Add Binoculars to Your Scuba Kit

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ScubaBumps

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Messages
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Location
San Francisco East Bay
# of dives
200 - 499
On Friday, at Butterfly House, my buddy and I came across a lone kayaker about a 1/3 to a 1/2 mile offshore who was shouting steadily. We attempted to signal with whistles and arm signals, but got no response. We tried to use our camera zooms to get a closer look. This did not work and the kayaker kept on shouting. After a period of time, I called 911 and requested someone come with good binoculars to see what was going on. Help arrived in force within 5-10 minutes. Of course, the kayaker shut up once the emergency vehicles were in view. A State Park Rescue Swimmer went out on a surf board to assess the kayakers condition. He signaled back an OK, and on return, said the kayaker was fishing and had denied he was yelling. Embarassed about my false alarm, and annoyed with the kayaker, I thanked the responders and went about preparing for a dive, once they had departed.

When I think back through the circumstances, and the decision matrix, the only game changer that would have altered the outcome would have been if we had a good pair of binoculars with us to get a closer look at the kayaker. I'll be heading out today to buy a cheap, but decent, set of binoculars to stow in my scuba equipment box. You know, that box in your car with the extra fin straps, mask straps, and o-rings. Please benefit from my false alarm and consider doing the same.

Steve
 
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I just packed my binocular to the scuba gear.


back to the incident ...

I got actually really really upset at that guy on kayak for two reasons.

1. He saw at least 5 firefighter/police/... cars on the shore and he was clearly the only person in the water with kayak (there was a boat, but really far away). It would be polite to paddle closer to the shore and ask if he can help any way since there was no rescue in the water yet. There could be somebody missing and he could save lives.

2. When rescue jumped to the water and paddled towards him, he took off! Yes that guy simple turned away and paddled into the open ocean. It almost makes me think he had no fishing license.


here are few photos, as you can see he was really far and from very close zoom it looked like he is in trouble.
 

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When I think back through the circumstances, and the decision matrix, the only game changer that would have altered the outcome would have been if we had a good pair of binoculars with us to get a closer look at the kayaker. I'll be heading out today to buy a cheap, but decent, set of binoculars to stow in my scuba equipment box. You know, that box in your car with the extra fin straps, mask straps, and o-rings. Please benefit from my false alarm and consider doing the same.

Steve

I keep mine, Nikon 8 x 24s bought 30 years ago for backpacking, in close proximity to my cell phone. So far they've helped me not call emergency services on at least one instance at BW. Haven't had an occasion yet where the decision went the other way, but it's only a matter of time.

Guy
 
I won't be carrying binoculars to the beach for kayak monitoring but I do carry a Canon 18 X 50 set for all the drifting we accomplish here where divers get quite spread out...
 
Recently my friends popped two lift/smb's and slowly drifted apart once on the surface. We could see them enough to know they were not signaling us, but at the same time we could not get them to respond to our okay signals. I chatted with a DFG agent who was busy writing a ticket and he busted out his bino's and said they did not looked stressed. He asked if he should call someone, and I said no, our group could rescue them faster than calling someone in (Had an inflatable boat ready to go). Turns out they had recovered over 40lbs of weights and were using the lift bags to bring the weights in, plus they had fish for dinner with them.

So in short, we should have had binoculars in our group to keep a watch on our own buddies.
 
On Friday, at Butterfly House, my buddy and I came across a lone kayaker about a 1/3 to a 1/2 mile offshore who was shouting steadily. We attempted to signal with whistles and arm signals, but got no response. We tried to use our camera zooms to get a closer look. This did not work and the kayaker kept on shouting. After a period of time, I called 911 and requested someone come with good binoculars to see what was going on. Help arrived in force within 5-10 minutes. Of course, the kayaker shut up once the emergency vehicles were in view. A State Park Rescue Swimmer went out on a surf board to assess the kayakers condition. He signaled back an OK, and on return, said the kayaker was fishing and had denied he was yelling. Embarassed about my false alarm, and annoyed with the kayaker, I thanked the responders and went about preparing for a dive, once they had departed.

When I think back through the circumstances, and the decision matrix, the only game changer that would have altered the outcome would have been if we had a good pair of binoculars with us to get a closer look at the kayaker. I'll be heading out today to buy a cheap, but decent, set of binoculars to stow in my scuba equipment box. You know, that box in your car with the extra fin straps, mask straps, and o-rings. Please benefit from my false alarm and consider doing the same.

Steve

I think you did the right thing, it's always better to err on the side of caution. Better that the kayaker is mad at you for calling 911 than have his survivors upset that no one came to his aide.

I always carry binoculars with me because I live and work along the coast and there is always something to see on the ocean.

I have a pair of Fujinon Mariner 7x50's which have a compass that is always nice to have when trying to show something to someone. It's real easy to tell them to point at say (just for examle) 330 degrees to show them what you want them to see.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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