Best underwater noisemaker?

[Superlyte27]

Open Circuit

 

[chillyinCanada]

The DiveAlert is used for emergency because it is loud. For non-emergency I used a 316SS 1/4"x12" pointer stick by tapping its tip against the tank.

My buddy would turn around and look at me when I bang my tank with the pointer. Once I draw his/her attention, then I point the stick to a fish or critter.

That pointer is also used for stabilizing myself underwater while taking picture.

Thank heavens! I thought you were saying that you blow that quack or underwater to get other divers attention. If that were the case and I was diving with you on a liveaboard, I'd have to smother you in your sleep.

Wet Seal, don't get a rattle, don't get a quacker. Learn how to be a good buddy. Go ahead and get yourself a pointer and use it to tap on your tank if you must.

Listen to Doc. He's explaining it right.

 

[Snoweman]

I have liked it when the DM carries a rattle. It's used judiciously, and I pretty much know where to look. I have not heard one of those quackers, but I don't think I want to, either.

 

[Wookie]

I pretty much dive alone even with other people. I've never really tried to get someone's attention underwater. If they are my student, I already have their attention. And everything I see diving is cool, and I assume what they are seeing is cool too.

 

[diversteve]

My buddy has a dive alert device - IDK which one. When she uses it on the surface she warns all of us to submerge our ears first - it's really loud.

Underwater it quacks. My buddies hear it but I'm oblivious to it. I don't hear the rattles either from any distance.I don't dive with a hood either.

Best I ever heard in use - a DM had a box wrench clipped off near his tank. When he banged that - you heard it.

 

[TASCPA]

Bolt Snap.

 

[maj2]

Second the bolt snap.

Best and cheapest noisemaker that I have ever seen anyone use. Just reach around and tap it on your tank.

 

[Addicted2H2O]

I'll be the next proponent of using a metal pointer (lobster tickler) banged against the tank to signal a buddy. It works quite well for that purpose, plus as has already been mentioned then lets you point out something underwater and helps you stabilize yourself for pictures, etc.

 

[peterak]

I pretty much dive alone even with other people. I've never really tried to get someone's attention underwater. If they are my student, I already have their attention. And everything I see diving is cool, and I assume what they are seeing is cool too.

I guess there are two kinds of divers:

• Underwater tourists: "Oh, what a prettty fishie! Oh, there's another pretty one..."
• Underwater naturalists: "Did you see that tiger snake eel! Wow, look at that male psychedelic wrasse herding his harem!"

I'm glad my primary dive buddy (my wife) is the latter. She has alerted me to many special wonders over many dives. Yeah, I know, if I were a more attentive buddy she wouldn't have to alert me, but sometimes I'm just too absorbed with that dwarf moray eating a damselfish

 

[Rred]

Wetseal-
You'll find that if you make a small hole in the hood, in each ear, that there's no loss of heat, no real water circulation, but a tremendous increase in hearing, especially since the small water-filled hole is conducting sound so well.
A friend of mine saw the holes in my hood while we were suiting up and said "Can you do that for me too?" which apparently got the divers further forward on the boat all upset, when they saw me whipping out the BFK and going for my buddy's head with it. (Or so it looked.)
The BFK (which isn't so big by outdoor knife standards at all) also works as a tank banger. But I can tell you, that noise still tends to get ignored.