Is wearing bright, visible colors underwater useful?

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shamufish

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Warning - this might be a very silly question. But since I can't seem to be able to google it, here you go:

Is it a 'good' thing to wear bright colors underwater. The reason I ask is that from a safety perspective it seems logical one would want to be seen, in order not to get separated from their buddies. If that's the case what do you recommend? Bright yellow? Bright green? Reflective tape?

On the flip side if it's a 'bad thing' then please explain why as well. Is 'ninja black' just more fashionable? :-D More seriously there are threads about not wearing 'shiny' jewellery, and I imagine that reflective tape might fall under that category, no? Also some people seem convinced that sharks are more likely to go for yellow etc (sounds like nonsense to me but if you look online you'll see a lot of references to it).

What's the general consensus? Thank you! :D
 
I think its a good thing. I did a dive today in very bad Viz and if it wasn't for my buddies bright white tank I would have lost him a few times.
 
As a dive leader it can help students find you a little easier (and you them for that matter). As for when I dive for myself with my buddies, being seen is less important than knowing where each member of the team is (light signaling, good positioning, etc...).
I wear a combo of black and red normally because I like the look topside. I care less about being seen by my usual buddies and do not fear being separated because we are very very rarely outside of arm's reach of each other.
I say wear what you want, polish buddy skills instead.
 
On the biggest (numbers wise) boat dive I have done I did think it'd be a lot easier to identify fellow divers if they wore different colors.
 
Bright yellow and Blue is highly effective. I know first hand, my friend got a new custom suit and it's rocking.
Bright green would work too I would imagine. Bright red.....not so much once you go deeper.

I can't see a real bad reason as to why you would not want to be visible. I wanted to be cool and get all black gear. If it weren't for my silver accents on my wetsuit, I'd be nearly invisible to the basic students I TA for.
Trust me, playing ninja underwater gets old real quick. :wink:

Edit: In case you want to do spearfishing on scuba, being camouflaged and invisible probably won't help you at all since your scuba unit is making a ton of noise. So don't let that reason stop you from going crazy with the colors. :dork2:
 
My instructor today wore white fins and had a bright yellow tank.

I still lost him :dork2: but I would have lost him sooner if he'd been in all black.

Bright colors in low viz are a definite plus.
 
I like flashy dive buddies, unless we are hunting fish.
Yellow, Green, and to a lesser extent Blue fins I like on my companions.
I like seeing everyone else fast.
I see that the OP is in the UK, and I have no knowledge of spearing there......
So I guess more color is better.
Here in clear water, I think colors disturb and perhaps bother the fish/tropicals somewhat.
Chug
Just my two pence.
 
It is better to be seen than camouflaged.

Yellow is the easiest to be seen among the most available colors. Not much out there being made in white.

On the flip side if it's a 'bad thing' then please explain why as well. Is 'ninja black' just more fashionable?

Ninja Black is so last year. Tech Black is cool, the NBT (next big thing) is Tactical Black (not to be confused with SWAT Black)

Tie a piece of fiberglass filament reinforced reflective flagging tape to your fin. I run about 5' off the heel. My buddy, too. We rarely misidentify each other, or get separated.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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