Earlier at this time I wrote a chunk about Apple Watch Ultra’s new Scuba diving characteristic, and a whole lot of of us got here out of the woodwork to inform me they wouldn’t belief a ‘dive toy’ to maintain them secure underneath water. I respect their opinion, however I figured I’d share why I really feel totally comfy trusting Apple on my scuba-diving adventures. Because, clearly, it’s good to learn a 1,800-word opinion piece the place I nerd out about scuba diving. Let’s gooooooo.

First issues first; I’m not right here to persuade individuals who don’t belief Apple in any other case; Scuba diving isn’t with out threat, and you’re chargeable for your individual security. If you don’t really feel comfy with the Apple Watch Ultra to maintain observe of your dive security, then there’s a very easy resolution: Don’t use it.

I’ve no qualms about doing so, nevertheless, and I’ll let you know why.

A little bit of nerdy dive idea

To perceive why the Scuba factor is such an enormous deal on the Apple Watch Ultra, and why I’ve no qualms trusting it, I’ll must, only for a second, nerd out about spending time underwater for a second. If you’re Scuba licensed, all of that is previous information, be at liberty to skip forward.

You might have heard of decompression sickness, or ‘the bends’. It’s a nasty set of signs that may happen whenever you breathe compressed air at strain. These days, it comes up most frequently in Scuba diving, nevertheless it was initially found when employees have been working in caves. It can even occur whenever you journey in unpressurized plane, and it’s one thing astronauts fear about as effectively.

In a nutshell: the air we breathe has round 78% Nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 1% ‘other’ in it. The oxygen could be a downside – in the event you breathe pure oxygen at simply 6 meters / 20 ft or so underneath the ocean, it turns into poisonous, and you’ll have a seizure. As you’ll be able to think about, that’s dangerous information whenever you’re underwater.

However, leisure scuba divers don’t dive with pure oxygen, however as a substitute with compressed air, or oxygen-enriched air. Either approach, there’s sometimes between 78% and 65% Nitrogen within the air in Scuba tanks, and that’s the fuel that causes issues; as you breathe it, the fuel dissolves in your blood, and very similar to a soda bottle underneath strain. When the bottle is closed, there’s no seen bubbles. Shake it and open it, and immediately you have got a fountain of sticky goo. Your blood is like that, when underneath strain: Come up from depth too quick, and the bubbles in your blood might come out of resolution, which may trigger all types of nasty signs.

This is my ‘I haven’t the foggiest thought’ pose. You’ll see that loads in the event you’re following me round on dives. Gear to concentrate to on this picture: I’m carrying my Suunto D9 watch (I’m carrying it with the watch face on the within of my wrist, as a result of it makes it straightforward to have a look at as I’m ascending). You can even see the gauge cluster tucked into my cumberbund, which incorporates the compass (seen), and on the opposite aspect, an air strain gauge to see how a lot air is left in my scuba tank, and a depth gauge to see how deep I’m. Image Credit: TechCrunch / Haje Kamps

A dive pc is designed to make sure that you don’t over-load your blood and tissues with Nitrogen, and that you just floor slowly sufficient that bubbles don’t kind. In brief: If you restrict how lengthy you breathe at strain, and in the event you floor at an affordable charge, diving is fairly secure.

If you actually need to nerd out on bubbles in liquids, begin at Boyle–Mariotte’s law, and go from there. #SCIENCE!

Why I belief Apple with my diving

There’s two facets to a superb dive pc: Instrumentation, logging, and algorithms. The instrumentation is straightforward: Dive computer systems have a whole lot of options, however the essential one is a strain gauge and a clock. The dive pc logs how lengthy you’re at sure depths, and retains observe of that with a sure decision. Some dive computer systems report that each 10 seconds, some each 30, and a few kind of usually, however the important thing factor is that it retains observe of issues, so that you don’t should.

The ‘so you don’t should’ half is essential. When you discover ways to scuba dive, you’ll discover ways to use so-called ‘dive tables’. Basically, these have been designed by the US Navy for its divers, to make sure that in the event you stayed, say, 20 minutes at 10 meters depth, you might calculate how lengthy you’ll be able to dive in your subsequent dive. The downside is that dive tables assume that you just preserve detailed logs of how lengthy you’re at which depth, which you might do, however most divers don’t. To be conservative, then, it’s good to dive loads much less. Lots of people pay good cash to go on dive journeys, and also you don’t pay all that cash to sit down on a dive boat ready for the nitrogen to offgas, so a greater resolution is a dive pc.

People doubting Apple achieve this as a result of they don’t belief the Cupertino-based large to do the above precisely; however that’s the place I believe they’re mistaken. Apple watches are distinctive at logging issues; steps, coronary heart charges, exercise; it’s all being logged.

The remaining piece of the puzzle is the algorithms to calculate how a lot nitrogen is in your physique. This is a bit bit advanced; some tissues tackle and launch nitrogen slower than others, and every physique is completely different. If Apple had stated that it had designed its personal dive algorithms, I’d be extremely sceptical. That didn’t occur, although; the corporate introduced that it had partnered with Oceanic to develop an app to deal with that aspect of issues.

