Is wearing bright, visible colors underwater useful?

[TSandM]

I like colored stuff. Not only are white and yellow (and to a lesser extent, orange and red) easier to see in low viz, but colors make other divers easier to sort out. There is nothing worse than having eight or ten DIR divers converge on an octopus in the dark -- everybody in a black drysuit, grey doubles, black hood, canister light, Jet fins. I like to go home with the person I came to the party with, and colors make that easier to do . . .

 

[Crush]

You can buy 3M reflective tape - the same reflective material that is incorporated into firefighter overgarments, etc.. I stick some of this tape on my fins and replace it as necessary. Several times people have commented on night dives that following me was incredibly easy.

 

[Frosty]

A gimmicky piece of kit being advertised here on Trade me (ebay) is a flashing LED that fits to your first stage. I did kinda wonder about it for low vis diving.

 

[g1138]

I like colored stuff. Not only are white and yellow (and to a lesser extent, orange and red) easier to see in low viz, but colors make other divers easier to sort out. There is nothing worse than having eight or ten DIR divers converge on an octopus in the dark -- everybody in a black drysuit, grey doubles, black hood, canister light, Jet fins. I like to go home with the person I came to the party with, and colors make that easier to do . . .

Just the image of that made me laugh. I'd love to get a picture of that happening

 

[g1138]

A gimmicky piece of kit being advertised here on Trade me (ebay) is a flashing LED that fits to your first stage. I did kinda wonder about it for low vis diving.

Flashing lights ruin your night vision even more than constant light. You eyes have to constantly adjust to a bright light then no light, back and forth over and over. I think strobes and flashing lights should only be used to mark a return line or something stationary, not as a diver marker.

For night diving I use a glow stick looped around my tank valve (I use a hair tie or a zip tie). In high particle, low viz waters there's not much you can do.

 

[Krazytomdiver]

As a dive guide, in low viz I perfer using torches instead of depending on bright equipment colors. I have found many U/W photograghers that have been seperated a lot sooner than a wandering rainbow diver.

"living life without a hard bottom"
KT

 

[Kilili]

I like bright colours. It's my nature, and makes it much easier to find my suit in the drying rack. Underwater, perhaps I'll be viewed as a very large bad tasting nudibranch and not get eaten. Those all in black remind me of fish food.

I guess if I had a buddy, bright colors would make it easier to spot him/her. However, in general, I can never remember who is wearing what.

Those all in black remind me of fish food.

 

[Searcaigh]

Didn't Myth Busters prove that sharks like to go for yellow fins?

That aside most of my gear is black or grey and one suit has a bit of yellow on it, another is blue and white. Thinking of buying silver fins next as my current black ones are beginning to fall apart.

 

[Kiwi303]

A gimmicky piece of kit being advertised here on Trade me (ebay) is a flashing LED that fits to your first stage. I did kinda wonder about it for low vis diving.

Is that the one that is supposed to replace the tank valve knob or yoke knob? I've seen it too and don't see much point to it, tie one to the anchor chain and use reflective tape on your buddy + a torch seems to be more sense.

 

[Kiwi303]

Didn't Myth Busters prove that sharks like to go for yellow fins?

That must be why there's not Yellow Finned Tuna around... Err.. No, sorry, that's the Japanese!