Benefits Of A Dive Computer For Spearfishing

Today we are talking about some of the reasons why we use dive computers when we're spearfishing.

You can read the blog below or watch our video on this topic here:

The main reason we use a dive computer when we're spearfishing is basically to record our recovery time between dives. This is the time between you reaching the surface from your previous dive and before you duck dive down for your next dive. This time period is really crucial for safety as this is the period when your muscles are re-oxygenating, your blood is re-oxygenating. What happens if you're diving too soon after your last dive, you're greatly increasing the risk of shallow water blackout. As a general rule of thumb, you want your surface interval to be equivalent to three times your last dive. So if your last dive was a minute in total, you want to have a three minute surface interval. Of course this is based on a perfect scenario where you're not swimming, you're not in current, you're not fighting a fish. There's just basically sitting there relaxing. Anything you add to this, you're going to want to increase your surface interval.

Among other things, the dive watch, it’s going to give you your depth. A lot of people want to know how deep they've dived. That's a good way that you can show yourself some improvements. You can see how you're tracking for the day. They also keep all of your dives logged. You can look back through this later and see how you've gone for the day.

 Another really important one for spearfishing is most of these watches have temperature built-in. So the temperature is really crucial for certain fish species. Like some species may only be present if the water temp hits a certain point and that's going to give you a really good idea of where to start looking for the fish on that day. The other thing the dive watch is good for, is just being a regular watch, it keeps the time. So you got to get home for an appointment or you got to be somewhere, you've got a waterproof watch.

In addition to this, you can also set certain alarms. The different depth alarms are really good for making sure you're staying safe within your limits. However, I say that you should never use a computer to set your limits. You've got to do what your body is telling you to do on that day. Just because you've dived a certain time or depth on a previous day, it doesn't mean you'll necessarily be able to do it on this current day.

Thanks for reading. If you'd like to see more gear overviews and tips we have loads of content on our blog or YouTube channel so be sure to check it out. Or if you have any other questions get in contact with us via live chat, email or visit one of our stores our spearfishing experts will be happy to help out.