Dive Computers: A Guide for Recreational Divers

Tables used to be the only option. Today, nearly all recreational divers dive with a personal dive computer and it makes sense.

Your computer calculates depth, bottom time, speed of ascent, and no-decompression limits in real time. Tables give you a static plan. When you change depth partway this site through, a computer adjusts. A table can't.

Wrist computers are the most common use these days. They're compact, readable underwater, and you'll use them as a watch as well. Console-mount computers are still around but fewer divers go that way anymore.

Entry-level computers run about $300-odd and handle everything most divers requires. Features include depth tracking, time, NDL, a logbook, and usually an entry-level freediving mode. Stepping up to mid-range includes air integration, improved screens, and additional mix options.

The one thing buyers don't think about is how the computer handles. Certain algorithms are tighter than others. A tighter setting gives you reduced no-deco time. More aggressive algorithms allow longer time but with less buffer. Both work. It's what you're comfortable with and how experienced you are.

Check with people at a local dive store who dives with multiple brands before you decide. Staff will have honest opinions on what's good and what isn't marketing. Decent dive shops put out gear reviews and comparisons on their websites too