How do you signal air remaining?

[ChillyWaters]

Using 2 hands gets to be a pain when holding lights, cameras, ... I still use what i was taught - one hand flashing 5+5+3. This also works (with a little less accuracy ) when using 3 fingered cold water mitts.

Hopefully you're kidding. You can show 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 fingers with regular mitts. You'll just have to remember that extending one finger, may look like 3 to your buddy. So, now you just have to take care which fingers you show. It takes a bit of practice, but it's easily done.

- ChillyWaters

 

[EP3_Orion]

I think if you dive with only your buddy and no others viewing each others SPG would be best, how ever, I have found when diving in the warmer waters in the Carribian you will find many Dive Masters use the fingers on the arm method you described. All Divemasters I have been with in this area use this method. They don't have the DM view each divers SPG just becuase of the number of people involved and the issues it may cause in some delicate diving sites. I personally have come to like the method and use it all the time. Have not seen this mentod used in any other sites either.
Use what is easy and comfortable for you and your buddy and make sure you both know the procedure beofore you enter but that goes without saying.
Happy safe diving all!

 

[BrianS]

Sideways for thousands, up for hundreds.

 

[Sideband]

I was taught the 5,5,5,5 thing then to use sideways for thousands and up for hundreds. I like the later much better. "Show me the dang guage" works well too.

Joe

 

[DallasNewbie]

What I was taught in OW was to make a fist and "knock" for thousands, and show fingers for hundreds. This can be done with one hand, but it doesn't seem to be a very popular method. In Cozumel, we went over the signals before each dive, and each dive master did it a bit differently, but it was some variation of "ok" if >1000, one finger for 1000 and the low on air signal for 700. I think something like that works fine for signalling the DM.

 

[ktrjc]

I grab my throat and flop around underwater like a dead fish :boings:, my dive partner then comes over and looks at my gauge, when they do that, I spin around and look at theirs. Or, we just show our gauges to each other. You know the old, you show me yours, I'll show you mine.

 

[Iruka]

I didn't read the last few pages of responses, so sorry if I'm repeating anything. Since our diving here is warm water, there aren't any glove issues to deal with. With mostly tourist divers, we get mostly BAR, but some PSI divers. Since there are a number of different ways of telling pressure, I ask my divers to just give me the number of fingers for each digit. So 120 bar is 1-2-0 and 1,200 PSI is 1-2-0-0 (using a fist or "0" ) I DO ask my PSI divers to be sure to give me "all" the zeroes....the reason being, if I have a bunch of BAR divers at 100 bar (1/2 a tank) and my PSI diver only signals 100....as I've seen happen...when he REALLY has 1,000 PSI, I will think he has 1/2 a tank (100 out of 200 bar) when he really has 1/3 tank (1,000 out of 3,000 psi).

Of course, showing the SPG would eliminate this problem. However, I might have 5~7 divers with me, and with 40meter/130' visibility, they're not going to be on me like woodticks, and to bring everyone right up next to me numerous times throughout the dive would be unduly disruptive to their enjoyment of the dive. Normally, I'll check everyone's air about 10 minutes into the dive, and devote most of my SPG supervision to the heavy breathers throughout the dive.

Here are 3 examples I've seen of how "not" to communicate your air pressure to the guide: 1) had a group of divers, and one of them, shortly into the dive, gave me a pressure far, far less than I would have expected....turns out she was reading the depth gauge (40 feet) instead of the SPG...so signalled "40 bar" which is about 20% full. 2) Gave a diver the "show me your pressure" signal. She stared at her SPG a few seconds... then signalled "8-0"....but her "8" was kind of unique. Instead of 8 fingers, or 5+3, she held her hands to actually FORM an 8....like you're looking through binoculars, but with the hands vertical instead of horizontal. 3) and finally, my favorite (so far, ha ha)....diver signalled to me 180 bar, about 90% full......except we'd already been diving more than 30 minutes, so 90% full was unrealistic...80bar or 100 bar would be more likely. So, I was trying to figure out how she came up with 180.....turns out she read her COMPASS instead of her SPG. So as long as she was pointing south, she was fine.....if she turned north, she'd be down to 0, right? The best part of it was, her friend ALSO signalled 180 bar to me.

Actually, I have a "backup" signal....looks basically like you're UNscrewing a lightbulb a half turn, which essentially means "it seems you're SPG-challenged at the moment, so just turn it so I can see it."

 

[djanni]

I'm glad we were able to clear all this up for you.

What else would you like to know?

How do you signal your air pressure remaining to your dive buddy?
When I did my intro. dive in Roatan, the instructor did it in a way I have not seen since. She indicated thousands by splaying right hand fingers across her left arm, above the wrist , and then hundreds by holding up the corresponding number of fingers , again using her right hand.
I think it was/is easier to understand than the standard 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 3 = 2000 + 300
It looked simple, quick and was very easy to see how much air someone had left , with the 2 on arm + 3 fingers , to indicate 2300

DB

 

[dlndavid]

I'm glad we were able to clear all this up for you.

What else would you like to know?

You got that right, what next? Have you thought about a BP/Wing?

 

[mark99]

I wish we could all just switch over to bar, it would be a lot easier. I can't figure out how to get my computer to switch, I guess I have to read the manual!! When I was a student we used the following (in bar, assuming 200 bar was full) the "timeout" signal (T with 2 hands) was half a tank (100 bar). So if you had more than half tank it was T followed by the number of fingers - one to ten- above half tank. Example T followed by 3 fingers was 130 bar. For less than half a tank, it was just the number of fingers. i.e. 6 fingers was 60 bar.

I know many of us use the T to mean let's go up and do a safety stop, or go up and level off at a shallower depth. When we had metric distances, the safety stop was at 5 meters, a distinct signaling advantage over the 5-5-5 or 10-5 signal I have seen for 15 ft. The signal for - we go up for a 3 minute 5 meter safety stop was: left palm up 5 fingers outstretched and right hand 3 digits tapped against the left palm.

I guess if you have mitts, it's better to just show the SPG.