Standardized Hand Signals for Remaining Air

[EFX]

Never. But I have signaled 250 (show 2 and then 5) on a few dives. This is always followed by a thumbs up which in open water means I'm going to the surface now skipping any safety stops. (In a cavern or cave thumbs up is terminate the dive and head for the exit making any required deco or safety stops).

So no one gets the wrong impression, the dives I did above ended with 450-500 psi at safety stops (when required), and were followed by practicing skills in 10-20 ft of water taking the remaining gas to 250.

 

[lermontov]

So no one gets the wrong impression, the dives I did above ended with 450-500 psi at safety stops (when required), and were followed by practicing skills in 10-20 ft of water taking the remaining gas to 250.

glad you cleared that up

 

[EricTheDood]

God gave us ears and vocal chords for a reason.

Buddy: *gurgle*?
Me: *gurgle*.
Buddy:

 

[clownfishsydney]

Since everyone here uses bar, we do not have problems wondering if it is PSI or bar that is being talked about. We use a very simple method as follows. If pressure is 150 bar, then you show 1 finger followed by 5 fingers. For 100 bar, 1 finger, for 70 bar, 5 fingers followed by 2 fingers. The only possible confusion could be someone showing 1 finger who means 10 bar, but with the people I dive with, you would know if this was the case as it would be about an hour into the dive.

 

[Colliam7]

I was taught (PADI Instructor) 1,2,3,4,5 fingers up or 6,7,8,9 fingers down and circle for zero. I was with another PADI instructor for a leisure dive yesterday who "misinterpreted" my five fingers up to mean 1,000 as opposed to 500 because he "thought he saw me flash it twice." . . . My question being, what is the PADI (and other organizations) standards in air signals? If there are several, then why is this not standardized?

Great questions! And, as turisops points out, there really isn't a 'standard', at least not one of which that I am aware. I was taught, and subsequently teach my students, the same approach that you learned. It is summarized in the video that kevrumbo shared. A difference - I don't roll my hand to the horizontal position for the 'zero', but that is a minor variation. I find that - once a student learns this approach - communication of remaining air supply is easy. But, it is a learned skill.

Some thoughts, reading the responses.

1. Sometimes, if a student is having trouble with the hand signals, or gives me a response that doesn't make sense, I will swim to them and look directly at their SPG. I tell them that I want them to try hand signals first, they need to learn the skill of using hand signals. I don't want them to simply hold up their SPG because I may or may not be able to read it if I am 3 ft away.
2. I dive and teach in a psi world. So, it was informative to see that the video clip involves bar numbers. The system works well for both, as far as I can tell.
3. In my psi world, I tell students that I only want the first 2 digits - if they have 2400, I want to see a '2' then a '4' - communicated as two fingers up, then 4 fingers up. If they have 1750, I want to see a '1', then a '7' - communicated as 1 finger up, then two fingers extended with the hand in the horizontal position. I don't need 4 digits. Thinking about that approach after seeing the video clip, I wonder if in a bar world I would ask for 3 numbers. CFS's comments seem to suggest that 2 digits still works in that case.

Why aren't these signals standardized? I honestly thought they were, after I took my OW class, only to find out later that they are apparently not. But, from my perspective, the one 'standard' that should be followed is having SOME system, that is communicated and agreed during the pre-dive briefing, i.e. before ever getting in the water. When I work with AOW studnets who may have learned a different system in their OW training, the important thing for me is making sure I can understand whatever they are using.. I will still ask them to try 'my' way. But, I will accept their approach, as long as I know what it is before we submerge.

 

[Storker]

Why aren't these signals standardized?

Maybe because the "standard" hand signals for warm-water wusses who are so spoiled that they can dive bare-handed don't work very well for cold-water divers using three-fingers or mittens? Besides, PADI claims that the "zero" is the right sign for "OK" if you're wearing thick gloves (which is pretty stupid since there's no problem giving a proper "OK" in three-fingers)

Try showing "two", "three", "seven" or "eight" in three-finger gloves. Or the pinkie "deco" signal. Heck, even "five" is ambiguous unless you've discussed hand signals during the pre-dive chat. Which probably is the reason that the fist is popular for "five" up here.

 

[Steve_C]

I do not care what system my buddy uses. If they do it fast as many do, it is hard to follow. We discuss it before the dive and then I tell them do it real slow and deliberate. If they ignore me and look like someone on speed speaking brail I just take a look at their SPG.

 

[jodylynn007]

Wow indeed there are lots of variations... most of the time I dive with a familiar buddy (or solo) and since my regular buddy is rebreather (I am open circuit), I am never told by him about when our dive is ending... my plan is always to do a "circle" in the air for turn around at around half a tank, or depending on the site, assuming it is familiar to us, at our turn around air remaining time (for me - could be half a talk, could be 1000 psi), and then we turn around, ascend as the site dictates, and head "home". I only share my psi remaining if I am getting low and we need to pick-up the pace due to too many photo stops or if I need to get to shore to use the bathroom

Thinking of vacation diving... the T sign has been very commonly used as of late and I quite like it actually. It gives the DM-led dives a good indication of who is the quickest to use up their air (and decide when to head back to the boat or turn the group) and then that same diver can let the DM know when they are "low" on air and want to head up because likely we are circling underneath it by that point because the DM has done such a great job by knowing what our group's half way mark was.

 

[Frontpointer1000]

This has been a great topic. I've learned alot from everyone. It has always intrigued me concerning the dogma of some divers concerning certain issues and how hotly debated the issues become.
Naturally regionality of air pressure hand signs is one of these. I usually just ask the DM what he/she prefers and use that. It surprises me how regional and how varied these particular signs are. I do prefer to use cave diving signage PERSONALLY (fingers up for 1-5, fingers to the side for 6-9).

Also interesting, two resources I went back to had the following.
From Rod Abbotson's dive theory study guide for PADI (copyright 2010 Dive Aqaba), he reviews the "25 PADI standard diving signs" and nowhere in there is any thing regarding time, pressure, etc. (Except of course low on air and out of air).

RSTC (RECREATIONAL SCUBA TRAINING COUNCIL) produced the "Common Hand signals for recreational scuba diving" effective Dec 2005.
This was approved by YSCUBA/YMCA, PADI, SSI, IDEA, SDI, PDIC.
I'm sure there was some amount of inter-group politics to facilitate this, but nonetheless there was also no mention of time/pressure hand signs. I found that very interesting.

Take home: I imagine there is alot of variance that many can't agree on in determining the "gold standard". So they don't address the issue at all.

 

[Steve_C]

I get instabuddies from time to time. Usually I wind up as lead. I do not assume they will let me know about air pressure. I now do not assume that they even know about NDL without checking. I make a point of checking their consumption a couple of times early in the dive to get an idea of their air consumption and plan our dive accordingly. Couple of months ago very experienced Buddy and I were on Nitrox. New to us Instabuddy was on air. We were at 100 ft on their first deep dive on an offshore ledge (they claimed to be experienced and had good buoyancy and looked comfortable in the water). When doing an air check I noted she was getting low on NDL. We sent her up with another air diver who was starting up. On the boat we explained why we had sent her up and she said what is NDL? We had a little lesson about NDL and what it meant and how to read her rental computer before dive number 2. Turns out all her dives had been pretty shallow and she was unfamiliar with her rental computer and had been certified a few years ago.

Before there are the rants about not having instabuddies, we were offshore, she needed a buddy. This is not theory or philosophy. This is reality. She was a lot better off with us than somebody who would go off and leave her.