Is wearing bright, visible colors underwater useful?

[Subcooled]

I would recommend white or yellow tanks, maybe yellow fins (at least Poseidon makes ones), and reflective tape.

In this video you can see how red is bright and visible at shallow depth but turns black at 100ft, unless lit by a dive light.

You'll also see the difference in visibility of white vs. yellow tanks. White is more visible, but yellow is ok too.

Reflective tape is also seen on the video. It is highly visible when crossed by a light beam.

ps. I do not dive with sharks so I do not have a clue about what they might find worth a bite. Reflective tape may resemble a tasty little fish, but juicy seals on the other hand, are all black / grey. You really need to consult a shark diving expert.

 

[k ellis]

To the O.P. I will state what is simply an opinion. You should make sure to let your dive partner know where your emergency items are located (Alternate air, dive knife etc....) if you are going to where colors that match your emergency gears colors. But other then that its an excellent way as others have mentioned to keep up with others in low vis!

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.

Flashing lights are something we deal with in my profession alot. Its been proven time and time again that it does more damage then one actually realises. Though I seriously doubt that they would have any flashing lamps as powerful as the ones we use on our cars I will tell you it causes anything that your looking at (Say a picture on a wall) to appear to be moving when there is a serious of alternating lamps (Our red then our blue then our red then our blue etc......)

A neat and fun way you can tell just how much it throws you off is go to a firing range after dark (Or an indoor one and turn the lights off) and place a red and blue flashing alternating light behind you facing the target. As you try to shoot at the target you will almost swear its dancing from right to left and back again. This was a fun one in the training phases.

Because of all the illusions and loss of vision and everything that is caused by flashing lights many departments now have their lamps set up to where when they stop someone they disable the front half of the lamps at night and shine steady burn white light into the car (Called takedowns).

Just a little tid bit about why flashing lights are not a good idea.

 

[mei_sheng]

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.

I'd have to add these to the "pet peeves" thread. I did a night dive with a group earlier this year, that had very low viz. The captain hung a white strobe light off the bow so we could find the boat again. We all hung glow sticks on our tanks but there was an instructor as part of the group and he hung a flashing white LED light onto his first stage. Not only was it blinding, but it also was extremely annoying to be trying to corral three kids in low viz and a current with one white strobe light going one way and the other in an opposite direction.

As for colors, I like them. They are great for identification, IMO, although I don't know if they make a huge difference for safety. Especially when all the kids are out. It is so much easier to figure out who is who. Maybe next time I'll get different colored glow sticks. ha

My fins used to be black, but they broke and then got lost or something when they went to get repaired, so now I use a pair of yellow ones that someone else wasn't using anymore. I think I might replace them with yellow ones when I actually get around to it. Although green could be fun too. Anything but pink.

 

[CT Sean]

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.

They did Shark Week: Color Preference : Video : Discovery Channel Channel or at least their tests suggested it.

My wife likes my easily identifiable yellow fins - She may have to learn to recognize blue after this

 

[Steve50]

makes for more interesting photos

 

[seaducer]

I wear all black and dark blue gear cause that is what I like. However bright colors makes perfect sense, most especially if you are separated from the boat and need to be found, there is a reason survival suits, most life jackets and pretty much everything the Coast Guard wears at sea is bright orange...

I wouldn't worry about sharks, there is no concrete evidence that color matters too much for them, a curious shark will check out anything it wants to. If anything a "loud" suit might keep the more nervous ones away.

 

[cloudflint]

Ive done a few dive where ive been wearing a blue boiler suit, black jet fins, black hood, black mask, black BC, black reg and a blue tank with a black mesh over it. My buddies commented that they could pretty much just see a yellow octopus reg apparently hovering along in the water all by its self, even though we where only an arms-width apart. Nowadays i have a big bright orange BC which makes me alot easier to see.

 

[shoredivr]

Anything but pink.

Oh, I dunno, the webbing for my backplate is searing neon pink. Nobody else has such goddawful colours on their webbing, so it stands out. I am less likely to be forgotten by the boat crew, and the gear is less likely to be stolen, after all who wants pink gear?

 

[Jax]

Anything but pink.

:cussing: :scorned:




I like Glo-toobs: Glo-Toob | The High Intensity, Multipurpose, Waterproof Lightsource!

They can be set to a soft glow, or a softly pulsating glow, and come in different colors. Not intrusive at all.

 

[tddfleming]

My daughter and I go for the be seen look. Our tanks are the hot pink and lime green. We wear these hoods, not only it is a fashion statement, but we get alot of comments on them. When we take a class, inst like them, they can tell us apart from others.

My avitar is my daughter in her hood.