What are the DIR signals a diver uses who has a dead DPV and is being towed? You know, signals like stop, go, you sure have a big butt (j/k about that one)
stuff like that.
Dead Scooter Towed Diver Signals
- Thread starter Rick Inman
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Ben_ca
Contributor
I'm not sure if we have a standard but in Monterey we use the following:
Towee:
Stop: Double squeeze on the knee or leg or just let go.... Tower will notice (you hope) and freeze or circle
Go: Signal tow then get into position... for brief pauses just get in position again....
Towee:
Stop: Double squeeze on the knee or leg or just let go.... Tower will notice (you hope) and freeze or circle
Go: Signal tow then get into position... for brief pauses just get in position again....
I think the double squeeze of a body part is a pretty widespread signal for stop when using touch contact. I suppose one could use an analogy of the "go" signal in touch contact, only on the leg; shoving forward sharply. The only time I've been towed, I just got in position, and as soon as I was no longer moving about, the tower started off.
Most required towing as opposed to "convenience" towing to get back to the entry is going to be in a cave. If you have had enough scooter failures that a tow is required, there isn't much communication. You are heading for the door and you aren't stopping unless forced to do so (stage drop, bad restriction, etc.). No need to communicate about that. General touch contact signals work if required. But, in general, the towees only job is to keep his head down because if the tower knows what they are doing, if you make the mistake of looking up, the ceiling is going to take your head off.
This is what we do (we don't scooter caves...yet. All our scooter experience is OW).
Most of the tows we've done were "convenience towing" (we don't do that too much anymore. If someone wants to scooter, they need to buy their own) but the experience doing that shows us what works the few times we've had to do dead scooter. To go, get in position and keep your head down. Give a push on the leg if you feel like it. To signal "stop", let go. The guy on the trigger gets the hint real quick.
Nothing more needs to be said.
Most of the tows we've done were "convenience towing" (we don't do that too much anymore. If someone wants to scooter, they need to buy their own) but the experience doing that shows us what works the few times we've had to do dead scooter. To go, get in position and keep your head down. Give a push on the leg if you feel like it. To signal "stop", let go. The guy on the trigger gets the hint real quick.
Nothing more needs to be said.
OP
I'm asking because I did a tow back to shore when my buddy's scooter went dead. We use the "standard" one squeeze = GO, two = STOP, a bunch = need gas/emergency. My tow-ee buddy needed to stop to dump from his drysuit because he said the gas all went to his feet. 
lamont
Contributor
I got a scooter tow in OW at a current-sensitive site where the option of just swimming would have sucked ass. We were starting to get blown fairly hard and would have drifted a lot further from the entrance before we got shallow enough to get out of the current. Not like dying in a cave, or even needing a coast guard rescue, but we do get currents that could blow you off a point and into shipping lanes where the coast guard rescue scenario could occur (although for the dive in question I think the worst would just be getting blown so far before we got to shore that we'd wind up knocking on someone's back door rather than trying to swim back to the exit).
So, it may not be as much of a safety skill as in a cave, but it can certainly make the outcome of a dive suck a lot less to be able to tow in an emergency (or to have a backup scooter).
So, it may not be as much of a safety skill as in a cave, but it can certainly make the outcome of a dive suck a lot less to be able to tow in an emergency (or to have a backup scooter).
I'm asking because I did a tow back to shore when my buddy's scooter went dead. We use the "standard" one squeeze = GO, two = STOP, a bunch = need gas/emergency. My tow-ee buddy needed to stop to dump from his drysuit because he said the gas all went to his feet.
And what did he do?
PfcAJ
Contributor
I'm asking because I did a tow back to shore when my buddy's scooter went dead. We use the "standard" one squeeze = GO, two = STOP, a bunch = need gas/emergency. My tow-ee buddy needed to stop to dump from his drysuit because he said the gas all went to his feet.
Stop/ Hold = Squeeze
Go = Push
Backup = Pull
Multiple squeezes are not really 'standard'.
OP
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