Whistle or Dive Alert?

[lairdb]

I agree with the assessment below that it introduces a failure point (though an easily removable one), but I'm not convinced of the task loading arguement...

My feeling is that a dive alert is not typically a quick deploy emergent device (but I have never used one so what do I know). I would imagine that if it's use is required, the boat is realy far away or even out of sight and there would be minimal time pressure.

I'm not convinced of the failure point (okay, I suppose I get it, but it's fairly remote), but I completely get the task loading. It sounds like you're imagining "hmm, I seem to have surfaced a little away from the boat in these calm seas, yet they're looking in the wrong direction because crosscurrents have confused them". The one I imagine is "hmmm, I am supporting an unconscious diver in my right arm, and these 12 foot rollers have blown up out of nowhere; I'd better attract some attention." I'd rather not fuss with digging it out and inserting it into the circuit at that point.

 

[ScubaDadMiami]

I have a Dive Alert. I keep it attached to my inflator and ready to use. My GUE instructor hassled the hell out of me in my Fundies class for having it, and he told me that I would not be able to proceed to Tech 1 with it.

I'm sorry if independence is against the credo but I have elected to keep it as is. Clipping it in a pocket will likely mean that it will end out getting dropped and lost when I need it in an emergency, trying to remove it and clip it on.

One time in Cozumel, the current carried us way out into the blue water. After a drifting deco, when we surfaced, we were way out there, far from the boat. As it turned out, the boat operator would have to look directly into the sun to face our direction. So, he was unable to see us even when I raised a fin over my head on my hand. (This was in the day before I started using lift bags and SMBs).

I started sounding the Dive Alert. The boat started heading in our general direction. Everytime if went off course, I sounded it again. Everytime, the boat would come back on course. Finally, the boat crew could see us, and we were picked up without incident.

If it had been in rough seas, and I had the Dive Alert clipped off in my pocket, perhaps a big wave would have come as I was trying to connect it to my inflator hose. I would rather only have to disconnect it in an emergency underwater than to have to connect it on the surface in an emergency. If you are already on the bottom, even if you were unable to somehow reconnect your inflator hose to the power inflator, which is unlikely, you really would only be needing the inflator for venting as you ascended from that point. Besides, you can orally inflate if it comes to that.

To me, it just seems like the down-side to carrying it not hooked up is worse than the risk from carrying it ready to go. In the end, I have to think for myself. Sorry, GUE and DIR parrots, I am leaving my Dive Alert (not to mention how I was hassled for using Highland Mills d-rings--another story for another time) as is.

 

[Doc Intrepid]

The point is, and DIR philosophy espoused in Jarrod's book supports the concept, that if you need a piece of gear, take it; if you don't, don't. You needn't always wear it or always not - it depends. On a planned recreational drift dive - liveaboard or not? The type where two divers were lost last year in the vicinity of Fiji? Yup. In a cave? Nope.

Gilliam in "Deep Diver" recounts two instances where (a DiveAlert) would have been handy. The first was an offshore charter when surface currents were running strong - the divers surfaced downwind off the stern, but the mate was filling tanks with the onboard compressor and could not hear their cries or whistles. In a second instance, when the divers surfaced a thick fog had blanketed the surface, and boat could not see divers or vice versa. They were carried away by current. The captain, thinking quickly, dropped styrofoam coffee cups into the water every 10 minutes or so, and after the fog lifted (some 6 hours later if memory serves) followed the trail of cups to the divers.

As Jarrod defined the fundamental DIR concepts, gear doesn't appear on some strictly proscribed list. You take what you need. You don't take what you don't need. Over time that approach has been undermined due to other influences, including those of organizations for whom gear lists are more rigidly defined (often for one specific, singular diving environment).

Asking if a piece of gear is DIR or not misses the point. It's DIR if you're in an environment where that specific bit of kit is relevant to your survival (and does not put it at further risk). It's not DIR if you're carrying something of no value "just because" you always do.

 

[vbcoachchris]

There is a special DIR version of the dive alert avalible through 5th D. It only has a connection for the LP hose. The BC connection has been removed and replaced with a HP port plug. It is attached to a bolt snap via cave line and carried in the pocket unless needed.

 

[jagfish]

There is a special DIR version of the dive alert avalible through 5th D. It only has a connection for the LP hose. The BC connection has been removed and replaced with a HP port plug. It is attached to a bolt snap via cave line and carried in the pocket unless needed.

Interesting...
So in case of emergency, remove from pocket and insert into either drysuit hose or BC hose...

I just wonder how you get the thing far enough away from your ears so as not to blow your drums out...

 

[Atticus]

If you're worried about the dive alert falling apart and venting your back gas into the water then put you can always put it on your drysuit. That way if it falls apart it will only vent your argon. If it cuts off the gas path then you can't inflate your suit. Either way, dives over, and you haven't lost life support (since on the way up you should be dumping gas, not adding it).

To use it either over inflate and lay on your back like a seal or unclip from your drysuit and hold up...

Downside is that if you use a short drysuit hose you'll have a hard time getting the dive alert very far out of the water.

 

[rds4640]

There is a special DIR version of the dive alert avalible through 5th D. It only has a connection for the LP hose. The BC connection has been removed and replaced with a HP port plug. It is attached to a bolt snap via cave line and carried in the pocket unless needed.

Did you see this on their website?

 

[Charlie99]

I just wonder how you get the thing far enough away from your ears so as not to blow your drums out...

You just put your head underwater while holding the Dive Alert up into the air.

The one time I used a Dive Alert for real it was just me and a Cozumel divemaster. He couldn't get the attention of the boat by waving brightly colored fins, yelling, or splashing water. When I held up my inflator hose and showed him my Dive Alert, he didn't say a word, but very quickly ducked his head underwater

 

[jagfish]

You just put your head underwater while holding the Dive Alert up into the air.

The one time I used a Dive Alert for real it was just me and a Cozumel divemaster. He couldn't get the attention of the boat by waving brightly colored fins, yelling, or splashing water. When I held up my inflator hose and showed him my Dive Alert, he didn't say a word, but very quickly ducked his head underwater

LOL.........INCOMING!!!!!!

 

[vbcoachchris]

No, I live very close to the shop. I just saw it in Mark's (the owner) gear. He said Hancock makes them special for his shop.