PADI, diving and Instructor Development (IDC)

sport recreation

Posted: 13 Aug 2011 05:17 PM PDT

Daily weather updates for tropical island destination Koh Samui in Thailand by long term resident Camille Lemmens

PADI, diving and Instructor Development (IDC) around Thailand: Suunto M5 [del.icio.us]

Posted: 13 Aug 2011 10:03 AM PDT

Review of the Suunto M5, a versatile multi-sport exercise wrist watch/computer by award winning Platinum PADI Course Director Camille Lemmens

Suunto M5

Posted: 13 Aug 2011 10:00 AM PDT

Suunto M5

This M5 is a 'Versatile guidance for multi-sport exercise' as Suunto puts it. In my case, it's a wristwatch that monitors my running activities.

You may wonder what this has got to do with diving, well, for me it's not too difficult. If I want to keep my self in a healthy shape and keep fit for diving. I need to do something else than just standing in a classroom teaching PADI IDC's as a PADI Course Director and sitting in front of a computer, where I spend too much time if I'm not teaching or spending time with my family. My running activities which help me to stay in shape and fit, were screaming for a tool just like the Suunto M5.

To me, it has a lot to do with my diving, although it's mostly indirectly.

The picture above shows the actual wristwatch but also the three add-ons. The package comes with a heart rate monitor wrist belt and an optional foot POD (also available for cycling and GPS only) which tracks speed and distance and an optional mini USB stick, the Movestick mini which is compatible with my 64-bit computer and transfers my training data to Movescount.com.

My running 'career' started last year around January and since a few months I was considering buying a running computer. Initially I didn't even know that Suunto made anything ouside of diving computer, so I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they among other also had running computers.

Since I start using the M5 my information gathering is much more precise which was exactly what I was looking. The heart rate monitor goes around your chest and sends all kind of information like your current heart rate and Calories burning to your wristwatch. The watch itself allows various functions that are easy to access and control like; Automatically adapting training program for the next 7 days (fitness improvement, weight management, free training) and workout suggestion: ideal duration and intensity or recovery time suggestion after exercise. All very handy.

The display is big enough but unfortunately only one piece of information is displayed in a big format and with my relatively bad eye sight, it's difficult to see the smaller additional information. That's the only thing I can think of that could be improved.

It's a great computer and I'm very happy with it and recommend the M5 for anyone who's looking for a multi-functional sport and exercise watch.

amille