Orca Skinny Dipper Instructions

The Orca Skinny Dipper (also marketed as the Marathon) dive computer is an essential piece of the diving kit for the avid SCUBA diver. The computer supplies the diver with important information including ascent and descent rates, alarm, dive time, time remaining, and depth, among others. Orca was one of the first companies to produce robust, easy to read digital dive computers. The company has since gone out of business, but their computers are still widely used.

Instructions

    • 1

      Turn on the unit by turning the battery housing knob, located on the lower, left corner of the unit, clockwise all the way until the display lights up. To turn off the unit, or to remove the battery, turn the knob counterclockwise. The unit must only be turned off while on the surface of the water to properly calibrate it.

    • 2

      Look at the screen for any error messages pertaining to low battery life or computer error in the seconds after you power it on, these are normal screen displays that are displayed to show the user what to look out for while diving. After a few seconds, the computer should enter 'surface mode', allowing you to plan your dive.

    • 3

      Look at the two upper windows on the face of the computer. Each window will cycle through various depths (Depth) and the amount of time (Safe) you can spend at each. These times do not reflect the amount of air you have in your tanks, but the amount of time you can safely stay at each level relating to nitrogen levels that will be created in your blood stream.

    • 4

      Check the display, after it has cycled through all the depths and safe dive times to be spent at each to get a readout of your last dive. The 'Safe' window now displays the amount of time you should wait before flying on an airplane, the 'Depth' and 'Elapsed Time' windows will now display the maximum depth and total elapsed time of your last dive.

    • 5

      Enter the water. Once you descend below 6 feet, the computer will change from 'surface mode' to 'dive' mode. The upper window, now labeled 'safe time remaining' will tell you how long you can remain at that depth before at least one of your tissues reaches the theoretical nitrogen over pressure limit, or no-decompression time. This time limit should not be exceeded. The more your descend, the shorter this time will be come and vice versa for ascents. The middle window will indicate your current depth in feet in sea water. The bottom window will indicate the elapsed time, in minutes, of your dive since the computer entered 'dive mode.'