Attention Getter...

[mikerault]

I love the comments about "with good buddy skills you should never lose your buddy" well, that's fine for nice clear pretty water. Now move it to a lake where vis is maybe 10-15 feet (3-5 meters for Europeans) and I guarentee unless you tie yourselves together you will lose a buddy now and then. If I am diving in low viz I have started taking along a hand held submersible fish finder it makes locating that buddy that just got out of visual range much easier.

Mike

 

[String]

I really hate underwater noise makers. Crowded dive sites abroad sound like an underwater duck convention with various divers using the damn things all the time to signal to their buddies, the group, anyone within earshot and so on.
In the end its like crying wolf - generally now i hear a noise maker underwater and totally ignore it.

In 3-5m vis (actually quite good by some standards) you should pay even MORE attention to the buddy and location to never let them out of sight. Once they are gone however since the human ear cant discern direction underwater due to increased speed of sound its pointless banging something.


The only method i use abroad if its try divers and only me on a site i take my gloves off and clap my hands.

 

[Rainer]

I love the comments about "with good buddy skills you should never lose your buddy" well, that's fine for nice clear pretty water. Now move it to a lake where vis is maybe 10-15 feet (3-5 meters for Europeans) and I guarentee unless you tie yourselves together you will lose a buddy now and then. If I am diving in low viz I have started taking along a hand held submersible fish finder it makes locating that buddy that just got out of visual range much easier.

Mike

BS. Water here is even less vis (5-10') and I don't lose my buddy. If the vis gets bad, you get closer. And bring big lights.

 

[SparticleBrane]

I love the comments about "with good buddy skills you should never lose your buddy" well, that's fine for nice clear pretty water. Now move it to a lake where vis is maybe 10-15 feet (3-5 meters for Europeans) and I guarentee unless you tie yourselves together you will lose a buddy now and then. If I am diving in low viz I have started taking along a hand held submersible fish finder it makes locating that buddy that just got out of visual range much easier.

Mike

If your buddy is out of visual range (10-15ft is decent vis) then you're solo diving, and your buddy sucks if they're that far away from you.

Good buddy skills are worth their weight in gold. Try paying attention to what's going on instead of losing all common sense the instant you submerge. (directed at the general populace, not anyone in particular)

 

[DiveMaven]

My husband and I have H2Yo shakers. They are easy to hear without being too loud.

 

[johnnyseko]

Remind me to never dive with you.

Yelling to your buddy underwater seems to do the trick if need be. When you see a shark, you will be heard! You really shouldn't be that far apart which is something I'm still working on. My last 2 dives in the Keys were perfect, though.:14:

 

[muddiver]

I've heard that military flash-bangs work pretty good underwater.

 

[String]

I've heard that military flash-bangs work pretty good underwater.

Quite a few boats and clubs here use military thunderflash as recall signals for divers.

Its about the only sensible recall method that works ive seen.

 

[miketsp]

I have a 'ducky blaster' which gets everyone within 100 feet's attention.

Except of course on the one occasion that you may really need it - because you're OOA..

 

[Twiddles]

Noise makers in general have not worked for me. With hood on my wife seldom hears them. Learn to swim shoulder to shoulder and touch before you move away. If your swimming single file through kelp rocks or whatever, treat it like your driving. You have enough time to glance at something but pay attention to the diver ahead/behind you. Works great for us.