive training. We had a 30 minute swim back to the boat after the less talked about Will here. Haje Kamps is the author of the image credit.
The presumption of a buddy system is one of the points here. For most of the dive, you dive with someone else that stays with you. It is not unreasonable to trust their computer to be a mirror of your own dive profile if your computer fails. You will probably make it to the boat if you pad that with a bit of extra slowness. Even if your dive master doesn't have a computer that works, they can act as a proxy for your nitrogen-loading if you need it. It doesn't matter if it's not recommended or not, you'll probably make it back to the boat.
Is it really that bad to have to fall back on any of the backups? It would be a terrible thing. It won't kill you, but it will ruin your day. You have trust in your dive computer to keep you safe. It means the end of the diving day for a conservative diver if you don't have it. If the malfunction happened on a dive one of a five-dive-day, but it doesn't mean that your life is at risk, it sucks.
One of the best hardware manufacturers in the world is Apple. If you put time and a pressure gauge into a device, it will most likely be fine. Even if I don't lead a dive, I will still have a dive buddy with me and a dive master. If I don't have any other equipment with me, the worst case scenario is that I miss a day of diving.
I need to convince them to let me go to Sipadan for a week to hang out with a bunch of tropical fish. I promise to thoroughly review the Apple Watch Ultra.
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