Ugh I miss scuba diving. This picture was taken in a Cenote (a cavern system) in Tulum Image Credit: TechCrunch / Haje Kamps

Oceanic is a widely known, well-respected model in diving, they usually have their own line of dive computers. The firm is growing an app — bear in mind how TomTom and Garmin had mapping apps within the early days of smartphones as a result of they have been higher than Apple at mapping? It’s like that. In at this time’s Apple occasion, Oceanic talked about that they use Bühlmann’s algorithms for nitrogen loading and unloading. You can argue whether or not or not that’s the precise algo to make use of; some divers desire the RGBM algorithm,  there’s VVAL, and a few dive tables are primarily based on Haldane’s work (though I haven’t seen that one within the wild, ever, it seems to be extra of a historic artifact).

Regardless, I belief Apple to make good {hardware} and log its measurements. I belief Oceanic to create software program to maintain divers secure. And I belief the algos they’ve chosen to calculate the nitrogen loading.

Does that imply you’re trusting Apple along with your life?

The attention-grabbing level to make right here is that Apple watches hardly ever fail. But even when they do — or if Oceanic’s app glitches — I hope that they’re taking the identical method as most dive computer systems, which is to fail-safe. For some dive computer systems, meaning a show that simply says ‘malfunction’. For others, they simply flip the display screen off. As a diver, that may be tremendous scary, however that doesn’t imply you’re going to die.

Personally, I’m a PADI-certified divemaster, and a SSI-certified rescue diver. That doesn’t make me infallible, nevertheless it does imply I’m allowed to guide dives of licensed divers. In idea, it additionally signifies that I do know what I’m speaking about, however I’m 99% certain that dive nerds will be capable of discover a mistake or two on this article. Forgive me, and in the event you spot errors, I dunno. Tweet me on my cellphone or one thing.

In my function as a dive grasp, I often dive with two dive computer systems (a Suunto D9 and a Suunto Zoop, in the event you’re curious). The former appears like a wristwatch and could possibly be worn commonly. The latter appears like a hockey puck. You can put on it round, however you’d look slightly foolish. Either approach, it signifies that there’s a backup. The motive I do that is that as a dive grasp, you’re anticipated to regulate the individuals in your group. If my dive pc have been to fail, it will imply I couldn’t dive any extra that day. That would suck. So I’ll carry a spare. In my a whole lot of dives, I’ve by no means had a dive pc fail – neither my major nor my backup.

If I have been to dive with the Apple Watch Ultra as my major dive pc, I’d most likely have a backup caught in a pocket of my buoyancy compensator (that’s the vest-looking factor that the scuba tank is strapped to). But even when I didn’t, if the Apple watch fails by some means, that isn’t, in itself, a really life-threatening downside.

An enormous quantity of Scuba diving coaching is aimed toward drills for what you do if a chunk of substances malfunctions. Getting safely to the floor is an important side of that. Without a dive pc, you’re swimming ‘blind’ – however virtually each dive setup has a depth gauge as a part of the gear. That signifies that you know the way deep you’re. Even with out that, you may get safely to the floor by ‘following the smallest bubble’. In different phrases: Breathe out, search for the smallest air bubble you could find, and go as much as the floor as slowly as that bubble. That is usually gradual sufficient to keep away from decompression illness.

Scuba dive coaching contains a whole lot of expertise, together with underwater navigation. The much less stated about my good friend Will right here, and the 30 minute swim we had again to the boat, the higher. Image Credit: TechCrunch / Haje Kamps

The different level right here is that almost all leisure dive certifications embrace the presumption of a buddy system. That signifies that in your dives, you dive with one other diver that stays with you for many of the dive. You shouldn’t do that, after all, but when your dive pc fails, it’s not fully unreasonable to belief their pc to be a comparatively shut mirror of your individual dive profile. Pad that with a bit of additional slowness and care, and also you’ll most likely make it safely to the boat. And, after all, even when your dive buddy doesn’t have a pc that works, your dive grasp most likely will, to allow them to act as a proxy in your nitrogen-loading if wanted. You shouldn’t, it isn’t really helpful, and it doesn’t matter: The level I’m making is that you just’ll most likely make it safely again to the boat.

Now, wouldn’t it massively suck to should fall again on any of the backup plans? Of course it will suck. But solely as a result of it ruins your day, not as a result of it’ll kill you. At that time, you’ve trusted your dive pc to maintain you secure. Without it, you don’t understand how a lot nitrogen is in your physique, which implies the top of the diving day for a conservative diver. It sucks, particularly if the malfunction occurred on dive certainly one of a five-dive-day, nevertheless it doesn’t inherently imply that your life is in danger.

This is why I belief Apple: It’s among the finest {hardware} producers on the planet. Implementing some fairly fundamental instrumentation (time and a strain gauge), into a tool will most likely be simply advantageous. If I’m main a dive, I’ll have a backup with me, however even when I don’t, I’ll have a dive buddy with me, and a dive grasp. And even when I’ve no different gear with me in any respect, the worst-case state of affairs is that I miss a day of diving.

Now I simply must persuade TechCrunch to let me go and relax in Sipadan for every week to go hang around with a bunch of tropical fish. I promise to offer the Apple Watch Ultra an exceptionally thorough overview.