What's the hand signal for "you all" or "we all"

[Schwob]

Sounds / looks to me like we are witnessing in this discussion why standardisation of sign language for scuba divers is about as likely as a single universally agreed to all scuba agencies including standard for any and everything ... or a standardised world language ... or the abolition of dialects within a language.... or agreeing on a single standardized system of measurement..., or...
It's not very likely.

Y'all (by whatever sign) / we all (is there a w'all in some dialect?) already live with it and will continue to do so of course...

 

[Diver0001]

I still have yet to hear a good use for the stop signal

Outside of technical diving the meaning of "stop" is "stop and hold". I think this is where the confusion begins. Normal recreational diving makes no distinction between the two, at least where I live.

, and any real justification on a mandatory two handed signal for "half pressure" and uses a closed fist for 50 bar vs. just giving the actual pressure.

I personally think this is inefficient and unnecessary. I would much prefer to see a chain with hundreds with palm up and tens with palm horizontal. That way it would be communicated with one hand and in line with how technical divers communicate numbers.

I don't care that it's done other places, I want to hear why

Why do we do so many things that are illogical? I think discussing it is a fist step in reaching a new consensus. I'm glad you've stepped back from judging it and have decided to ask the "why" question. This will help.

R..

 

[xmass-Eve]

@tursiops I have honestly never seen stop used in a cave. Everyone uses the "GUE" interpretation and for what you said as "stop" we use a "no" command which is a single finger wagging back and forth.

I never even heard of GUE before I joined this board...

 

[boulderjohn]

I never even heard of GUE before I joined this board...

People who are involved in some way with GUE greatly overestimate its impact on diving in general. That includes technical diving.

I was a UTD technical diver for a number of years before I went to Florida to cross over to TDI. I met a lot of tech divers on a lot of boats during the time I was getting my TDI trimix certifications, including my instructor, of course. As I explained my background to different people, I never met a single person who knew what UTD was. Not one. Some assumed I was mistakenly referring to UDT, a small, local tech diving organization. When I explained its history starting with GUE, I met exactly one person that whole time who knew what GUE was. My instructor did not know anything about either. At one point I laughed about the fact that I found two passages in one of the TDI texts that were clear negative references to George Irvine and his philosophies. He had no idea what I was talking about. I had to give him links to the GI3 articles so he could see the references.

 

[Littlerayray]

I have found that after having the same dive buddy for so loby that we have developed our own hand signals as well as using the standard ones to the point that when someone joins us we shake our heads. As we forget that we've developed our own hand language almost

 

[Diver0001]

I have found that after having the same dive buddy for so loby that we have developed our own hand signals as well as using the standard ones to the point that when someone joins us we shake our heads. As we forget that we've developed our own hand language almost

I have this too. I've made many hundreds of dives with my regular buddy and we're so much alike in terms of personality that we hardly ever need to communicate extensively under water. Even his wife and my wife followed the same masters program at the same university and are very much alike in the way they see the world. His wife and my wife laugh about the two of us and we laugh about the two of them....

When we're diving together my buddy only needs to cock his head and roll his eyes and I know EXACTLY what he means.

R..

 

[boulderjohn]

It does not take long to achieve this level for routine signals.When doing decompression dives with my normal crew, On each stop we have a brief flash of fingers and we are all on the same page. Someone who was not part of our normal group would definitely be asking for an instant replay.

 

[ScubaWithTurk]

So if we put RSTC and technical divers together, we'll have very weird things happening under water

This very thing happened to me here in the UAE while splashing for the first time with someone I didn't know. As a new diver I went over all the things I thought were of extreme importance such as my use of a long hose/primary donate. The one thing we did not go over is pressure signs. Led to a lot of confusion when I asked and was given a "T" sign. My first thought was "is he calling for a timeout underwater?" He kept doing it so I just grabbed his console and looked. Then I gave him mine and he had no idea what I was stating. I used two fingers horizontally (70 bar) and eventually had to show him my spg. Lesson learned and now I go over pressure signs prior to every dive with someone I have not splashed with.

I was taught palm vertical and fingers for 1-5 and palm horizontal and fingers from 6-10. Signalling 120 bar is "pressure" (a two handed sign) followed by one finger up and two fingers horizontally in a chain.


R..

If you gave me one finger up and two horizontally I would think you are stating you have 170 bar. 120 as I have been taught would be one finger up followed by two fingers up.

 

[PfcAJ]

I never even heard of GUE before I joined this board...

 

[northernone]

Today I needed to say "You two stay here, I'm going there and coming back in two minutes, ok?"

That's a finger waving point to both, a closed fist hold sign. A point to me, a point where I'm going. A loopy circle. A point to my wrist and circling. Showing two fingers. Two fingers together for join up (stay together) Followed by a level off, here. And a OK?


...it worked. I think underwater discussion should be kept to a comfortable minimum and anything we intend to say needs discussed topside so we're on the same language underwater.

Underwater guessing games are fun, but I don't like confusion if something is important to say.

I am a big fan of one hand signals. My second hand almost always has something else to do, so I'm glad when I meet another diver with one hand signals.