A question...

[sharpenu]

Just wondering what everyone carries for visibility on the surface in Ocean dives. We all know about flashlights and chem lights at night, but what about during the day?

I always have a small light, and a safety sausage. Depending on weather and boat traffic, I occasionally carry a folding dive flag or diver's flares. I have even seen divers with personal survival rafts. What is prudence, and what is paranoia?

 

[The Chairman]

the state required diver's down flag on a bouy, I always carry my safety sausage.

 

[Dee]

I carry a long Surface Marker Bouy (SMB), about 6ft. long and bright reddish orange....quite a bit larger than a safety sausage. My Brit friend calls it a Blob. It serves a dual purpose as lift bag and marker bouy. In open seas, I inflate it and send it to the surface, using the line on my reel, for my safety stop. At the same time, the boat captain can see it easily. If the seas are a bit rough, while I'm on the surface I can position it upright and it can be seen between the swells.

I keep it and the jump reel with me on every dive, it's part of my basic gear. I've recovered several anchors and such with it, too. Ya never know when it will be needed!

 

[sharpenu]

My dives are mostly drift dives. We dive in group sizes ranging from 2 to 14 divers. One member of the group aways has the required bouy. But, we don't all surface at once. This results in a sometimes scattered group. So, I frequently need an auxilliary marker.

 

[Butch103]

might be to have a minimum of two diver down buoys or markers.

When we dive we try to have two plus one on the boat. Mind you that hasn't stopped some baoters from coming dangerously close to us.................or from some "butt-head" from trying to steal it while I had a hold of it.....................

 

[DivingGal]

Personally, I'd recommend any diver to carry a minimum of 'safety' devices... whistle, mirror (or relective divice), safety sausage.

I carry a small mesh bag in my BCD pocket with these items any time I'm in OW - whether I think I need them or not. I dry them out after the day's diving, but package them up for the next time I need them.

If it's just a buddy and I, and we're any where near where boaters are (which is almost for any shore dive), one of us always carries a float.

 

[Scottri]

6' bright orange sausage and a strobe.



Scott

 

[Dee]

Originally posted by sharpenu
My dives are mostly drift dives. We dive in group sizes ranging from 2 to 14 divers. One member of the group aways has the required bouy. But, we don't all surface at once. This results in a sometimes scattered group. So, I frequently need an auxilliary marker.

That's why my 'Blob' stays on my BC. It is attached by 2 surgical tubbing loops to the side of my Zeagle Concept. No matter what conditions or situation I find myself in on the surface, I have it and my jump reel with me. More than once I have used it on drift dives!

 

[scubabunny]

A safety sausage and/or surface marker is a must on drift dives, but a whistle or horn is a good idea. I went on a dive with a couple friends (thier own boat)..one couple was underwater, and one couple stayed in the boat to pick them up. The ONLY way we found them was because of her whistle. It didn't really pin-point them, but the sound made us look around more for them...and they were farrrrrrrrrr away. There was NO way we would have seen their surface marker between the swells if we hadn't heard the whistle.

Of course, I think most dive operations have it down a little better than we did....but better safe than sorry!

 

[Scuba1]

On Tenerife I found Markerfloats dangerous because there are jetski rentals in the area were we dive and those tourists use them as turning points it is sometimes safer to do without them. But normaly I use a 1.8m SMB
Michael