Part Three: Conservatism and Gradient Factors With Jill Heinerth
Do you know what your Personal Factors are?
During this 3rd episode of 4 of Dive In, Suunto Ambassador, pioneering cave diver, adventurer and author Jill Heinerth takes a look at what are the personal factors on a Suunto device, and how to apply them.
Why would such a crucial piece of dive equipment, your dive computer, be any different in a world in which we can choose a product based on what is best suited for our individual needs?
Personal considerations should not be ignored, yet many divers never read deeply enough into the dive computer manual to realize that their software can be customized to suit the needs of a person. External factors can be considered, and the environment of dive computer conservatism can factor in risks for each dive. This is a very important part of planning healthier dives.
Jill also speaks about gradient variables, algorithms and teams on dive. Few people, or even teachers, actually understand how, or what are gradient factors working. She shines a light on how different models of decompression behave, and how dive buddies should work together, even if they dive according to different models of decompression.
Jill is still looking into the mystery of the deep-stop. As divers we still have a lot of work to do on them and there has been a lot of contradictory anecdotal advice over the years. There’s a lot of misinformation floating around social media and dive forums which contributes to a lot of confusion.
Make sure you tune in next week for the fourth, the final and bonus episode where Jill shares her story of getting “hit”.
