Alert devices???

[ScubaDadMiami]

How are you people coming up from a dive in Cozumel away from the boat?

Sometimes the wind blows in one direction, and the current goes in another.

 

[Detonate]

Anytime I've dove Cozumel, the boat follows our bubbles, and when the first buddy team surfaces, the DM floats his bouy, and everyone comes up on the bouy.

I can't imagine ever coming up anywhere except on the bouy.

 

[ScubaDadMiami]

Anytime I've dove Cozumel, the boat follows our bubbles, and when the first buddy team surfaces, the DM floats his bouy, and everyone comes up on the bouy.

I can't imagine ever coming up anywhere except on the bouy.

We don't go with a DM. We do our own thing.

 

[Web Monkey]

How are you people coming up from a dive in Cozumel away from the boat?

Torn BC inflator hose (the corrugated rubber one) on a drift dive.

Surfaced and no boat.

You would have to ask them why they weren't there.

Terry

 

[lairdb]

I starting to believe the air powered whistles are the way to go.

There's an argument to be made that you *could* be out of air and need to signal, so the lung-powered whistle isn't a bad idea, but it's a WAY distant second to a DiveAlert.

I have a small plastic whistle clipped off in a pocket just in case (next to the mirror and (sometimes) dye marker) but the DiveAlert is primary, and comes along every time, installed and ready.

 

[Charlie99]

How are you people coming up from a dive in Cozumel away from the boat?

In my case, it was because we deviated from standard procedures without sufficient communication. I was diving with Scuba Du, usually in a group of 6 to 8 with a lead DM and a trail DM. I was finishing most of my dives with more than 1/2 a tank left. Towards the end of one dive, as we were headed towards the shallows, the lead DM asked me how much air, then made underwater signs that I understood as a query as to whether I wanted to go back out to the wall and drift a bit more. The lead DM and I left the other divers and the trail DM doing their safety stops and headed back out to the wall for another 15 or 20 minutes of drift. Apparently the trail DM didn't realize we were going back out to the wall, and thought that we had stayed in the shallows, where there is much less current. The boat wasn't figuring on us doing that long of drift and was looking for us well upcurrent from where we surfaced. It wasn't really a safety issue since the shore was within easy swimming distance.

The boat was about 1/3 mile away and heard the Dive Alert over engine noise. The othe divers onboard described it as a godawful screech.

Nowdays I do carry my own DSMB and probably would have popped it to the surface for our swim back out to the wall, so the boat would know that the group had split.

 

[mwn]

I would think it better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

 

[Chad Carney]

http://www.itwnexus.com/catalog/ind...75?PHPSESSID=b52e4566004e62dc2fe44fcbf02ee509
.

This is by far the worst whistle I've ever come across!
It takes more lung power for the puny sound it makes compared any other! It's the one Zeagle buys for our BCs, and I think we'd be better off liability-wise to provide a better one like a Storm whistle.

Over deisel engines, no whistle holds a candle to a Dive Alert!

It's not just emergency gear, we give a single toot when we've ascended from every dive, unless next to the boat.

Chad

 

[caymaniac]

Coming up away from the boat..........Diving with a group of 9 in Cozumel, the drift dive in a ripping current took 6 of the group in one direction and one diver plus my wife and I in another direction. What do you expect the Op to do?
1. Go to the smallest group?
2. Call in another boat to find their divers?
This is Mexico, they did niether of the above. They picked up the largest group and then looked for us. The problem was we ended up nearly a mile from the group of 6. In fact we first couldnt see the boat or any boat (that was exciting). We were in the water along time before another dive boat did see us and radioed our dive Op. (Del-Mar aquatics)
You can say what you want, but that current in Coz. can be dangerous. There is no way we could have stayed with the rest of the group. This is not a place for begginners, and not a place for those who could panick. Yea, you went there and had some great diving, but were you aware this could hapen to you and your family? I wasn't. Since this happened to me I will never suggest Coz. to inexperienced divers.
Dive Safe,
Caymaniac

 

[Charlie99]

What do you expect the Op to do?
1. Go to the smallest group?

As a matter of fact, one dive op in Maui routinely includes in their briefing the sequence in which they will pick up divers on the surface:

anyone in distress
single women
other single divers
buddy pairs
groups

It's easier to find 6 divers than to find a smaller group.