GUE standard: computer-integrated compass versus left or right arm ?

[wetb4igetinthewater]

when would you ever want to use a real compass during diving ?

I personally try to only touch my Shearwaters only when I switch gasses. Otherwise I don’t want to touch them

 

[Jeremy Williams]

It cracks me up when somebody asks a GUE equipment configuration question and there are all these ‘ask your instructor’ posts.

 

[Roger Hobden]

Amusingly, I recently asked quite a few of these GUE equipment questions on the BASIC DIVING part of Scubaboard, and got tons of helpful advice, most of them the very same day as I posted my question.

Maybe i should return to that part of the website ?

 

[Snoweman]

There was another post about proper placement of equipment on the diver. It basically went nowhere.

So, if the computer goes right, and the compass goes left, how about the rest of the stuff? What about the DSMB and reel, according to GUE? The whistle - where does it go? How about the PLB? Is this a trade secret?

 

[Roger Hobden]

dSMB and spool go in the pocket on your left leg, according to the GUE videos.

 

[PfcAJ]

Depth gauge (bottom timer, computer, whatever) goes on your right specifically so you can see it when adjusting your buoyancy with the left. The secondary benefit is that you can see it when scootering. This is less of a thing now since screens are backlit.

Compass on left since the right arm’s realestate is occupied with a depth gauge. Secondary benefit is to keep it away from the scooter magnets and can turn your arm perpendicular to your direction of travel when scootering.

Since the most important thing is being able to adjust your buoyancy while seeing your depth, a computer/compass combo would live on the right arm. When scootering and navigating, I simply align my perdix with the direction of travel with my left hand. Easy.

As for “DIR Purists” go, we’re literally all using computers. They’re just secondary to table generated ascent plans.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

The compass seems to be instructor dependent. One of my GUE instructor friends wears his on his left wrist. Another leaves his in his pocket. My diving compass leaked oil and I just use my Shearwater or survey compass in my pocket. No one ever commented on that other than Casey McKinlay. I was scootering with him and John Rose. Casey, who was the WKPP project director, got sick of me going into my pocket on an open water scooter dive to navigate. He added the compass mount to the Suex XK long body the next day. We solved a mystery. The long body tended to balance shroud down while all other Suex scooters hovered horizontally out of the box. With the compass mount attached the long body trimmed perfectly! Had I done it right we wouldn't have learned about the crafty Italian engineering. AJ may know more about trimming the long bodies. But, that seemed to do the trick.

Edited: I'm guessing if the WKPP project director was fed up with me going into my pocket, GUE instructors not wearing compasses on left wrist are not "Doing It Right" since you can't get much more DIR than Casey.

 

[elgoog]

I don't know if this is official GUE or what but one of the tips I got from my local GUE chapter divers for the compass was to align it on your left arm so the window is facing you when you extend it out. That way the heading you see is pretty much where your primary light is pointing. I found this to work well during kick dives. Never tried it on DPV as then I use the one mounted on its body.

 

[johnkendall]

Important bit is that the computer/depth timer goes on the right arm. If you want a seperate compass, put it on your left arm. If you don't want a seperate compass, then don't put one anywhere

HTH
John