Deco planning?

[Vtach]

I use tables/timer primarily for the "big picture".  I guess that I don't really feel that timer/table is safer but it sure does promote solid dive planning with solid contingency planning.  You can use a computer/redundant computer,  but if you don't have a solid amount of experience planning your dives, it becomes too easy to be complacent and rely on the computer to do the thinking for you. 

I also like the ability to tweak a pretty wide variety of factors within the software generating the tables.  I'm not aware of a computer that can tweak the same amount of variables and still cost under $200.  Not that I'm against computers either but unless I'm doing a shitload of multilevel deco diving it is not really worth the expense for me.

For rec dives, I just take my "expensive" bottom timer and take it out of gauge mode. ;D