Has Anyone Seen Underwater Flares?

[DennisS]

Have you considered the pollution that goes with burning a flare underwater? What about "Take only pictures, leave only bubbles"?

They leave lots of bubbles

 

[gregmontalbano]

Road Flares work well underwater when lit on the surface, not that i'd know from experience or anything....

 

[captain]

1960 U S Divers aka Aqua Lung catalog cover.

http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-1960-AQ...ryZ74003QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[mk-ultra]

I know most road flares will continue to burn underwater... but *please* don't use them in water.

Road flares contain perchlorate, which has been shown to cause brain damage in unborn fetuses. The safe level of perchlorate in drinking water has been set at 2 parts *per billion*. That comes out to something like one drop of perchlorate in an Olympic sized swimming pool.

More of a concern for fresh water divers, to be sure... but it doesn't sound like it's a good idea to introduce this into the environment, anywhere. A lot of police and fire departments are abandoning incendiary road flares entirely because of this.

 

[String]

Im struggling to see any situation what so ever where an underwater flare would be of use.

 

[SkipperJohn]

I have a flair gun for my boat. You have to buy new flairs every 2 years & when you buy them it comes with 3 regular flairs (red) & 1 practice flair (white). After 12 years I have quite a collection of practice flairs so one year on the 4th of July I decided to try a practice flair. It went well. So I thought why not another. It misfired and just blooped out of the gun a total of 8 or 9 inches where it landed in the water and to my surprise continued to burn. The current drifted it under my fiberglass hull and from all around the boat I could see a bright light shinning. I must have run a total of 3 miles running back and forth across the 12 foot beam trying desperately to see the flair emerge from the side. This would have been an AFV $10,000 winner for sure! The flair never emerged. It just kind of got dimmer & eventually burnt out.
I stayed on the boat for at least 3 minutes ensuring a hole wasn't burning through the hull. I know it was unlikely but man was I nervous.
Later that year when the boat was hauled I looked for damage and there was none.
The next time I shoot a practice flair, if ever, it will be at sea & not the dock where I can maneuver to safety.
Who'd of thunk a flair could burn under water...

 

[wedivebc]

I think it would be really cool to have an underwater flare for night diving. Do these things even exist? Well, I know they exist because I've seen the underwater olympic torch. That thing uses an underwater flare inside of it. Does anyone here have any experience with these? Can I buy an underwater flare somewhere at a reasonable price?

Guess what this guy has in his hand?

 

[Sinbad the Diver]

Im struggling to see any situation what so ever where an underwater flare would be of use.

Bah.... Bond uses one when diving into wrecks at hundreds of feet after a HALO drop. I mean a flashlight would be so pedestrian, only a flare would truely provide the lighting necesary for such an adventure.

 

[Doc]

We used a lot of them in caves before we knew better and there was no other technology available.

 

[doole]

This is like so many of these threads that are like watching one of those 'Leave It To Beaver' episodes where you have to keep asking yourself why Beaver doesn't just tell Lumpy to get lost, already.

Get a light, for corn's sakes! Yer gonna scald yer dang self!