"Flippers, goggles, oxygen tank" -- cringeworthy, or useful??

[Akimbo]

Just to widen the range of vocabulary under consideration, as a fan of the visual arts, whenever I see the words "Deco" and "Hogarthian" in use within a diving context, I still automatically visualise the following:

Traditionally we used "decom" as verbal shorthand for decompression through most of my career. I think I picked it up in the Navy but it could have been earlier. We also used capital "D" for compound words and phrases like no-D and Sur-D-O2 (Surface Decompression using Oxygen).

 

[Fastmarc]

Although I call them flip-flops, I hear flippers used a lot for these:

View attachment 514323​

Damn it, this is not going to help the movement...

 

[David Wilson]

In France, "flippers" are pinball machines:

In Germany, "Die Flippers" is the name of a singing group:

 

[Akimbo]

Damn it, this is not going to help the movement...

Either that or you have just invented a better foot pocket on dive fins, err I mean flippers.

 

[ScubaWithTurk]

I have to admit, the terms flippers, goggles and tank bother me. I have one diver at our center that does it just to hear me correct her. She gets a good laugh out if it.

Germans come in tanks, we use cylinders.

One other term I have found out lately that annoys me, is the use of "stage" when they really mean a deco cylinder. I don't say anything to people that use these terms (except the one female customer as she expects it and loves it when I growl and correct her) but for me it is like nails on a chalkboard.

I put some thought into why this annoys me so much and came to the conclusion that it stems from my days in the Navy. The military is very specific about the terms you use and I think it has stuck with me.

Use what you want (dive and let dive) but know deep down it is making my skin crawl.

 

[cerich]

I have to admit, the terms flippers, goggles and tank bother me. I have one diver at our center that does it just to hear me correct her. She gets a good laugh out if it.

Germans come in tanks, we use cylinders.

One other term I have found out lately that annoys me, is the use of "stage" when they really mean a deco cylinder. I don't say anything to people that use these terms (except the one female customer as she expects it and loves it when I growl and correct her) but for me it is like nails on a chalkboard.

I put some thought into why this annoys me so much and came to the conclusion that it stems from my days in the Navy. The military is very specific about the terms you use and I think it has stuck with me.

Use what you want (dive and let dive) but know deep down it is making my skin crawl.

if ever in your hood I shall drop by and use flippers in conversation..many times

 

[ScubaWithTurk]

if ever in your hood I shall drop by and use flippers in conversation..many times

If you do, bring one of those fancy drysuits with you that have the orange trim and I will let it slide

It would go real nice with my orange FINS, orange mask and torches with orange accents!

 

[mbs]

me too.. LOL

Me too I do it in sailing as well when I call everything rope.

 

[nolatom]

Me too I do it in sailing as well when I call everything rope.

No!! no!!!!! (making sign of the Cross here ;-)

 

[Chavodel8en]

Isnt mask inaccurate too? I think of a mask as something a bandit would wear, something that makes the wearer anonymous. But since its transparent, it doesn't "mask" anything -- it's actually designed not to mask, but to do the opposite, it allows us to see underwater.

When I first heard the term "dive mask" I always thought the term didnt make sense. Now, Im used to it and dont care, even though it really is inaccurate.

Same with flippers (altho now you all are telling me its more accurate), goggles, and oxygen tanks. So they may be inaccurate, unless someone is describing technical details, we all know what they mean.

There are much more important things to get worked up about, like whether or not you take a snorkel with you on dives.