DukeAMO
Contributor
DukeAMO, I think your first couple suggestions files under buying equipment to solve a skill issue.
Rather than loading divers with more equipment to solve buddy loss, focus on improving their skills. Specifically for this problem: diver awareness, diver water comfort, and buddy contact.
Buddy contact btw, isn't just arms touching distance. It's also knowing where your buddy is located, having a gist of how they're feeling, and staying within eyeshot of them. Sometimes we (dive professionals) oversimplify it by saying "stay within touching distance".
Hm... I would not count teaching people how to get others' attention underwater as an equipment purchase issue at all. You need *something* to make a sound. Your buddy's not *always* going to be looking at you. Maybe you already have something that will work. (Tank bangers, BTW, are useless because they always get left behind on the empty tanks. I learned that one the hard way.)
As for the tank lights, I just think it might make life easier. In our AOW class, you could line up a few divers and it would take me a close look to recognize my own husband, because a lot of people had almost identical gear - black wetsuits with hoods, and blue fins. I usually identified him by his blue snorkel and orange wrist computer. I couldn't identify the 3rd buddy that was added to our group unless I could see the thin color band around her mask. It just makes it difficult to look around the group and see if your buddy/buddies are where you expect them to be.
I'm well aware that we still need to get better at swimming in formation - that's why I brought it up! But in the hoops course, where you have to go through one at a time, and you're focusing on the hoop for a minute... that was enough time for me to lose track of my buddies and have to figure out which ones they were again.
None of this should be a requirement, IMHO. I just think it could make life easier.