Any other interesting/fun hand signal stories?

[Kitty_Kat]

There is a small tropical reef fish: Halichoeres bivattatus, common name: Slippery Dick. I have seen some "interesting" hand signals for them.

:chuckle: Hehe I've seen some good ones for this fish too

 

[Dhboner]

I remember the first time my son tried to signal that he needed to stop to "relieve himself". He uses a pee valve with his drysuit but like many of us he can't multi-task (swim and pee at the same time). He kept pointing to crotch then making hand gestures like he was sprinkling pixie dust! We had a good laugh at the surface and came up with a less animated signal...fist (for stop) followed by a gesture towards the nether regions!!!

 

[NJDiverMark]

Pointing your middle finger at a piece of equipment means its fu*ked... (broken)

 

[nimoh]

Pointing your middle finger at a piece of equipment means its fu*ked... (broken)

after a hand signal argument underwater with your buddy, you may need this hand signal:

extend both middle fingers, one in front of the other (like the "I'll lead, you follow" signal, but with the middle fingers instead of the index fingers).

and it means "shut the #@%$ up and follow me"

 

[BabyDuck]

larry was trying to tell me something while i was stopped but busy. my face was pointed in his direction, but i wasn't paying attention to him. i finished what i was doing and gave him a nod and an expectant face, but he had gone through the signals with me looking at him blankly several times and was disgusted.

so now if we have something important to 'say', we 'call' each other - signal is a telephone hand to your ear. the other person 'answers' when he or she is ready to communicate.

oh, and on my first ocean dives, my instructor was able to communicate 'big effin' shark' and 'stonefish' with pretty ingenious signals...

 

[freewillie]

I can't beat the camera story but ..

When my daughter was learning to certify we went through a bunch of hand signals for different animals at the dinner table. Shark, lobster, eel, lion fish, etc. My son started making a sign holding one hand out like a plate then the other hand like he was eating off the plate. After putting two fingers on top of his head he said, "lobster." then made the eating sign and said, "butter."

Few months later I was diving Point Loma kelp beds with my daugher. She pointed her flashlight under a crevice and made the lobster sign. I peeked under the rock and there were 5 huge lobsters sitting there. I made the "butter" sign and she almost spit her reg out laughing.

 

[InkyUndine]

so now if we have something important to 'say', we 'call' each other - signal is a telephone hand to your ear. the other person 'answers' when he or she is ready to communicate.

Love it! I'll have to remember this for when my hubby and I begin diving together. Heck, we sometimes have trouble communicating effectively by SPEAKING ("huh?" "say again?" "are you talking to me?" etc.), and this is a great idea for getting one another's attention.

 

[DukeAMO]

DH and I entertained the other divers in our Underwater Navigation class because we were having such a hard time communicating underwater, and also having a hard time maintaining our depth while navigating the square patterns in not-so-great visibility. One person was just watching the compass, and the other was responsible for measuring the distance and keeping track of everything else. We had to surface and yell at each other six times (the group entertainment)! We finally worked out a series of signals for "hey you, pay attention!" (a squeeze on the arm), "stop" (standard signal), "check your depth" (point at the computer). Signalling to continue on, turn left or right, or not run into something are also good. We finally did get it, but that was one of those marriage testing moments.

 

[nimoh]

DH and I entertained the other divers in our Underwater Navigation class because we were having such a hard time communicating underwater, and also having a hard time maintaining our depth while navigating the square patterns in not-so-great visibility. One person was just watching the compass, and the other was responsible for measuring the distance and keeping track of everything else. We had to surface and yell at each other six times (the group entertainment)! We finally worked out a series of signals for "hey you, pay attention!" (a squeeze on the arm), "stop" (standard signal), "check your depth" (point at the computer). Signalling to continue on, turn left or right, or not run into something are also good. We finally did get it, but that was one of those marriage testing moments.

hmmm, I have never needed a signal for turn left or turn right when navigating a square

 

[DukeAMO]

hmmm, I have never needed a signal for turn left or turn right when navigating a square

Then you are better at it than we were! You get flustered enough and you forget which way you were going.