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Underwater communication is probably as crucial as breathing and in cases with limited visibility, or in one of my cases when lobstering with a buddy and needing his assistance I was curious if anyone had thoughts to share.
Surely, tapping ones tank with a knife works, though I dont do it nor recommend it as sooner or later a punctured BC is bound to happen.
Tapping the lobster tickler on a stone semi work, but what about the air integrated devices like the minni hammer that hooks to your purge line. Has anyone used these?
How about small little clackers of the sort? I could have sworn on a dive in the Dimincan Republic that the dive instructor had some sort of air filled tube with ball bearing in it or something.
My buddies and I tend to stick together. One working 'spotter' while the other goes for the lobster. Whoever spots the bug gets the hunt. Buddy is there to take stuff that you may want to hand off, and awaits signals to be told where you might shooo the lobster to so they can catch it. "You" "Go There" "Prepare to catch the football".
I've found that sound signals notorously don't do much good; Expecially the further away they are... you have to time it so they aren't breathing out. However since problems can occur where it's imperative your buddy notices; they should be close enough, and checking often enough, to notice a visual signal within a few seconds.
So that means limiting the separation distance to keeping your buddy in your frame of vision, or within the distance of a light signal.
Tapping the lobster tickler on a stone semi work, but what about the air integrated devices like the minni hammer that hooks to your purge line. Has anyone used these?
How about small little clackers of the sort? I could have sworn on a dive in the Dimincan Republic that the dive instructor had some sort of air filled tube with ball bearing in it or something.
Normally I hate divers that go around banging on tanks or squawking away with minihammer or subducks, but it sounds like a Sub-Duck (sp?) would work nicely in the sort of situation you describe --- 2 loose buddies, noses into the rocks looking for lobster in shallow water, but still within visual range. It sounds like a duck squawking underwater. Easily heard at the 20' distance, at least during breathing pauses. You might have to give out a whole series of squawks if it isn't convenient to look over and time it with his breathing cycle.
Your other alternative would obviously be to point a light at your buddy, then wait until he does his periodic buddy check.
Please respect other divers and don't squawk away at popular diving spots where other divers are likely to be within a couple hundred feet.
A very cheap option, which I use as a guide when I need my divers' attention, is a big metal washer (or bolt) which I have tied on a couple feet of string, and keep in my BCD pocket. It is loud enough that unless my divers are waaaay off, they can hear it ok.....and it has the advantage of being "adjustable" in that you can tap on your tank softly or loudly, depending on the circumstances. (for example, 1 or 2 taps might mean "something interesting here" and 3 fast taps means "I've got a problem" or whatever.)
The subduck things are better for getting the attention of EVERYONE in the same ocean, ha ha. If I have a very small, "good" group, or someone I dive with regularly, they can usually hear me if I make kind of a forceful grunting sound (like a bullfrog, sort of...) so I rarely need to use the washer. In general, I'm willing to wait a few moments for them to glance over if I'm showing them something....but if it's a potentially dangerous situation, I do what I need to do to get their attention as quickly as possible.
Last edited by Iruka; July 23rd, 2004 at 04:45 PM.
Reason: fixed a typo
I bought one of those underwater clickers, my buddy could hear it at all.
Our one DM has a big clip and he snaps the lock, you can hear that very good underwater.
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Originally Posted by CD_in_Chitown
