Holding hands underwater

Holding hands....


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    101
  • Poll closed .

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Zippsy

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Scuba Instructor
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SIngapore
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I saw a quote in another thread that said "you shouldn't be holding hands underwater at this point (after your OW class). Rather than hi-jack that thread, I thought I'd take a poll here. First, I'll make you suffer my thoughts:

My wife and I are both pretty experienced divers. After diving together for 14 years, we still somehow even like each other. When we're underwater on a leisure dive, we usually hold hands. We hold hands when we walk down the street and when we walk up the stairs after breakfast. It's natural for us to do so underwater too.

Here are some of the other benefits we get: We are never searching for our buddy to say "I'm low on air" or "look at that!". The one of us who is 'leading' the dive just has to gently turn the hand to change both diver's direction. Depending on how hard the squeeze is, tells me how important something is. No time is wasted - the moment that hawkeye sees something, I do too.

One of the reasons that I bring this up is that I mentioned this to an instructor recently. Although he has never been diving with either of us - but he knows our experience - he said "obviously one or both of you are still pretty insecure underwater and you might want to take a course to get over the problem". We were polite and only laughed when he was out of ear-shot but what do you think?
 
One of the reasons that I bring this up is that I mentioned this to an instructor recently. Although he has never been diving with either of us - but he knows our experience - he said "obviously one or both of you are still pretty insecure underwater and you might want to take a course to get over the problem". We were polite and only laughed when he was out of ear-shot but what do you think?

He's wrong, you're wonderful...!!

:wave-smil
 
I'll comment with a personal anecdote.

During the video of my Dirf...one of the tech divers and shop manager asked "hey...who are the two holding hands?" It was my wife and I. He laughed and said...that's cool...the vis you were diving in sucked (2-3 feet) and that's a perfectly legitimate way of ensuring you keep together in those kind of conditions...nothing wrong with that at all.

So...yes...I've done it in really poor vis as a form of touch contact...if it was my buddy in the same circumstance...I might take an elbow...but my wife can have my hand...:D
 
if my wife dove, i'd sure as heck hold her hand underwater ...

what a great thing to share with the one you love

and as for the instructor who said this:

"obviously one or both of you are still pretty insecure underwater and you might want to take a course to get over the problem"

it makes me want to :bash: him

or maybe :whack: him real good... oh no... wait

i think i'll just say to him: :weakest:
 
My wife and I hold hands, play and just about everything we do on land we do U/W. The inst. is wrong. Keep holding hands.
 
I like to hold hands with my husband at times during diving- it's romantic and intimate while sharing the underwater world with one another. And it is comforting in low vis or current to have my buddy at arm's length away, why not? I don't require him to hold my hand, it's just one of those things that seems to naturally happen at the right moments, and there is a wonderful closeness that I feel to him when it happens. So I say go for it.
Foo
 
A couple holding hands can be cute. One diver clutching another for dear life is a problem.

I have had divers (male and female, young and old) grab my hand during a guided dive. When that happens, it almost always means something ain't right. I look in their eyes and try to calm them down. Then it's time to ascend and call the dive.

I've seen kids diving with parents where it was obvious that a real dependency issue was at work. I've seen it go so far that the parent had their other hand on the kid's tank valve and was basically towing the kid around the dive site. What would happen if the parent had a problem?
 
Drew Sailbum:
I have had divers (male and female, young and old) grab my hand during a guided dive. When that happens, it almost always means something ain't right. I look in their eyes and try to calm them down. Then it's time to ascend and call the dive.
I've had that happen when I was working a few times too but I only call the dive if a second person does it, or if I feel that I'd be hindered in helping a second person in trouble (we usually have pretty easy dives here), or if my wife saw us :11: :wink: :D

note to Albion - no videos please
 
Drew Sailbum:
I have had divers (male and female, young and old) grab my hand during a guided dive. When that happens, it almost always means something ain't right. I look in their eyes and try to calm them down. Then it's time to ascend and call the dive.

i agree, its time to call the dive at that time but IMHO its 100% ok for 2 people to hold hands while diving or anywhere else if they want to. if my wife was a diver i would hold her hand while we were diving.

steve
 

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