noise underwater by divers

[beautybelow]

Since noise makers don't work underwater, what would everyone who doesn't like them or thinks that recommend a dive guide use as an alternative to help point out something worthwhile on a dive?

 

[rameus]

I guess that brings up a question...do you think you can, after many dives and having to pay attention , actually tell the direction from which the sound is coming from?

Or is it just intuition.

Personally I'd say when you start getting familiar with the conditions and dive in the same waters for a few weeks and you know the diver: THEN you will have a higher chance to hear the direction of the sounds. but that is an other discussion which can probably never be dicussed with a final result everyone agrees on.

 

[gcbryan]

I guess that brings up a question...do you think you can, after many dives and having to pay attention , actually tell the direction from which the sound is coming from?

Or is it just intuition.

It's just an educated guess or if the viz is good you just look around until you see the noise maker. It's like a sub-woofer with your stereo. You can't tell where it's coming from.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Occasional use of noise-makers doesn't bother me ... constant use definitely gets irritating after a while. Dive computer alarms go off for a reason ... if they're going off constantly, the diver needs to address the reasons why. Unfortunately, most of the time I notice them the computer belongs to a diver who has adapted himself to tuning them out ... which is what happens when you hear something often enough. At that point, he might as well just turn them off and quit annoying everyone else.

Quackers, shakers, and tank-bangers get over-used in most vacation areas. Cozumel comes to mind as one of the noisiest places I've ever been diving ... because every dive guide in the water seems to be married to the damn things. Again ... if you over-use something, people start tuning it out. So after quacking, shaking or banging for a couple hundred times, that whale shark would have to bump into me to get me to look up when I heard one ... by then I'm actively trying to ignore it.

Like most things ... they serve a purpose when used in moderation. Overusing them just annoys everyone else around you ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Airleron]

In Low viz, quackers and other noise devices do no good. My buddy and I had the quackers, and them a friend got one. He went wild with it. Every fish got a quack. We ditched ours the next day.

I agree with Bob, Cozumel and the Blue Heron Bridge are unbelievably noisy divesites.

 

[tstormdiver]

In Low viz, quackers and other noise devices do no good.

I disagree. It is in low vis that I use my rattle with students. In low vis,I have them follow guide ropes from 1 attraction to another. I give them the instructions that if they hear my rattle, they are to stop whatever they are doing (unless it is an emergency), & look for me. We are all on the same guide rope, so it is not difficult to find me. With those instructions, it has worked very well.

 

[dmoore19]

I can't hear much underwater. I can't hear much above water without my hearing aids. Can't hear my own computer beep so I just turn the sound off. The "quackers" I can hear, tank bangers not so much. I find the bubbles from my own regulator normal and reassuring. The bubble noise comes with the territory. I can understand the point but really, just sounds like some folks need to chill out and enjoy what they are doing and quit b!tching. If those things bother you so much, dive with somebody who doesn't use them. As for the new diver, myself being inexperienced, maybe that parrot fish doesn't mean anything to you but to a new diver it may still be exciting and new. After a couple hundred dives maybe they too will be bored and looking for something to complain about. Maybe this thread should be in the Whine and Cheese section.

 

[Gilldiver]

When guiding divers/students, I don't let them ascend anywhere near fast enough for this to be a problem. All peaceful and quiet in my water

You can get a wrist mounted computer beeping by just moving your hand through the water column from low to high. I had thing occur a number of times in the wrecks or going up an anchor line so I just turn them off.

As for tank bangers, the way we dive if I or any of my buddies hear a knife banging on a tank we will start looking around as we use it ONLY as a signal of distress or emergency.

 

[moregooder]

In the begining I guise I did a lot, when we got are OMS masks and com system we did a lot, now not so much. with time in the water ( for me anyway) the need to see the best stuff and the need for EVERYONE TO SEE ME SEEING THE BEST STUFF is not that important any more. but if some people do I'm not going to get my pantys all bunched up it is there ocean to.

 

[Mike]

Never thought of this as a problem. I'm either diving with people who don't over do it, or I'm the guy over doing it.