How do you communicate pressure?

[BigTuna]

How do you communicate your pressure numbers to your buddy underwater?

 

[cavediver08]

I've hit thirds =)

 

[ucfdiver]

Curl your index finger and tap your palm with it to ask.

Then I would respond back by holding a series of 4 hand signals that are all 1-9 to tell pressure. One important thing is that if you're <1000psi, you should use ZERO as your first signal and not just skip it, so that your buddy knows he is understanding you correctly.

Asking pressure is rare however, your rock bottom gas plans should be in place, and no deviation should be done, hence if your buddy has not turned the dive, you know you're within the set limits. If you think a buddy is cheating those plans, that's gas to get YOU home, and you need to thumb the dive.

 

[spectrum]

Using one hand we use a finger per 100 PSI and flash as many times as needed.

1000 would be 2 flashes of 5 fingers

1200 would be 2 flashes of 5 fingers followed by 2 fingers.

Many will post with a plethora of other schemes bordering on Chisenbop. What I like about the system we use is that anyone can pick it up in a pre-dive briefing

These all work best when you echo it back to you buddy and he gives you the OK sign that you got it right.

Pete

 

[do it easy]

I use one handed numbering. 1 through 5 are shown with the fingers up and palm facing towards my buddy, while 6 though 9 are shown with fingers sideways and palm facing away from my buddy.

Other methods that I've seen:
"flash the fives" (5,5,5,3)
two handed number sequence (1800 psi is 1,8,0,0- the 8 uses two hands)
charades - 1 syllable, 8 words

Then you get the metric hand signals:
timeout for 100 bar
fist for 50 or 75 bar

 

[ItMustBeJames]

This is one of the more challenging aspects to diving, I've found. I learned to flash repetitive 5's (and a subsequent smaller number). My regular buddy does the four digit thing. This weekend someone in the quarry did a hand signal that involved a number of vertical digits followed by a number of horizontal digits.

Somehow I don't think that anyone's interested in standardizing this any time soon. BUT, that's further incentive to cover pressure reporting in your pre-dive plan to make sure everyone is on the same page.

 

[Doubler]

Show my buddy my pressure gauge. Seems pretty simple to me.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

We could save a lot of silly posts by just having the original poster read this old thread;

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/basic-scuba-discussions/201742-different-systems-psi-remaining.html

Remember; search is your friend.

 

[frogman159]

My buddy and I show the pressure by showing # of fingers- For Zero's we Will hold out the palm of one hand and then make a fist. So 900 would be nine fingers followed by one closed fist, then another closed fist.

 

[garyfotodiver]

Using one hand we use a finger per 100 PSI and flash as many times as needed.

1000 would be 2 flashes of 5 fingers

1200 would be 2 flashes of 5 fingers followed by 2 fingers.

Many will post with a plethora of other schemes bordering on Chisenbop. What I like about the system we use is that anyone can pick it up in a pre-dive briefing

These all work best when you echo it back to you buddy and he gives you the OK sign that you got it right.

Pete

Agreed. I have reached out and looked at another diver's SPG if I don't get a sufficiently quick response to my question, which is showing my SPG and tapping it.

This, and other hand signals, is one of the items covered in a pre-dive briefing.